Facilities

Access to Resources
The equipment, labs and studio spaces described in this site are available to full-time students in the UMBC Department of Visual Arts who have met the academic qualifications specified by the various facilities administrators. Students may be required to gain additional authorization before being permitted to access individual pieces of equipment, labs and studio spaces.

Graphic Design
The Visual Arts Graphics Lab (FA 107) is equipped for desktop publishing and printing.The lab has Apple iMacs, scanners, and high-speed Internet connectivity. The students have access to the Input-Output bureau for color and black & white inkjet and laser printing. The bureau supports Hewlett-Packard Laser, Xerox Color Laser and large format Epson Color Inkjet printers. The lab is open to anyone who is a full time student in the UMBC Department of Visual Arts and is registered with the Mac Lab administrator.

Film/Video
The Film/Video Production Center provides production and post- production equipment, supplies, maintenance and support for currently enrolled Film, and Video/Film students, graduate students, faculty and staff. The 12-student staff members track over 600 checkout items, serve approximately 500 people, and perform over 2000 checkouts per year. “The Cage” provides 24-hour access to post- production facilities and 30 hours a week it is open for purchasing supplies and for checking-in/out equipment. This facility is an integral part of the Department of Visual Arts and the Imaging and Digital Arts program. As developing artists expressing their personal vision and ideas, students are encouraged to explore the mediums of film and digital video.

Photography
The photography facilities contain 44 enlarging stations in group and individual darkrooms with access to either a 42" B+W processor or 42" RA4 color processor, along with traditional tray processing. Four enlargers are equipped to make mural prints for either processor. Jobo tube processors are used to process large format negatives and color film. The photography studio is fully equipped with both tungsten and strobe lighting units and features an overhead rail support grid and motorized background lifts. The Photography Center has equipment available for checkout. Some of this equipment includes over 30 cameras in all formats, digital and traditional, medium format-twin lens and SLR's plus 4x5" monorails with a variety of lenses. Portable tungsten and strobe lighting kits, meters and tripods are also available. Photography's digital facilities use Macintosh computers with flatbed scanners capable of scanning 35mm to 8x10 inch film sizes. For output, students have access to printers that handle 13", 17" and 44" media or they can output to our 8K-film recorder in 35mm or 4x5 inch sizes.

Digital Media
The multimedia labs (FA 112 and FA 113) are fully equipped for creation and manipulation of images, sound, text, music, voice and movement. The labs have Apple Macintosh G5 computers with Adobe software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Studio, Dreamweaver. They are also equipped with scanners and high speed Internet connectivity. The students have access to the Input-Output bureau for color and black & white inkjet and laser printing. The bureau supports Hewlett-Packard Laser, Xerox Color Laser and large format Epson Color Inkjet printers.

These labs are open to anyone who is a full time student in the UMBC Department of Visual Arts and is registered with the Mac Lab administrator.

Print Media
The visual arts print media studios are comprised of facilities for traditional and related photo/digital processes of intaglio, lithography, screen-printing, relief printing and book arts. The photo and digital equipment are used specifically for generating images onto film to be exposed to plates or screen. This is transferred to various materials for mixed-media print, book arts, and/or installation.

The studios are open to all students who are currently enrolled in print media courses and/or after a review showing evidence of technical ability.

IO Bureau
The Input - Output Bureau has a slide-scanning station and is equipped for desktop printing. The printers available are Hewlett-Packard Laser, Xerox Color Laser and large format Epson Color Inkjet printers over the Ethernet. Printing costs are charged via pre-purchased print credits at the bureau.