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Ceramics

The ceramics facility consists of a hand-building studio of 900 square feet, with a Brent slab roller, a Randall extruder, a pneumatic Bailey extruder and a large spray booth. There is an additional throwing studio of 960 square feet with eight Lockerbie motorized kick wheels, and eleven Brent electric wheels.

The ceramics area also has a fully-stocked glaze lab with an updated efficient exhaust system.

The fully-stocked clay-mixing lab has two large Soldner Pro clay mixers, two ball mills and an efficiently-safe dust collection system.

The kiln facility offers five large 10 cubic foot Skutt electric kilns, one large 18 cubic foot oval Bailey electric kiln, a 90 cubic foot updraft gas kiln, a 40 cubic foot updraft gas kiln, a 50 cubic foot downdraft gas sodium vapor kiln, two gas raku kilns, and one small Aim test kiln. We also have access to the sculpture area's 54 cubic foot Bailey car kiln.

Location: Hiestand Hall basement level

Graduate Student Workspaces

Full-time graduate students in the MFA in Studio Art program have access to a dedicated studio space just for them and their work. In the vast majority of cases, this studio space is single occupancy.

Also, as they work, graduate assistants may find the need to use any of the many specialized studio spaces we have for drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, and metals. We have made every effort to heat, cool, ventilate, and light these spaces so they are efficiently comfortable.

MFA graduate assistants have a mail box and a telephone in their office or studio as well as access to copiers, computers, and fax machines. Also, graduate students have access to our Visual Resources collection, which is located within our immediate facilities.

Graduate students have the opportunity to exhibit their art work in any one of our three Hiestand Galleries. These galleries offer a year-round program of exhibitions by students, faculty, and visiting artists.

The MFA Experience Design program offers a collaborative, open-office style workspace with a professional, innovative design. Each student is provided with their own desk/workspace.

Location: 221 Hiestand Hall

Communication Design

The Communication Design program is located on the second floor of Hiestand Hall. A dedicated multi-functional studio/lab is provided for all design majors. This work space accommodates the bulk of instructional activity and includes a 6 work station computer lab that features high-end software, high resolution large format laser and inkjet printing, and large format scanners.

In addition there are a number of support facilities that are critical to the curricular mission of the program. These include a production room with mounting and binding equipment and a flexible use photo documentation set-up, as well as a fully functional traditional letterpress print shop and tools/equipment for other traditional hand processes and a large seminar room with a high-end projection system for lectures and presentations.

Location: Hiestand Hall, Rooms 215, 218, 220, 221.

Metals and Jewelry

The undergraduate and graduate metals studio supports a full range of traditional and experimental technical activities for jewelry, enameling, and metalsmithing processes. The studio is well-equipped with various torches (including natural gas/air, acetylene, and oxy-acetylene), vacuum and centrifugal casting machines, enameling kilns, aluminum anodizing and titanium anodizing systems, copper electroforming and electroplating, spray etching, various silversmithing stakes and hammers, watchmaker's lathe, spinning lathe, sandblaster, draw bench, 20-ton manual hydraulic press, 50-ton electric hydraulic press, and power rolling mill.

Every student's work station is equipped with a gas/air torch, task lighting, flexible shaft machine and ventilation.

Location: Hiestand Hall, basement level.

Photography

The photography facilities were completed in 2001 and are located in the Art Building.

There is one large black and white darkroom with 20 enlarging stations, a large custom made stainless steel sink and a special area for making mural size prints. This darkroom is mainly used by beginning and intermediate photography students and opens up into the photography labs' common area.

The common area has film processing and print washing sinks, print drying racks, film loading rooms, a film drying area and several large work tables.

The senior darkroom area has four semi-private darkrooms that are usually shared by four to six advanced students concentrating in photography. These darkrooms have a stainless steel sink, two 4x5 enlargers, drying rack, ample counter space, oak trim and storage cabinets under the enlargers.

There is also an efficient digital printing area equipped with two 44” large format Epson ink jet printers, one Epson 4880 17” ink jet printer, 27" iMac computers with Internet access, and scanners.

A shooting studio with a large equipment storage cage is also part of the facilities. There are 4x5 large format cameras, an 8x10 camera, tungsten lights, strobe lights, umbrellas, light stands and tripods available for students to check out.

We are committed to the integration of traditional and digital photographic practices and our well-designed, flexible photography space allows students to experience it all efficiently.

Location: Hiestand Hall, basement level.

Sculpture

Because contemporary sculpture features all possible combinations of 2D, 3D, and 4D (time) compositions, the Sculpture component of the Art Department is designed to support multiple formats with both traditional and current technologies.

For metal, there is a complete bronze casting facility with a foundry for bronze/aluminum and a shuttle (car) burnout kiln which is used lost wax investment casting, a welding area with MIG, TIG, Arc, and gas welding and gas and plasma cutting, a smithy with both a gas and coke forge, and many sheet metal tools for forming aluminum and steel.

For wood, there is a complete fabrication studio for both basic carpentry as well as advanced techniques (including steam bending, carving, and unplugged/green woodworking).

For stone, there are pneumatic and hand chisels for marble, limestone, and aerated autoclaved concrete (AAC).

For mold-making, there is a dedicated work area that supports plaster and RTV replacement processes.

For electronics, audio, and video, there are workstations that allow students to conduct both analog and digital sculptural processes.

Location: Hiestand Hall, basement level.

Printmaking

Printmaking students can take advantage of professional-quality studio facilities to create work in etching, lithography, wood-cut and silk-screen printing.

In the etching area, students can use zinc, copper and photo-etching to create their work, while the lithography area encompasses traditional stone lithography, aluminum plate and photo- lithography.

Large-scale Takach-Garfield presses, plus separate studios for introductory and upper-level print courses and for solvent use create an inviting work environment for printmaking students.

Location: Hiestand Hall, main floor.

Visual Resources Center

The Visual Resources Center (VRC) supplies resources for scanning and photo documenting artwork, as well as audiovisual and photographic equipment available for student, staff, and faculty checkout.

To schedule a photo documentation appointment for further information, email ArtVRC@Miamioh.edu.

Location: 15 Hiestand Hall

Hours:
Monday
10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Tuesday
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Wednesday
9:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Friday
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

By appointmentemail ArtVRC@Miamioh.edu

Phone:  529-7420

Contact Us

Department of Art
124 Art Building
Oxford, OH 45056