The Department of Art & Design is located in the Fine Arts Building, just west of Duquesne Street and north of Hearnes Hall. It's connected to the Thomas E. Taylor Performing Arts Center, but operates as its own space just for visual arts.
Inside, you’ll find everything you need to create, learn, and explore:
- The MSSU Cragin Gallery for student and guest exhibitions
- An interactive classroom with an 82" 4K Ultra HD TV for lectures and critiques
- Spacious painting and drawing studios with pro lighting, computers, and projection systems
- Specialty studios for ceramics, jewelry & metalsmithing, photography, printmaking, and woodworking
- A foundry and fabrication annex for bronze casting and welding
It’s more than a building — it’s a space designed to help you turn your creative ideas into reality.
MSSU cragin Gallery
Located on the main floor of the Art and Design Building immediately to the east of the main entrance, it has approximately 325 running feet of exhibition wall space.
Gallery Hours are usually Monday through Friday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Monday through Thursday in the summer) and there is no admission charge.
Continue Reading about the MSSU Cragin Gallery
Studios
Ceramics
- The ceramics studio features 16 electric potter's wheels, work and wedging tables, adjustable shelving, three electric kilns (two computer controlled), 30" Bailey slab roller, extruder, fully stocked glaze material lab with scientific gram scales, casting slip blunger (mixer), glaze spray booth, two Bluebird clay mixers, a vertical pug mill, gas-fired Raku kiln, and a 35 cubic foot Baily downdraft gas-kiln.
Foundry/Fabrication Annex
- This facility houses a recently refurbished MIFCO Speedy-Melt furnace and crucibles for casting bronze or aluminum, a casting pit and a sand muller. The room is also outfitted with an oxyacetylene torch/welding manifold system, metal cutting and grinding equipment, a sandblasting cabinet, and welding equipment including a plasma cutting torch, one metal inert gas (MIG), one Miller tungsten inert gas (TIG), and four shielded metal arc (stick) welders.
Jewelry/Metalsmithing
- Allows for a full range of techniques for working with precious metals by being equipped with sixteen workbench stations, a large combination wet cutting/polishing system, enamel kilns, vacuum systems for casting, polishers, and six torch stations.
Design Lab
- The department's design lab is outfitted with an overhead digital projection system connected to the instructor's workstation. The lab features constantly updated, industry standard Apple Macintosh workstations and outfitted with current Adobe Creative Suite software platforms. A secondary printing and prototyping workspace includes a flatbed scanner, medium and large format color printers, a laser cutter, two 3-D printers and a 3-D scanner.
Painting
- The painting studio features an expansive bank of windows which allows northern light to flood the room. The room is equipped with easels and taborets, directional track lighting, and a computer workstation equiped with a projection system.
Photography
- Our photography studio includes chain driven backdrops, a Speedotron light controller system, extra lights, and tripods allowing for a variety of ways to work with studio lighting. Professional digital SLR cameras, scanners, and printers are also available to students.
Printmaking
- Printmaking houses a 30"x 60" Takach combo Etching/Litho press, a 36"x48" Sturgis Etching press, a 30"x60" Conrad Litho press, and a fully equipped screen printing facility (including darkroom, washout station, computer workstation for scanning/printing and vacuum exposure unit.) Students also have access to a fully ventilated acid etching area, individual work stations in intermediate and advanced classes, multiple large format light tables for reversals and film, over 30 screens of various sizes, and a full range of inks in various hues for a range of printmaking techniques.
Wood Shop/Plaster Studio
- This multi-media studio with heavy-duty work tables also allows for a variety of ways to work with wood. It houses professional-grade power band and scroll saws, Drill press, combination sander, jointer, 12" planer, 10" miter saw, 12" table saw, lathe as well as multiple hand tools and wood clamps. A wax melting pot for the lost-wax process is also located here.
