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Facilities
Our facilities are extraordinary. We boast 40,000 square feet of well-equipped, new studio space and have remodeled all of our studio and lecture classrooms. In addition to spacious drawing, graphic design, painting, photography, and printmaking studios we have amazing sculpture, ceramics and wood shop areas. This year we received funding to broaden our sculpture program with the addition of a hot shop for glass blowing. Our main art gallery, the Edna Carlsten Gallery is a remarkable space that offers diverse exhibitions year-round. These facilities provide students with exceptional work and learning spaces. |
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 The 2-d foundation room is approximately 1500 sq. ft. The room is equipped with both fluorescent lights and adjustable incandescent spotlights, 20 drafting tables, 50 flat file drawers, critiques boards and clean-up sink.
 The 3D room is approximately 915 square feet in area. This room is used primarily for foundations 3D instruction, but is also a general student work space and is open for use 24/7. The furniture is mainly heavy-duty tables to allow for various kinds of construction and art processes with a full-wall critique board, storage shelving, and a heavy work bench with cabinets underneath, and a ventilated spray booth. It adjoins and is connected to the wood shop where all manner of hand and power tools are available to students.
 Room 221
This room is approximately 2,518 square feet, with an additional 420 square feet of space used for storage and preparation. This room is located on the second level of the NFAC building. It can accommodate 150 students and is designed with elevated, ramp seating and equipped with newly upgraded projection and sound equipment. The room also contains dual carousel slide projectors and VCR, CD, and DVD hardware. The room is equipped with fluorescent and recessed spot lighting with dimmer controls to provide for subdued lecture-note levels of illumination.
Room 285
Most Art History classes meet in Room 285, which is specifically tailored to be an Art History lecture hall. It seats 40-45. The tables accommodate left- and right-handed students, and facilitate some studio art activities as well. Whiteboards and the projection screen span the width of the room, allowing large, vivid projection from the high resolution digital projector. A document camera, computer graphics and animations, DVDs and Video cassettes can all be projected. The computer is networked, giving access to on-line image databases. Lighting can be adjusted to any required configuration, for any sort of visual presentation. The room also has a high quality sound system and conventional carousel projectors.
The Ceramics studio consists of a newly renovated a large working space for both wheel-working and hand-building, both functional and sculptural forms. It contains a large slab roller, 10 electric Brent wheels, one kick wheel and several large working tables. It also houses 4 separate rooms: a clay mixing room with two Soldner mixers and sink, a damp room with shelving that students store their work while in-process, and a glaze room for formulating glazes with two sinks. The general facility is well-ventilated, each area with a separate ventilation system. Lighting is good, utilizing florescent and track lighting in combination with natural light from the windows in the north wall. The last room has three electric kilns, one small electric test kiln, one large gas kiln and a small 15 cubic foot gas for testing high-fire glazes, with wood and metal shelving to house a variety of ceramics. The facility has a particle ionizer system and a small storage area. This kiln room is also shared with the Sculpture studio, and has a metal shelving unit for kiln posts and shelving for the kilns. Within the glaze-making room, there are two sinks and a spray booth and storage for chemicals. Throughout the studio, there are a variety of shelving and series of lockers for students to store their tools and clay.  This conference room is used for various College of Fine Arts & Communication meetings as well as art & design seminar classes. This table was built by faculty member Bill McKee.
There are two rooms used exclusively for drawing. Each room is approximately 1200 sq. feet and is connected at by a storage area for still life materials, paper, and drawing supplies. This area also includes a model changing room for life drawing classes. The rooms are equipped with both fluorescent lighting and adjustable incandescent spotlights. Each room has 50 flat file drawers for student supplies, a clean-up sink, spray booth, and easels and drawings tables for 25 students. In addition there are critique boards on either end of each room. 
Art & Design students have multiple venues for exhibiting their work on campus. These include eight large display cases in the Dreyfus University Center, and a small gallery in the College of Professional Studies. There are also four additional exhibition spaces located in the Noel Fine Arts Center. The college courtyard is a large open space that regularly exhibits work from the sculpture, glass and foundation classes. The Schneider Student Gallery is located in the Carlsten Art Gallery and is dedicated to student solo and small group exhibitions. The Mezzanine Cases, Art & Design office display cases and hallway exhibition areas show individual student work and work from various classes. 
The sculpture area consists of a main workroom, plaster room, welding and foundry area, glass and ceramics kiln room, and a hot glass-working studio. Metal fabrication equipment include: two M.I.G. welders, plasma cutter, drill press, horizontal band saw, metal chop saw, standing grinder, four oxygen/acetylene welding set-ups, five fully-vented work stations, dedicated metal sandblaster, and assortment of hand-tools and air and electric grinding equipment. The foundry equipment includes: an Alpine gas burnout kiln and an 80 lb melt furnace. The kiln-working studio includes: 60” X 30” X 20” slumping kiln, 56” X 32” X 24” casting kiln, and two 24” X 15” X 24” Paragon GL 24s. The hot-working glass studio includes: Wet Dog 500 lb gas melt furnace, Wet Dog 18” reheating unit, pipe warmer, and the following annealers: Two Wet Dog 54” X 27” X 30” annealing kilns, two 22” X 20” X 22” Paragon GL 24s, 22” X 13” X 22” Paragon Clam Shell pick-up oven, Paragon 22” X 22” X 15” high fire kiln for color pots and a two-station flame-working work bench. The cold working studio includes: Somaca 4” X 106” wet-belt sander, Felker chopsaw, two flat grinding and polishing diamond disc wheels: Water Jet 24” and Denver Glass 12”, a 20” wet-grit wheel grinder, Denver Glass glass horizontal grinding lathe, a standing polishing unit, pressure-pot Empire Sandblaster and an assortment of hand tools including two Fordham engravers, and two Alpha water-fed diamond hand grinders. The plaster room includes appropriate ventilation and five steamers for lost wax mold making. 
There are 4 graphic design studio spaces, equipped with a variety of equipment, tools, and resources for graphic design emphasis students. Studios are open for student use seven days a week until midnight.
Graphic Design Studio 1 - Room 182
This studio/classroom space is approximately 1,400 square feet in area. It is equipped with 24 drafting stations; critique space; three light tables; a copy machine; and flat-file storage space for over 50 students. There is a ventilation booth for spraying adhesives and paint. The studio is also equipped with a digital projection unit, screen, and sound system.
Graphic Design Studio 2 (The "Fishbowl") - Room 190
This hybrid space is approximately 1,500 square feet in area. The studio functions as a classroom/work space with movable work tables, critique space, light tables, a copy machine, and flat-file storage space for over 50 students. The room is also equipped with a full-functioning computer lab: 23 Macs, all linked to the University network and loaded with up-to-date design software; an 11"x17" black/white laser printer; two 13"x19" photo quality ink-jet printers; a 24" color banner printer; and a digital projection unit, screen, and sound system.
Mac Lab - Room 172
This computer lab is approximately 750 square feet in area. The lab is equipped with 23 Macs, all linked to the University network and loaded with up-to-date design software. Students using the lab have access to an 11"x17" black/white laser printer, an 11"x17" color laser printer, a 13"x19" photo quality inkjet printer, a CD/transparency printer, and two 24" color banner printers. The lab has a digital projection system, and AV capabilities for digitizing video and outputting it to DVD or VHS. There are also Mac-equipped labs in other campus locations with 24 hour student access.
Graphic Design Resource Room - Room 174
This graphic design studio is approximately 600 square feet in area. The studio is equipped with digital photographic equipment for students to use creating and documenting graphic design work, including digital SLR cameras; flexible color-balanced studio lighting; an under lit seamless table for product shots; an 8' seamless set-up; and a copy stand. The studio also houses subscriptions to a variety of design magazines and other visual resources for design students to explore. 
The letterpress room supports the teaching of book arts as a unique discipline. It consists of a small space, 300 square feet, with a Vandercook 15 press, 200 drawers of lead type, press furniture, storage for student in-process work and a solvent cabinet for inks and solvents. Although the room is small, it is adequate for students to sign up for press time to produce letterpress projects, i.e. books and broadsides. There is a collection of small press and artists’ books, kept in a separate space, for students to study. 
The painting facility measures about 2,229 square feet, and is equipped with twenty Lotus metal easels, various work tables, and rolling two-drawer storage taborets. The studio has a full bank of windows along the west wall, as well as color-corrected fluorescent lighting and track mounted flood lights. The ventilation in the room was totally updated in 2006, and exchanges air quite well, in full compliance with OSHA regulations. There are two long walls with a plywood substrate, available to advanced students for use during the semester. Additionally, the studio has two sinks, separate hazardous waste disposal facilities, and painting storage racks. 
The Photography area consists of two darkrooms, one processing room, one drying room, one storage/lighting studio space and one lecture room. With a total of approximately 1600 square feet, the photography suite handles approximately 60 students a semester. The main darkroom includes 20 printing stations: 4 large format enlargers, 8 Besseler 35mm enlargers, 7 Omega enlargers and one handicap accessible station. Both darkrooms; one general and one reserved for advanced students are equipped with Thomas “supersafelights” providing a comfortable light level for prolonged work. The main darkroom has back-to-back stainless steel sinks with temperature control and fume extraction directly above the work surface. This allows for full control of the Black & White printing process keeping exposure to chemical vapors at a safe minimum. The processing area includes two large, fully vented, processing sinks, a film drying area, a light table and two portable changing stations for film loading. A separate room is designate as the print drying-room. The advanced student darkroom area also allows for alternative or non-silver processes. The classroom space is equipped with a digital projector connected to a Mac teaching station with a document camera and the ability to project from DVD, VCR and web sources. The classroom space also includes a mat cutter and a dry-mounting press as well as a library of past student work as an image bank. 
The printmaking area consists four rooms and approximately 2200 square feet of workspace. The main room includes five presses: A 18” x 36” Takach tabletop intaglio press, a 24” x 48” Takach combination lithography/intaglio press situated on a scissors hydraulic table for handicapped students, a 24” x 50” Brand intaglio press, a 30” x 50” Brand litho press and a 44” x 84” Takach intaglio press. This area also includes a paper preparation area, flat files for students, five articulated ventilation arms and ample table space. The printmaking area also includes separate rooms for photo-printmaking processes, etching of plates, and a Works on Paper/Archive Room for student study. This room includes student and professional prints, a works on paper library and table space for viewing work.  The student lounge is located at the center of the Department of Art & Design and is used by students for studying, conversation and relaxing.
The wood shop is approximately 2,113 square feet in area. This is an enlarged and renovated completely equipped wood shop and serves all departmental courses. There is a regularly appointed experienced shop supervisor and a student assistant for supervision and safety in shop procedures and practices. Any art student may use the shop for class work, may obtain hand tools on a check-out basis, and assistance with tool/shop procedures. The shop contains a large variety of well maintained wood-working equipment and basic hand tools. There are five band saws, two drill presses, two lathes, a jointer, a thickness planer, four sanders, one spindle sander, a “Sawstop” table saw, a compound mitre saw, and a buffing station for plastics. The room is equipped with compressed air and all power is routed through a key accessed safety control switch. The wood shop is a secure studio and is only open to student use when the shop supervisor or student assistant is present. The room and its large power tools are extensively ventilated for safe removal of sawdust and debris from the air and floor space. Goggles for eye protection, ear plugs/ear muffs, and particle masks are provided to all student users. All classes using the shop receive instruction in equipment usage and safe working practices as a required introduction to this facility. The shop contains a separate open access tool crib storage area operated by the shop attendant where hand tools are stored and checked. Limited storage is available for materials and work in progress. There is also an office for the wood shop supervisor. |
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