Infrastructure for Artistic Production

Located on the first floor of the Logan Center, the Logan Center Shops offer access to tools, machinery, and training for University of Chicago students in Department of Visual Arts (DoVA) and Theatre and Performance Studies (TAPS) classes and programs.

The Wood Shop houses the Logan Center’s equipment for woodworking, vacuum forming, spray painting, and general fabrication for university students, faculty, and staff. Hand and portable tools can be borrowed by authorized users at an equipment check-out center located in the shop at the south entrance with various tool training available throughout the academic year. Wood, metal, and thermoforming plastics are also available for purchase through the Shop.

The Metal Shop is the Logan Center’s space for welding, cutting, and shaping metal. With a primary focus of working with steel, the metal shop is equipped to support a variety of metals for work including milling; hot and cold metal forming processes; and MIG, TIG, and torch welding techniques.

In addition, the Logan Center Shops provides the MFA students with their own set of hand and portable tools as well as a storage space for works in progress that they self-manage as a cohort. The Shop is also a possible source of student employment for MFA and BA students in DoVA.

The KilnHouse, a recent addition to the Shops facilities, is the Logan Center’s home for ceramic firings. The space includes three electric kilns and a dedicated space for critiques and performance. Students receive access to ceramic firing through shop training and authorization or by enrolling in a ceramic course in DoVA. The KilnHouse was designed and built by students through a series of courses co-taught by Amber Ginsburg and Woodhouse Tinucci Architects.

Located in the Lower Level of the Logan Center, the JLMC supports DoVA and the arts at UChicago by providing AV equipment, production space, software, and technical training. Its resources include a digital media classroom with digital printers and flatbed scanners, individual audio and digital media editing suites, a digital media lab, and a film and video production room with an infinity wall. In addition, the JLMC oversees operations of the Edelstone Darkroom, located one block away from the Logan Center, which is home to a Black/White darkroom, as well as a photography classroom. Select analog photographic and filmmaking equipment is available to students at the Media Center.

The Jonathan Logan Media Center is also a possible source of student employment for MFA and BA students in DoVA.

Located in the Media Arts, Data and Design Center (MADD), the Hack Arts Lab (HAL) is managed by the Jonathan Logan Media Center and provides an open-access laboratory for creative digital fabrication and visualization. This maker space-styled workshop is designed to support a breadth of activity ranging from undergraduate projects to faculty-led exploration. HAL resources include 3D printers, laser cutters, soldering stations, workbenches and micro-computing tools.

Located on the ground floor of the Logan Center, Logan Center Exhibitions presents contemporary art programming. Reflecting the spirit of inquiry at the university, LCE focuses on open, collaborative, and process-based approaches to cultural production. Working closely with artists, students, scholars, and community members, LCE presents innovative exhibitions by emerging and established artists, supports ambitious new commissions and research projects, disseminates knowledge through publications, and facilitates connections through talks and other public programs. Each spring quarter, the LCE supports the mounting and presentation of works of graduating BA Studio Track Majors and MFA students for their respective thesis exhibitions.

Located in the Cochrane-Woods Art Center (CWAC) across campus and part of the Department of Art History, the Visual Resources Center provides imaging services, research and pedagogy support for faculty, instructors, and students in the Arts and Humanities and other members of the UChicago community working with visual materials. 

The VRC manages LUNA—the main database for art images used for teaching at UChicago—and maintains several collections of art images for teaching and research, including the Department of Visual Arts’ Open Practice Committee video archive. VRC staff also provide access to their digitization lab equipment and consultations for image-based reference questions, photography and scanning advice, personal image management, fair use and copyright concerns, and visual literacy. The VRC is home to the Joel Snyder Materials Collection, which makes art historical objects, materials, and tools available for instructor and student engagement, and CWAC Exhibitions, which presents student-and course-curated exhibitions in the hallways of the Cochrane-Woods Art Center. 

Organized by the VRC, CWAC Exhibitions presents student- and course-curated exhibitions in the Cochrane-Woods Art Center. This opportunity provides a supported environment for emerging curators, artists, and museum workers to hone their skills while activating CWAC spaces with short-term exhibitions on the university’s academic calendar. Proposals from new curators, student artists, and those looking for additional curatorial experience in a non-traditional setting are welcomed.