Art Facilities and Equipment
The School of Art at Illinois State University houses specific studios that each contain a vast array of equipment for students of all disciplines.
Art History
Located in the Center for Visual Arts, the Art House Slide Library houses a teaching collection of more than 153,000 slides of works of art and architecture from all major western and nonwestern cultures and all major time periods. This facility, which is under the supervision of a full-time Slide Librarian, also houses a basic non-circulating reference library of Art History source books and current art periodicals. Those resources are available to all art students and faculty.
Close ties are maintained between the Art History area and Milner Library, whose holdings in the visual arts comprise over 45,000 volumes, including a rare book collection.
Located adjacent to Art History classrooms in the Center for Visual Arts, this well-equipped computer lab enriches the Art History program by offering students easy access to art-history-related course review programs, Internet resources, and Milner Library's on-line catalog for research.
Ceramics
The ceramics area maintains a fully stocked supply of raw materials for mixing clay and glazes. Studio equipment includes both a large industrial dough mixer and a Soldner mixer for making clay. The studio also contains two slab rollers, 12 electric wheels, one extruder, a glaze spray booth, a sand blaster, a stationary brick saw and a plaster room for mold making.
The kiln facilities feature a newly renovated electric kiln room with Skutt and Shimpo computer electrics. We have a number of gas kilns including two at 74 cubic ft., two at 46 cubic ft. and one large 162 cubic ft. updraft for firing large sculpture. The outdoor kiln area now houses a downdraft soda kiln for atmospheric firing.
MFA students in ceramics are given individual studio space in the ceramics area with immediate access to all facilities and equipment. BFA students in ceramics are given semi-private studio space when available in the main studio work space.
Drawing
We have two large undergraduate drawing studios equipped with theatre lighting, ample still life materials, and models. We also have individual studios for drawing students enrolled in the BFA program.
Glass
"The Vitro House" (VH) is the name given to the building that houses the entire facilities utilized in Glass forming and manipulation. It is set out near the University Athletic Fields, about a 15 minute walk from the center of the campus.
It is a completely self contained facility with approximately 5,000 sq. ft. of space, packed with all of the accouterments of glass working.
The hotshop is a long 40' x 25' space that holds two 500 lb. "day tanks" that melt clear glass exclusively, two small color pot furnaces, each containing three pots (60 lb. capacity), three full workstations: three benches, three marvers, three glory-holes, and your usual array of pipe warmers, pipe coolers, a "garage" etc.
To accommodate the work produced, there are six annealing ovens (all located in close proximity to the work stations). The studio has a wide assortment of pipes and hand tools, some dating back to the early 70's, and some purchased every year. The studio also contains a wide variety of "ovens," used for slumping, fusing, pate du verre, kiln casting, and the long annealing cycles for larger scale hot cast objects. There are ten such ovens always available for student use. All of these ovens are run on GB-4 programmable controllers, and can be cycled to run for one month intervals if needed.
The cold working machinery is scattered throughout the building, though it can mostly be found in the central area between the entrance and the hot shop. The equipment area is filled with the full range of cutting, grinding, and polishing machinery: a professional model 20" continuous rim diamond chop saw, a 12" diamond chop saw, a Spatzier copper wheel engraving lathe (with all the accouterments), a double arbor vertical polisher with respective pumice and cerium wheels, combination machines with 20" horizontal felt polishing wheels, the usual 36" vertical belt sander, a huge 30" steel headed flatting wheel, a 24" self-feed (automatic) slab saw, a multi-head magnetic system diamond flatting wheel of 24" diameter, a double shaft vertical diamond wheel machine with interchangeable heads and much more.
Since the VH is set off apart from the main Visual Arts Building, we also have set up facilities for basic wood and metal work. We have a drill press, a radial arm saw, a band saw, a table saw, a small table sander, an assortment of hand drills, jig saws, body grinders, bench grinders, as well as other such tools. The studio is also equipped with two sand blasters, one of them being quite large, with an interior of 48"x48".
Graphic Design
Graphic Design courses are taught in two classrooms, each fully equipped with a Macintosh computer workstation for every student. Each workstations is equipped with traditional desktop publishing software including QuarkXpress, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, as well as software for the creation of Web design. These classrooms also have teacher workstations with the same software that is available on the student workstations and are capable of projecting work, allowing each instructor to make the most of the the technology in classroom teaching situations. Students also have network access to a wide array of fonts and to large format black and white and color laser printers.
Integrated Media
The School of Art has several computer classrooms and open labs with Macintosh or Windows operating systems, all of them equipped with an array of software applications. Computer labs have flat-bed, negative and slide scanners. Students can also check out digital photo and video cameras as well as digital projectors for their projects.
Jewelry / MetalsJewelry / Metals
Our jewelry/metals facility comprises approximately 2000 sq.feet and is fully equipped. The main classroom area has benches for sixteen students and a class tool cabinet which supplies the beginning student with most of the necessary tools for first and second semester work. Students who go on to advanced classes are encouraged to begin investing in their own tools. In the main classroom area there is also a fully vented eight station soldering island with both air/gas and prestolite torches.
There is a separate lecture, video and slide area as well as private studio spaces for both bachelors and masters students. We have an excellent metal casting room with centrifugal and vacuum units,computerized burn-out kiln and a muffle furnace capable of thirty pound bronze melts. Our forming and raising room includes a full array of stakes and hammers, a power and hand rolling mill, bench shears and drill press. Also in this room is a separate fully ventilated area for plating, anodizing and electroforming.
Painting
Work space is available during and after class in two large studios containing easels, lockers, and storage space for works and palettes. Adjacent to the undergraduate painting studios is a fully stocked wood shop with chop saw, table saw, relevant hand and power tools for stretcher building, and staple guns, nails, canvas pliers, for stretching canvas. Students and faculty also enjoy separate critique areas for reviewing work
For graduate students, the School of Art offers graduate students private, individual studio space in a separate building located in downtown Bloomington. The studio building is fully equipped with two large critique spaces, (for installing work, slide-taking, special projects, etc.), and ample storage space.
Galleries & Exhibition Opportunities
Bloomington is also home to the McLean County Art Center run by curator Alison Hatcher, a venue for contemporary art, the University Galleries, run by director, Barry Blinderman.
The Transpace Gallery in Uptown Normal allows both graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to curate, exhibit, and market their own shows in a public gallery.
Photography
There is a large well equipped gang darkroom for black and white printing and film processing. There is also an excellent facility for color printing and processing. In addition, there are smaller darkroom spaces where advanced students can have individual work space. There is also a well equipped shooting studio with twelve foot wide changeable backgrounds, professional lighting equipment and view cameras for shooting large format film up to 8x10.
There is a large space for print finishing and mounting. For digital photography we have a well equipped classroom/lab outfitted with computers, film scanners, two large format Epson printers, flatbed scanners, and a high resolution film recorder.
Printmaking
The intaglio studio is approximately 4,000 square feet in size. There is a large Brand etching press, a small Brand etching press and an American French tool press. There are complete etching, aquatint and color printing stations organized within the shop. Substantial space, facilities, and equipment are provided for experimental work as well as traditional approaches.
The lithography studio is approximately 4,000 square feet in size. There is a large Brand press and two large Takach presses for proofing and editing, and a wide variety of lithographic stones is available. Experimental and traditional techniques are taught and work in color, metal plate lithography, photolithography and monotype are encouraged.
There is a darkroom equipped with an enlarger and a full-sized vacuum frame, flip-top arc available for etching and lithography.
A complete letterpress facility is also included within the printmaking area. An electric Vandercook proofing press capable of printing approximately 18" x 24" and type, in a variety of styles and sizes are available.
Graduate students are provided separate areas for proofing and printing. There is also a Graduate Studio Building located off campus that provides our students with individual studio spaces, an opportunity to work in a variety of media and to discuss and critique works with faculty and students in an interdisciplinary dialogue.
Sculpture
Our Sculpture facility features a foundry facility for casting aluminum and bronze in both classical investment and sand casting methods. Further, we have a full metal shop, including oxyacetylene, MIG, TIG, and arc welding, a wide range of cutting and grinding equipment and a plasma cutter for fabrication in steel and other non-ferrous metals. We also feature a plaster workshop, a general workshop for all types of fabrication (with a small wood working shop is attached), and an adjacent outdoor area for larger fabrication.
Wood
Fully stocked wood shop with 12" table saw, 10" table saw, 5 wood lathes, 37" panel sander, relevant hand and power tools.
Video
The video program has a very well equipped shooting studio with professional cameras and sound recording equipment. There is an excellent editing studio in which students learn to use the latest and best video editing software and hardware--including DVCAM and MiniDV.
