Facilities

The Department of Art and the University Art Museum are housed in an award-winning LEED silver-targeted facility built in 2019 with nearly 60,000 sq. ft. of classroom, studio, and exhibition space. Devasthali Hall was designed with the emerging generation of art and culture professionals in mind with features that accommodate the robust research and creative activity of the department: indoor and outdoor work areas, a freight elevator and oversized hallways and doors, faculty and graduate studios, a student lounge, display and critique spaces, art history and museum offices, a conservation lab, museum galleries, and collections vault. In addition, Devasthali Hall includes flex spaces that meet a range of department-wide curricular needs: a collections study ‘smart’ classroom, a multi-purpose studio classroom, an event space with tiered seating, and a conference room. The building is named for Ammu and Rama Devasthali who championed the project and are recognized as transformational community leaders with passion for the arts.

The state-of-the-art ceramics studio provides high-quality technical facilities necessary for a comprehensive education in ceramic arts. The main ceramic studio and classroom consists of 1,800 square feet of centralized workspace for wheel throwing and hand building, with 24-hour access. There are twelve electric wheels, a large slab roller, and ample workspace and storage shelving. Additionally, there is a dedicated molding-making classroom, a humidity-controlled room, and a fully stocked glaze lab with spray booth. The clay mixing room is equipped with two high-quality vacuumed chambered pug mills, two Soldner clay mixers, a hundred-gallon slip mixer, and an impressive inventory of raw materials needed to mix and research clay bodies. An adjoining enclosed courtyard houses kilns as well as offering additional covered and uncovered outdoor workspace. Students are able to choose from a variety of kilns and firing methods, including six top-loading electric kilns, four small test electric kilns, two large Olsen gas kilns, one small test gas kiln, a raku kiln, and a large state-of-the-art computerized Blaauw gas kiln. To provide students with the ability to research the expanding realms of digital ceramics, a top-of-the-line ceramic 3-D printer and a colored decal printer are available. All graduate students receive individual top-tier 125-square-foot studio spaces, equipped with adjustable ventilation hoods, work table, sink, and storage shelving.

The graphic design and media arts computer lab is furnished with 20 iMacs, full access to Adobe Creative Suite, and a dedicated Epson V800 scanner. A digital output facility also gives access to a 44” Epson SureColor P8000 large format printer and a 24” Epson SureColor P6000 large format printer. Advanced undergraduate students and graduate students have access to a separate lab with an additional 44” Epson large format printer and 17” Epson Printer P800.

The photography facilities at NMSU include several distinct areas for creating and processing images. The state-of-the-art digital classroom includes the latest iMacs with the complete Adobe Creative Suite. Students have access to large format inkjet printers for up to 44-inch-wide printing, as well as laser printers and a Risograph for larger editions, bookmaking, and experimental output. The lab is complete with scanners with transparent and reflective capabilities, GTI print viewers for color management, and finishing equipment for creating custom mats.

The 500-square-foot lighting studio is outfitted with a variety of seamless backdrops, strobe and continuous lighting kits, and an array of light modifiers. The analog darkroom facilities house six black & white enlargers equipped for 35mm, medium format, and large format development, with additional room for alternative processes. There are two film-loading rooms, a large dry area with individual lockers, flat files for student storage, and a copy stand.

The photo area has a wide array of digital and analog equipment for student checkout including full-frame Canon DSLR camera bodies; a Fuji GFX 100S Mirrorless Medium Format digital camera; a variety of prime and zoom lenses; Toyo 45 CX film view cameras; Seagull Medium Format film cameras; a range of 35mm film cameras; Bowens and Digibee lighting kits; Canon and Godox flash units with off-camera transceivers; standard and fluid-head Manfrotto tripods; Moza gimbals; Rode microphones; Canon projectors; a 32” monitor; Wacom tablets; an Insta360 X2 camera; and a DJI Mavik 2 drone.

The sculpture facilities include both an indoor studio and outdoor work area. Students receive instruction in a range of contemporary processes and problems in sculpture, learning how to work with wood, metal, molds, cardboard, found objects, and experimental materials. In the studio are workbenches, student lockers and storage, model-making space, a fully-stocked tool crib (hand tools and power tools), and a variety of digital fabrication equipment. Mold-making facilities are adjacent to sculpture and ceramics studios. The outdoor courtyard has designated work areas for foundry, welding, and large-scale fabrication. The ‘scrap yard’ is a resource for all students to access free material for art-making. Faculty, staff, and graduate assistants coordinate monitored hours to provide supervised access to the full range of equipment in the sculpture facilities. Students enrolled in sculpture classes have 24/7 access to work space and storage.

Adjacent to the sculpture studio is a woodshop. The shop is used department-wide for instruction on various projects including crate construction, building stretcher-bars, exhibition displays, assemblage sculpture, and general woodworking. The studio is supervised by faculty, staff, and graduate assistants and outfitted with a dust collection system and adjustable ventilation hoods. All students have access during scheduled hours once a mandatory safety orientation is complete.

WOOD SHOP: METAL SHOP EQUIPMENT

The drawing and painting facilities boast two undergraduate studios totaling over 2,500 square feet of workspace. Both studios feature independent exhaust systems, clerestory windows, and two-sided, hinged walls for extra workspace. The painting studio provides access to a mineral spirits parts washer for cleaning brushes, a freezer for paint storage, vertical and horizontal storage racks, and lockers for storing supplies. The drawing studio features a six-by-eight-foot exhaust wall for aerosol spraying and flat files for storing drawings up to 40 x 40 inches. Students have 24-hour access to both studios. All graduate students receive individual studios with natural lighting, exhaust hoods to remove hazardous fumes, and ample space for working and storage.

The metals studio and classroom consists of sixteen benches and ten soldering stations accommodating chemical process, enameling, machining, micro welding, 3D printing with castable wax, as well as an instructional monitor to project demonstration with document camera, printer, and computer. Two adjacent rooms support casting, raising, and forming. The outdoor courtyard includes covered working space with equipment for powder coating, lapidary work, polishing, and sand-blasting. The flexible outdoor area also supports welding, forging, and large-scale casting. In addition, students have access to the Fabrication Lab with a laser cutter (4’ x 3’) 3D scanner, and 3D printers, digital embroidery machine, with utility space for large-scale work, mixed media, and a separate photo studio for documentation.

The Fabrication Lab contains equipment to accommodate a range of projects from digital fabrication and fiber art to printmaking. The lab includes several 3D printers, iMac computers with 3D design software, a Risograph MH 9450U printer, and a large-format digital printer. Students can explore fiber processes using a Bernina programmable embroidery and and advanced sewing machine, an eight-shaft loom, and a tufting gun. Printmaking capabilities include two American French Tool etching presses, a Griffin series 1 lithography press, lithographic stones of various sizes, graining sink, collection of leather and composite rollers, plate cutter and hot plate, rosin aquatint box, both ferric chloride and saline sulfate etching tanks, and a variety of chemicals and inks, as well as serigraphy equipment, Amergraph Advantage 150 exposure unit, and a screen washout sink.

Department of Art

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