Department of Art

FACILITIES - GENERAL

The Studio Art department hosts a wide variety of technical facilities for the creation of art and for art-related research. They range from graduate labs to mixed-use workshops, and are designed to support both free experimentation and professional production.

In the past seven years, the school has added two new art production complexes, the Contemporary Art Center (CAC) and the Art Culture Technology (ACT) building, which together have greatly expanded the productive capacity of the Studio Art department. In the same period, the department also undertook a major seismic retrofit of its two older buildings, the Art Studio (ART) and the Production Studio, enabling the creation of new teaching spaces, such as the digital photo lab.

Contemporary Art Center (CAC)
Pictured above is the school's newest facility, which was completed in the fall of 2010. The CAC houses a new art gallery, a mixed-media performance space, and more than two dozen new graduate studios for the M.F.A. students. A technologically advanced and LEED-certified green building, the CAC is also home to a new motion-capture studio, several sound recording facilities, and a small auditorium.

Art Culture Technology building (ACT)
The ACT building is the department's 'home base'. It contains the Studio Art departmental office, most of the faculty studios and offices, some graduate student studios, an honors undergraduate studio, a student gallery ("ROOM"), the Video Studio, and the Game Culture & Technology Lab. It was completed in the winter of 2003.

Art Studio (ART)
The ART building houses the painting and drawing studios, the Digital Photo Lab, and several classrooms.

Production Studio
The Production Studio houses the Sculpture Shop, the Ceramics area, the photography wet labs and darkrooms, and the Nixon Theater.

FACILITIES - INDIVIDUAL SPACES

University Art Gallery (UAG)
The UAG has a long history as a venue for Studio Art's graduate and undergraduate exhibitions, as well as for guest-curated shows and for guest artist presentations. It is connected via a shared hallway to the Beall Center for Art & Technology, which opened in 2000, and it presents satellite exhibitions in the "ROOM" Gallery in the ACT building.

Beall Center for Art & Technology
The Beall Center hosts exhibitions of UCI students, faculty, and outside artists working at the intersection of art and technology. It opened in 2000 with a faculty-curated show on game art ("SHIFT_CTRL"), and subsequent exhibitions have featured mixed-reality performance art, robotic instrument ensembles, sensor-driven installations, and data-mining projects.

Video Studio
ACT building, ground floor
The Video Studio houses a full range of facilities including a video stage with green-screen capability, Stage 2 Lab, production equipment, post-production editing bays, voice-over recording, and a Pro Tools editing suite. Complementing the editing bays is a graduate-only video and sound design facility that currently shares space with the graduate-only photo editing and printing station mentioned below. The new Video course track for undergraduates incorporates basic through advanced instruction and special topic courses into a complete video production series.

Photo Labs
ART, ground floor; and Production Studio, 2nd floor
The department hosts a full range of labs for black & white and color photography, including a group lab, individual darkrooms, a mural darkroom, and a digital photo lab with high-end flatbed and slide scanners and large-format sheet and roll-fed inkjet printers. The facility also houses a large array of photographic equipment for student check-out, including a variety of cameras, lenses and lighting kits. Of particular note is a photo-finishing lab built around a commercial-grade wide-format laminator, and a digital editing and wide-format printing station dedicated to graduate-only use.

Painting Studios
ART, 2nd floor
The department's two large painting studios, each over 1000 sq. ft., are heavily used for undergraduate drawing and painting classes.

Sculpture Shop
Production Studio, ground floor
The spacious indoor-outdoor sculpture workshop features a wide range of equipment for fabricating in wood, metal, and plastics. The facility encompasses a 2400 sq. ft. wood-working and lecture facility, a 900 sq. ft. state-of-the-art welding studio, and open yard space for the production of large-scale works. Students must pass a certification process in order to work in this shop outside of class time.

Ceramics Shop
Production Studio, ground floor
The ceramics shop houses kilns, a working area, and materials storage.

Game Culture & Technology Lab
ACT building, 2nd floor
A faculty/graduate research lab in the Studio Art Department that focuses on games, animation, and the internet.

Motion Capture Studio
Music and Media Building, Room 216 (soon to move to CAC)
A schoolwide faculty/graduate facility for optical motion capture using an eight-camera Vicon 8 system. The studio has a high ceiling, sprung floors, and a sound system. Access is restricted to class participants and/or by reservation. Contact Artslab tech support for details.

Mac Lab (AITR 190)
Arts Instructional Technology Resource Center, Room 190

A general-purpose and instructional Mac lab. When classes are not in session, the lab is open to all School of the Arts students.

Digital Arts Teaching Lab (HIB 335)
Humanities Instructional Building, Room 335
A Mac/PC dual-boot computer lab for digital arts classes. When classes are not in session, the lab is open to all School of the Arts students.

Artslab
Studio 4, ground floor
A general purpose Mac/PC homework lab with extended hours, primarily for undergraduates in the School of the Arts. 

Arts Media Center (AMC)
Arts Instructional Technology Resource Center, 2nd floor
A music library and listening lab, MIDI lab, and general homework lab.