The Tools to Create
The Department of Art is located in the newly renovated Monroe Hall. The art facility includes painting and drawing studios; a fully equipped wood and metal shop for sculpture, including foundry; and a printmaking studio capable of producing intaglio, stone and plate lithography, serigraphy, relief and letter press (foundry type and photopolymer plates), all capable of using photomechanical processes. The department also has a fully equipped darkroom and a state-of-the-art computer imaging lab with 3D printing, Silicon Graphics and multi-media capabilities.
Facilities
Interactive Media Lab: The Media Lab is one of the first and most powerful digital instructional facilities in the region. The facility boasts 15 Apple workstations that are dedicated to interactive, video, sound, and 3D applications.
The Media Lab is equipped with 5 3D printers, a photo/video studio and room scale VR development space.
Peripheral equipment includes flatbed, slide, color printers up to 44" roll feed archival systems;
Software includes Final Cut Pro, AfterEffects, and Cinema 4D. Other software includes the full Adobe Suites, Auto Desk Suites, Unity 3D pro Game Engine and several specialty applications. Access for enrolled students is 24/7.
Painting: The Department of Visual Arts offers two sections of Painting I, which are taught in a rather large room that accommodates classes of up to twelve students. Storage is provided for paintings and supplies. Painting II and III are taught simultaneously in a less capacious classroom, as upper division classes tend to be smaller. Advanced students each have their own work area throughout the semester. Solvents and other basic supplies such as gesso and staple guns are provided by the department through lab fees.
Photography: The Photography Lab in the Visual Arts Department at Loyola University consists of 14 workstations with new enlargers and easels as well as 3 advanced enlarging stations to handle film formats up to 4x5. The room is spacious and professionally ventilated and has all the equipment necessary to produce archival fiber based black and white photographs in the fine art and documentary tradition. A classroom and a small lighting studio round out the modest but highly functional work areas for aspiring photography students.
Printmaking: The Department of Visual Arts offers a fully equipped printmaking studio with one large American French Tool etching press, one small Sturgess etching press, one large format Charles Brand lithography press, a Challenger letterpress proof press and a Vandercook model T-4 letterpress. Traditional etching, relief, and stone lithography is offered with an assortment of hand set type and thirty-four lithographic stones ranging in sizes from 8 x 10 inches to 24 x 36 inches. The shop also houses a fully equipped bindery with one large standing press, a large format board shear, and various nipping and finishing presses. In addition to the traditional printmaking media, a digital printmaking area is supported by five Macintosh G4 computers, a Xante' Filmaker/Filmstar photo transparency system and a 9 x 12 inch Jet photopolymer platemaker for photo-relief and letterpress work.
Sculpture: The sculpture program has two studios. One for woodworking or mixed media and one for metal and welding. Students also use spaces throughout the art building for illustrating their ideas. The wood shop is equipped with a table saw, drill press, band saw, radial saw, planer, drum, belt and disk sanders, plus all of the hand tools necessary to realize an idea. The metal shop is equipped with welding tanks, arc welders, plasma cutter, sand blaster, drill presses, sheet metal sheer, sheet metal roller, and a large metal band saw. Students will receive instruction and safety precautions on all of the machines during the course of the semester.