The School of Art maintains studios, facilities and classrooms in three buildings: Comstock Art Facility (ComArt) The Shaffer Art Building, and Smith Hall.
Find ceramics, jewelry and metalsmithing, printmaking/print media and graphic art, and sculpture facilities in the ComArt Building.
Comstock Art Facility, also known as ComArt, is the home of facilities that support arts education, ceramics, jewelry and metalsmithing, printmaking/print media and graphic art, and sculpture. All students have access to a woodshop, metal shops, and digital fabrication studios. ComArt also houses the Sarah A. Coyne Gallery as well as two large rooms used for installations, critiques, and exhibitions.
Studio spaces at ComArt include private, semi-private, and shared space studios for graduate students working with ceramics, jewelry and metalsmithing, printmaking and sculpture.
Ceramic Facilities
The 12,500-square-foot ceramics facility is housed in the Comstock Art Facility (ComArt), which is home to the School of Art's programs in art education and studio arts. Our extensive ceramics facilities were recently renovated and upgraded. They include:
Swipe through or pause the video to view the ceramic studio in VR.
Jewelry & Metalsmithing Facilities
Our facilities include a well-equipped main studio with individual work stations, small machine and plating/anodizing rooms, plus casting, soldering, and finishing equipment. Graduate students have private or semi-private studios.
Swipe through or pause the video to view the printmaking studio in VR.
Sculpture and Digital Fabrication Facilities
The outstanding sculpture facilities are comprised of workshop areas for traditional and contemporary applications, including those for metal casting, fabrication, plasma cutting, and welding; wood and stone carving; plaster; resins; plastics; digital fabrication and 3-D printing; and a state-of-the-art wood shop. We also offer ample workspaces for assembly, project spaces dedicated to installation and performance, gallery spaces for student exhibitions, outdoor casting and large-scale fabrication capabilities, and private and semi-private studio spaces for graduate students.
Gas furnaces for small batches or hundreds of pounds of aluminum and bronze
Indoor and outdoor pouring pits
Gas-fired burnout kiln
Dedicated forklift
Gantry and chain hoists
Create molds using oil or resin bonded sand or lost wax in ceramic shell or standard investment with dedicated spaces for plaster, wax, and ceramic shell work
The Shaffer Art Building houses the School of Art’s programs in illustration and painting. It is also home to the Department of Transmedia, jazz studies in the Setnor School of Music, and Syracuse University Art Museum. The building contains a 60-seat lecture hall and the 300-seat Shemin Auditorium. Painting facilities include well-lit studios that have special skylights receiving north light and a complete workshop.
Shaffer houses private studio spaces for students working in painting. M.F.A. candidates have excellent facilities in which to pursue independent work and research. Each student has a studio space and is encouraged to be self-motivated. Studios are well lit and have special skylights receiving north light.
Exhibition spaces in Shaffer include the Michael Sickler Gallery and the Wall.
Illustration Facilities
The illustration program is on the 3rd floor of Shaffer Art Building.
There are two large, well-lit classrooms that can be flexibly arranged for figure drawing and other studio setups, using traditional and digital media, as the class requires. The computer lab is equipped with Cintiq workstations. There are a large format color inkjet and small format B+W printer on the floor, accessible at all hours.
A brand new Riso Lab has a single-pass, 2 color Risograph printer and a full-color 42” wide plotter printer for banner-sized work. The Riso Lab is stocked with 8 different color drums, a choice of paper types, and several workstations, and is staffed to help students set up their files and print. All illustration students, grad and undergrad, have designated newly furnished studio workspaces available to them. The display cases, chalk wall, and monitor are updated regularly to share new work.
Painting Facilities
The Painting area occupies the 4th floor of the Shaffer Art Building.
Two spacious studios with beautiful north light are accessible at all hours and can be used by students outside of scheduled class times. The studios are equipped with easels, tables, pin-up walls and the basic equipment for all kinds of painting projects. These studios are in close proximity to graduate painting studios as well as the sophomore, junior and senior studios providing wonderful opportunities for informal learning and sharing.
In the long 4th floor hall are well-maintained pin-up walls offering an open space for class exhibitions and critiques. In the hall are numerous lockers available for student supply storage. There is also a large area dedicated to storing student work-in-progress as well as large scale work.
Smith Hall is emerging as a hub for collaborative and interdisciplinary programs and graduate studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. It includes a drawing classroom and studio spaces for studio arts and Department of Transmedia graduate students. It is also home to the M.F.A. in design program, the graduate program in museum studies, and the Canary Lab. A wood shop and workshop area are located in the basement. Random Access Gallery, a graduate-run exhibition space, is on the first floor.
In addition, students may work in facilities at the University’s Nancy Cantor Warehouse in downtown Syracuse. Wood, metal, and various digital fabrication workshops exist in ComArt, Smith, and the Warehouse.
