Facilities and Areas of Study

UT Tyler Department of Art and Art History

 

Facilities

The Department of Art & Art History is located within the Fine Arts Complex (ARC) on The University of Texas at Tyler’s main campus. The Fine Art Complex features over 50,000 square feet of studio classrooms, as well as a media lab, lecture hall, seminar room, student studio spaces, student break room, storage areas; and faculty and department offices.

Large open studio spaces are designated specifically for each area of study and are equipped with the latest tools and technology. Enrolled students have 24/7 access to all facilities. Graduate students also are provided their own private studio space for their needs.

Areas of Study

Areas of study include: art history, digital media, drawing and painting, ceramics, printmaking, sculpture and small metals.

Beginning through advanced level art history classes give students a range of knowledge, spanning from ancient to contemporary art. Students will receive an understanding of historical context, formal and stylistic development, as well as the relevant aesthetic theories and scholarly methodologies that define the discipline.

Beginning through advanced level studio art classes give students the opportunity to create work using various materials and processes specific to the respective discipline. Courses provide students with an understanding of technical and conceptual approaches, historical context and contemporary trends in studio art, through traditional and contemporary methodologies.

In addition to the Art History and Studio Art catalog courses, we offer various special topics courses each semester. Recent special topics courses include: Iron Casting, Kiln Building, Public Mural Painting, Controversies in Modern Art, Art & Place, Site-Specific Landscape Drawing & Painting; and Bernini & Baroque Drama.

In-class instruction is supplemented by travel/study courses, exhibitions in campus galleries, department sponsored trips to world-class museums and collections; and demonstrations and lectures by well-known artists and art historians.

 

Art History

Art history facilities include the Vaughn Lecture Hall and seminar room. Other hallmarks of the art history program include:

• Various courses, including surveys and seminars such as: Greek Art, Medieval Art, Renaissance Art, Baroque and Rococo Art, 19th Century Art, Art in America, Aesthetics, 20th Century Art; and Contemporary Issues.
• Topics in Art History courses focused on individual artists such as Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio and Bernini, to investigations of the Body in 19th and 20th Century Art, German Expressionism, Art in 16th & 17th Italy and Spain, Mexican Revolutionary Art, Controversies in Modern Art, Latin American Folk Art, Women in Art, Orientalizing in 19th in C. French Painting, Modern Art before 1945, Modern Art after 1945, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Neoclassicism and Romanticism; and Critical Theory.
• Internship program with the Tyler Museum of Art
• Annual Art History Student Research Symposium

 

Digital Media

Intermediate through advanced level digital media classes give students the opportunity to create work using the Adobe Creative Suite. Courses build on 2D design fundamentals and support both traditional and experimental approaches to digital art.

Open to all art majors, the digital media lab features:

• 15 iMac computer stations
• 2 Epson Perfection v600 photo scanners
• 1 Brother black and white printer, 1 Brother color printer
• Epson Stylus Pro large format color printer
• Canon digital SLR cameras and lenses
• Electronic flash, lighting equipment, backdrop paper and stand

The media lab supports various digital art processes using the Adobe Creative Suite.

 

Drawing & Painting

The drawing and painting area includes three large open studio classrooms with storage areas for flat files and painting racks. The drawing and painting studios features:

• Klopfenstein CE100 Collegiate steel easels
• Individual rolling/storage carts with shelves
• Large scale worktables
• Drawing boards, mirrors and various lighting, model stands and still life materials
• Chop saw, table saw and other tools needed for stretching canvases and framing 2D works

The drawing and painting studios support various media and processes, including: graphite, charcoal, colored pencils, ink, water media, encaustic, acrylics and oils.

 

Ceramics

The ceramics area includes two large studio classrooms, a well-stocked glaze lab, a dry materials lab and a large outdoor kiln pad. The ceramics studios feature:

• 2 large Geil gas kilns, 1 large sprung arch gas kiln, 3 raku kilns and 5 Skutt electric kilns
• Soldner clay mixer and Venco pugmill
• 40 Thomas Stuart and CI potters’ wheels, 2 Lockerbie kick wheels
• Laguna spray booth
• Slab rollers, extruder and various small tools for communal use

The ceramics studio supports dynamic firing temperatures and atmospheres, from high-fire, midrange, low-fire and raku firing, to clay and glaze making processes and materials as well as construction methods from wheel throwing to hand building.

 

Printmaking

The printmaking area, which includes a large open studio classroom and a clean room, features:

• 2 large flatbed intaglio presses, 1 medium intaglio press and 2 large lithography presses
• Screen printing equipment
• Plate and screen exposure unit
• Oversized paper bath, large hot plate

The printmaking studio supports various processes including intaglio, relief, plate lithography, screen printing and monoprints.

 

Sculpture

The sculpture area includes a large open studio classroom, a wood shop, tool room and outdoor areas for welding, metal fabrication and casting. The sculpture studio features:

• Table saw, band saw, lathe, surface planer, belt-disc sander, compound miter saw, router table, drill press
• MIG, TIG, and spot welders, oxy cutting torches, plasma cutter, plasma CNC, metal shear, metal break, metal roller, English wheel, evolution cut off saw, chop saw, metal band saw, gas forge
• Various hand tools for communal use

The sculpture studio supports a variety of processes and materials, from metal fabrication and casting to woodworking as well as various mixed-media and found materials.

 

Small Metals

The small metals area includes a large open studio classroom and storage area and offers students a wide range of tools and equipment including:

• Vacuum and centrifugal casting setups, 2 Burnout kilns, sandblasting cabinet
• Wide range of fabrication hand tool, rolling mill, forging and forming tools
• Enameling, Photoetching, Electro forming and plating equipment
• Acetylene, butane, and oxyacetylene torches and heat-treating equipment

The small metals studio supports fabrication, casting, raising, photo etching, electroplating and enameling processes. Students may work in a variety of materials such as gold, silver, brass, bronze, plastic and wood.