Graduate Academic Resources

In addition to the extensive access to department and university facilities, the Department of Art provides each graduate student with 24-hour access to a spacious private studio for their two-year period of research. The intimate graduate studio community, comprised of 16-20 students each year, is a vital component of the program, providing an active environment for discourse and interchange among students and their peers.

 

The department maintains specialized studio facilities and equipment for experimentation in a range of media. Studio facilities include a woodshop, metalworks foundry, as well as print, paper-making and photography labs. The department also has a comprehensive wing for digital media studies to include a range of research in digital photography, digital video, web interface design, with a specialization in interactive digital environments, a hardware, telecommunications and networks lab.

 

Accessible to graduate students are campus state-of-the-art production and fabrication labs such as the Kerr Hall Instructional Development Center for Media Production, the Physics, Engineering and Geology machine shops for consultation and fabrication.

 

Departmental resources also include a department-sponsored exhibition space, Glass Box Gallery,  featuring weekly exhibitions by undergraduate and graduate students. Two additional on-campus exhibition venues, The College of Creative Studies Gallery and the Art, Design and Architecture Museum (AD&A Museum) offer exposure to a range of exhibition programming. The AD&A Museum presents major traveling exhibitions and houses a permanent collection for research and presentation purposes. Students are encouraged to explore the possibilities for experimentation given the diverse resources available in a university setting as well as the urban opportunities presented in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

 

Department and Academic Affiliations

The Department is closely linked with the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC) and the AD&A Museum whereby strong collaborations take place in programming and curricular initiatives, bringing distinguished practitioners to campus to participate in exchange forums such as exhibitions, symposia and lecture series.

 

The department’s joint affiliation with the Media Arts and Technology Program (MAT) expands the department’s digital media studies to include interface with cross-campus interdisciplinary programming between the humanities, engineering and computer sciences.

 

The Department of Art is also affiliated with the College of Creative Studies, a small experimental college designed to allow students to rigorously explore a field of knowledge, rather than merely expose them to a predetermined quantity of fixed subject matter. Graduate students are encouraged to take special topic and interdisciplinary coursework offered in it.

 

The Department of Art co-sponsors with the College of Creative Studies the Visual Arts Symposium, which brings prominent artists to campus for public lectures and studio visits with graduate students. The UCSB Arts and Lectures program brings internationally recognized artists and performers to campus through its lecture presentations, poetry readings, performances and film screenings.

 

Students also have an opportunity to participate in the Intercampus Exchange Program for Graduate Students (IEPGS). This program is designed to provide access to courses at other UC campuses not ordinarily available at UCSB. Approvals are required from the Department Chairs and the Graduate Deans on both campuses. IEPGS applications are available on the Graduate Division website.

 

UCSB Research Resources

 

317Arts Library

The library houses one of the most important collections of exhibition catalogues in the country. It also hosts an artists’ books collection, with works of Ed Ruscha, Laurie Anderson, Adrian Piper and others.

 

The Architecture & Design Collection in the AD&A Museum

A growing repository of architectural records containing over 400,000 original drawings as well as specifications, manuscript material, historic photographs, architectural models and furniture.  Included in its holdings are the papers of Rudolph M. Schindler, Gregory Ain, Albert Frey, Kem Weber, Irving J. Gill and Cliff May. Additionally, the collection’s importance derives from its interest in documenting work originally considered to be outside the mainstream of the modern movement.

 

The Image Resource Center

This facility consists of over 70,000 digital images and approximately 300,000 35mm slides, which provide comprehensive coverage of Western and non-Western art and architecture.  The IRC catalogue contains images from both the IRC’s own collection as well as images and data from the Archivision digital image library and several other UCSB image collections. Digital assets are available for searching and download to registered users: https://www.vrc.arthistory.ucsb.edu.  The IRC staff can provide assistance with access to the various licensed and free digital image archives available, such as ARTstor, and can assist with implementation of new image technology in teaching.

 

Map and Imagery Laboratory

Advances the interdisciplinary use of spatial data and provides technologies for integrating diverse information formats. The facility is nationally recognized for the quantity of spatial data it holds and the availability of equipment for utilizing both analog and digital materials.

 

The California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA)

A permanent program that advances scholarship in ethnic studies through its varied collections of primary research materials. These unique collections document the lives and activities of African Americans, Asian/Pacific Americans, Chicanos/Latinos, and Native Americans in California.

 

Historical Sound Recordings

Over 250,000 audio recordings are available in a variety of formats. Many of these recordings are unique while many more are commercially issued 78 rpm and cylinder recordings.

 

Other relevant Library special collections include: African American Collections, Asian American Collections, Chicano/Latino Collections, Circus Collections, Environmental Studies Collections, Film and Television Collections, Humanistic Psychology Collections, Music Collections, Native American Collections, Printing and Presses Collections, Religions (American) Collections, Theater Collections, Trade Catalogs and Visual Arts Collections.

 

UCSB Arts & Lectures

A place that brings international performances, films, lectures and special events featuring artists, scholars and professionals of all disciplines to the campus. The program also sponsors an Artists-in-Residence series that provides master classes, symposia and classroom engagement with invited professionals from around the world.

UCSB is the site for the California Nanosystems Institute and also the Carsey-Wolf Center for research, teaching and public programming about media. This facility maintains state-of-the-art, media research labs and a multi-seat theatre complex for presentations and screenings.