Below are brief descriptions of the facilities on campus. Resident artists have access to facilities with prior consent of managing full-time faculty and must work around PrattMWP, community classes, and heavy traffic lab times. If an applicant has a special interest in facilities outside of their specific discipline, please indicate in the application form.
Design and Video
The 4D and communications design labs are located in the Academic Building along with the Art Research Library and classrooms. The labs are equipped with modern iMac computers and a full suite of Adobe Creative Cloud and photo printers. This area includes a media lab for full-body green screen and other shooting that is shared with the photography department. Various video and still cameras, sound, light, and related equipment is available for brief periods of check-out.
Drawing, Painting, and Illustration
Our drawing and painting classes are held in the School of Art Studio Building, a three-level, 23,000 square foot facility designed specifically for higher art education. The drawing and painting studios on the second level feature ample space and airy, vaulted ceilings. Each studio is furnished with sinks, easels, tables, lighting, and a substantial reservoir of still life subject matter.
Ceramics
The pottery studio encompasses 3,500 square feet of the historic carriage house Ceramics and Sculpture Studio Building. Arched windows, tiled walls, and decades of good energy make this studio aesthetically pleasing and the best-equipped ceramics facility in the area. Included are more than a dozen electric wheels, a slab roller, extruder, mixers, electric kilns, and a Bailey Car kiln. The kiln shed is equipped with large salt kilns, downdraft kiln, and an Anagama kiln. The shed is the hub for workshops and for learning the fundamentals of wood firing. The second floor is home to the Vincent R. Clemente Ceramic Resource Room, a library of 250 ceramic books, magazines, and DVD demos for research and inspiration.
Jewelry and Metals
The spacious jewelry facilities are located on the first floor of the School of Art Studio Building. The studio is professionally equipped with a wide variety of equipment to support beginning through advanced techniques and processes. This includes an extensive array of hand tools, flexshafts and drill presses, buffing machines and tumblers, a hydraulic press, rolling mills, shears, an etching tank, kilns, and equipment for vacuum casting and enameling, numerous hammers and stakes for forming metal, six soldering stations, each equipped with a gas/air torch and annealing station. A modern ventilation system allows for safe practices of all techniques taught. Jewelry students can conveniently purchase nonferrous metal (copper, brass, and silver) as well as consumable supplies (saw blades, solder, and sandpaper) for classes directly from the School of Art Reception desk.
Photography
Our photography classes are held on the lower level of the School of Art Studio Building. The studio has two traditional darkrooms and 14 enlargers. Digital photography processing equipment includes Mac computers with the latest Adobe Software, large and small format printers, and four flatbed scanners for both film and photos. Photography classes emphasize awareness of fine arts traditions as well as the professional disciplines of the contemporary media artist.
Printmaking
The printmaking facilities encompass 1,200 square feet of the lower level of the School of Art Studio Building. Our print classes focus on a “green printing” philosophy, limiting harsh chemicals, solvents, and waste. The studio is equipped to explore multiple print processes from screenprinting to bookmaking, lithography to monoprint. There are also two large etching presses, a Washington press with wood type, Platen press with metal type and a lithography press and assorted stones.
Sculpture
The first-floor sculpture shop covers more than 3,000 square feet in the Ceramics and Sculpture Studio Building. Brightly lit spaces hold ample tools and equipment to work in a variety of scales and materials. The metal shop holds seven ARC welding stations, MIG welder, plasma cutter, drill press, ironworker, Oxy-Acetylene torches, 3-in-1 sheet metal break as well as many power and hand tools. The equally equipped woodshop has worktables, hand tools, band saws, and a table saw. The lower level includes a plaster studio for moldmaking.
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