Resources for Making Work

The Department of Visual Arts is located at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. Designed as a home for the creative life of the University campus, the building is home to 16 individual MFA studios, a cluster of BA studios, the Logan Center Gallery, a Performance Penthouse, and one of the best screening rooms in the city.
 

All MFA students have 24-hr access to a studio space at the Logan Center. Most studios have natural light, and an adjoining shared space for making and displaying work.
 

On the first floor of the Logan Center, the Logan Center Shop houses equipment for woodworking, hot and cold metal working, vacuum forming, spray painting and resin casting. Hand and portable tools can be borrowed by authorized users at an equipment check-out center located in the shop at the south entrance. The Logan Center Shop sells supplies for wood, metal, and thermoforming plastics. In addition, the MFA students manage their own set of hand and portable tools as well as a storage space for works in progress.
 

Located in the Lower Level of the Logan Center, the JLMC provides AV equipment, production space, software, and technical training to the UChicago and DoVA community. Its resources include a digital media classroom with digital printers and flatbed scanners, individual editing suites, and a video production room with an infinity wall. The Jonathan Logan Media Center is also a possible source of student employment for MFA and BA students in DoVA, as well as students interested in art and technology across campus.
 

Managed by the JLMC, and located one block away from the Logan Center, the Edelstone Darkroom is home to a Black/White and Color darkroom, as well as a photography classroom. Select analogue photographic and filmmaking equipment is available to students at the JLMC.
 

“[KilnHouse is] beautifully considered and designed for critique, performances, and large scale video projections.”

-Amber Ginsburg, Lecturer

The KilnHouse, a new addition to the Logan Shop Facilities, houses three electric kilns. DOVA now offers ceramic based courses and students have access to ceramic firing through shop training and authorization. Designed as a space for critique, performance and large-scale video projections through the glass windows, the KilnHouse can be reserved to show your work. 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 ground floor of the Logan Center, Logan Center Exhibitions presents international contemporary art programming. Reflecting the spirit of inquiry at the university, Logan Center Exhibitions focuses on open, collaborative, and process-based approaches to cultural production. Working closely with artists, students, scholars, and community members, Logan Center Exhibitions 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 Logan Center Gallery exhibits the work of graduating college and MFA students. Logan Center Exhibitions Curator typically teaches a class each year in the Department of Visual Arts and/or the Department of Art History.
 

Located in the newly opened Media, Data and Design Center (MADD) the Hack Arts Lab (HAL) is managed by the 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.
 

The Visual Resources Center creates high-quality images and provides an array of services and resources for instructors and students in the Humanities. 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. LUNA houses the OPC archive, recorded artist lectures and events hosted by the department.

VRC staff also provide access to our digitization lab equipment and consultations for image-based reference questions as well as photography and scanning advice. The VRC can offer trained students access to both flatbed scanners and an Imacon Flextight scanner for slides and film
 

The Fab Lab, located at the Polsky Exchange, offers entrepreneurs opportunities to transform their ideas into physical objects to share, test and perfect. With a full suite of state-of-the-art equipment to create prototypes and translate ideas into physical objects, the Fab Lab gives members access to tools needed to translate between digital and physical design. Operated by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Polsky Exchange is a 34,000 square foot startup hub featuring co-working space, a state-of-the-art Fabrication Lab, and a full calendar of programming and workshops designed to help entrepreneurs translate their ideas and technologies into startups.