The Art Department is located in Compton/Goethals Hall on the North Campus. Our facilities include studios, multimedia labs, and classrooms.
ART GALLERY
The Art Department’s gallery space displays the work of undergraduates, graduate students, and professional artists. Approximately 2000 sq. ft. in size, the gallery accommodates two-and three-dimensional art.
GRADUATE STUDIOS
Matriculated students in the M.F.A. Program are granted studios for 5 semesters. Graduate students who take longer than 5 semesters to complete their program must consider this and plan accordingly.
CERAMICS
The facilities include a large open work area with 18 pottery wheels and a slab roller, extruder, a kiln room with five electric and two gas kilns. Various clay bodies are used for utilitarian, sculptural and architectural ceramics, with equal emphasis on clay’s multicultural traditions, e.g., Egyptian paste, majolica, raku, etc.
ELECTRONIC DESIGN AND MULTIMEDIA
The Electronic Design and Multimedia program occupies a suite of networked computer labs and classrooms equipped with current hardware and software. Students have access to tools for image capture, design, high quality printing, multimedia creation, and web publishing. The facilities have been designed to provide a professional working environment for projects in design and multimedia: students are offered access to the lab over 60 hours per week. Partnerships with the leading graphics software developers provide support and vital industry input.
The electronic design studio incorporates four computer labs: two general purpose labs, a lab for interactive multimedia, Web, video and 3D, and a multi-purpose lab for thesis projects and video production.
It also houses a print, imaging and digital photo output center (the “DOC” or Digital Output Center in CG206) and a design studio classroom, facilitating interaction between traditional and digital design production.
With an open studio policy for currently enrolled students, the lab is available over 60 hrs./wk. under the supervision of the lab manager, faculty and lab assistants. This facility mirrors the real-world graphics environments found in industry and the arts in order to better prepare students for positions in the field.
PAINTING AND DRAWING
The painting and drawing rooms are equipped with architectural-quality drafting tables and large easels. A studio area is set aside for work in encaustic and water-based media and for the study of painting methods, materials and techniques. Each studio has wall space for critiques and large-scale projects. Model platforms, mat cutters, props and tools for the construction of painting supports are available. At least one exhibition of student work is organized every year in the Art Department Gallery.
PHOTOGRAPHY
The Photography Area houses an extensive collection of photographic equipment for student use. The facility includes a large group black & white darkroom, a color darkroom and processing lab, and lighting studios with Speedotron studio flash systems, as well as Arri and Lowell hot lights. Advanced traditional facilities include several private darkrooms with large-format Beseler enlargers, a 30” Colenta processor, a NuArc mercury exposure unit for alternative processes, Mamiya 7 and RZ medium format systems, as well as Cambo 4×5 studio and Toyo field cameras. An advanced digital lab is equipped with Imacon Flextight X1, Nikon 5000EDLS, and Epson 750 scanners, Epson 4880 printers, and 27” iMacs. The David and Leonore Levy Collection of contemporary photography, with original prints by more than two dozen photographers including Mary Ellen Mark, Joel Meyerowitz, and Larry Clark, is available for student and faculty study.
PRINTMAKING
The studio is equipped for the teaching of intaglio, lithography, relief processes including woodcut, lino-cut and collagraph, water-based silkscreen, photopolymer plates, and combinations of all the print media.
There are two etching and two relief lithography presses and a 62” x 94” one-man squeegee vacuum table for screen printing.
Other equipment includes a queen size drying rack, numerous rollers of various durometers and dimensions, a hydrobooth and hydroblaster for shooting and reclaiming screens, a 52″ x 38″ Douthitt plate maker, a plate cutter, a large hot plate and aquatint box for etching, and a large aluminum bed for lithographic plates and stones.
Digital equipment includes a large format inkjet printer to facilitate the production of oversized images and a universal laser cutter. The integration of equipment for digital and photographic processes with conventional printmaking equipment allows for the full range of printmaking experiences.
SCULPTURE
Metal fabrication using mig welding, plasma cutting, plaster, stone, clay and wood carving, wood assemblage and construction are some of the techniques used to produce traditional and non-traditional three-dimensional art. Performance art and intermedia fabrications are designed and executed in an adjacent facility. A basic wood design shop with table saw, joiner, surfacer and band saws handles one of a kind and production furniture.
