Facilities
Painting and Drawing
Wilson Hall’s state-of-the-art painting and drawing studios feature spacious, well-lit working areas with high ceilings and new ventilation systems. Natural light is provided by floor-to-ceiling windows with double doors opening on balconies over-looking scenic Woods Creek. Ample storage racks allow students to store work while focusing on multiple projects throughout the semester. These rooms provide an inspiring environment for students to grow as developing young artists.
Design
Available to students enrolled in Art and Art History courses, the design studio contains a 10-station computer lab. Every station is equipped with Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom digital drawing tablet. The lab also accommodates class-related projects that rely on virtual reality technologies, ceiling mounted cameras, and sound and video editing.
Photography
The photography program at W&L is housed in a state-of-the-art facility that includes both traditional and digital darkrooms. There are 2 black & white darkrooms with a total of 16 - Omega 4x5 enlarger stations, a film processing room, as well as equipment and supplies for alternative and non-silver processes. A spacious classroom/studio houses 8 digital darkroom stations, complete with the latest Macintosh computers and imaging software, drawing tablets, scanners, and archival ink jet printers. Photography students at W&L are able to make photographic prints up to 16x20 in the wet darkroom, and up to 44” wide in the digital darkroom. Additionally, students are able to check-out a variety of photographic equipment, including 35mm, digital SLR, medium format, and 4x5 view cameras, as well as tripods, lights, and light meters.
Printmaking
Printmaking at W&L includes both relief and intaglio processes, and the studio features a fully functioning letterpress workshop. Upper level courses in these techniques, along with a special course in book arts, make printmaking a large and important component of the Art Studio program. Not unmindful of our environment, W&L’s printmaking facilities emphasize safe techniques and employ non-toxic solvents – a rarity among liberal arts colleges in the United States.
Sculpture
The spacious and multipurpose sculpture studio accommodates multiple 3D media courses and projects. Students work with paper, plaster, wood, clay slab and hand-building work as well as fabric dyeing and sewing construction. There is a complete woodworking studio to fabricate and craft with wood and to mill unfinished lumber. A third studio holds a CNC router and the metal welding and fabrication workshop. The studios are complemented by electric kilns and mobile sewing stations. All of the studios open onto the ample Wilson Hall terrace overlooking Woods Creek.
Art and Art History Policy on Usage of Facilities and Equipment
The studios, labs, darkrooms, and department-owned equipment are available only to students who are currently enrolled in department courses, students who are majors or minors in the department, and department faculty and staff. Exceptions may be granted to members of the Washington and Lee University community on a case-by-case basis by the faculty coordinator of a studio area, when such use supports the academic or research goals of the university. Examples of exceptions might include a faculty research project, an exhibition, or other relevant university programming.