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The MSU Denver Center for Visual Art, also called CVA or CVA Gallery, just a couple blocks from campus in the heart of the Art District on Santa Fe in Downtown Denver, provides diverse, high-quality art experiences that bring local and international artists, MSU Denver students and the broader Colorado community together to advance the global urban dialogue.
The newly renovated Ceramics studio features a large common workspace with four worktables and eighteen potters wheels. There are specialized spaces for clay making, glazing, plaster, and a large kiln area complete with six electric Skutt kilns, three gas kilns and one raku kiln.
The Communication Design Bachelor of Fine Arts Program is housed is the Central Classroom, suite 311. The facility boasts state of the art digital technology, studio and lecture spaces, printing and production facilities, as well as four faculty offices.
This design hub embraces the functionality of a professional design studio; students are free to work in any number of spaces based on their needs, interests, or coursework requirements and are encouraged to build a spirit of collaboration among students in the discipline. The studio also features an extensive design library for student reference. Classrooms are outfitted with MacBook Pro laptops for each student’s use. Projectors and monitors are strategically positioned for project demonstration and critique of work. When faced with producing design solutions, the Communication Design student has at their disposal many laserjet printers, including tabloid and large format for poster sized archival purposes. At-cost printing services are available for both wide format 24″x72″ and high volume high quality xerox printing up to 12×19″. These in-house options mean students can make their design solutions a tangible reality quickly. Additional resources in the studio include a copy stand for photographing artwork as well as digital equipment available for check-out including mac book pros, iPads, video cameras, digital cameras, microphones, tripods, and headphones.
Beyond the Communication Design studio, the program also manages a small letterpress printing facility located in the Central Classroom 311 suite. This space houses a historic piece of equipment—an 1895 Columbia and Mitchell tabletop platen-press capable of printing up to 8×10″ and a 1950’s Vandercook No. 3 press capable of printing up to 14×20″. Letterpress provides a wonderful counterpoint to the digital technology. Students are able to work with faculty and/or trained studio assistants producing a variety of printed ephemera. The historical significance of printing with movable type connects students with their studies in design history and typography among other subjects. Students have the ability to produce printed works as a part of coursework or in self-directed efforts.
This leading-edge technology lab is for use during classes as reserved by professors, as well as during open lab hours, for the creative research of students currently enrolled in Art Department courses at MSU Denver.
HARDWARE: Canon Large Format Printer, Pro-2000, Epilog Fusion M2 Laser Cutter, Matter + Form 3D Scanner, Roland GS-24 Vinyl Cutter, Ultimaker 3D Printer, Ultimaker 2+ Connect, and Mini 3D printer; SOFTWARE: Adobe Creative Suite, Fusion 360, Slice, Z-Suite, Cura.
The Drawing studio in AR 296 serves students taking drawing classes that are both traditional and experimental. Students enrolled in Drawing and Art Education courses have access to professional grade drafting tables that function at multiple levels and angles (from table top to easel). In addition, a computer station allows students the opportunity to access the Internet and scan imagery, and they can use the large format printer to make professional-quality prints of their multimedia drawings, as well as a professional mat cutter.
The Jewelry and Metalsmithing area provides 16 individual workstations in addition to separate casting, soldering, enameling, and forming areas. It was renovated in the summer of 2020 to build out a designated centrifugal casting area, new hoods for chemical-based processes, and brand-new ventilation throughout.
The studio facility consists of the following:
- Individual benches with a variety of hand tools
- A communal tool cabinet with extensive hammers, draw plates, chasing tools, setting tools, and various other specialty hand tools that can be borrowed by students for in-studio use
- Rental tool kits for students taking beginning level courses
- 4 large natural gas and compressed air torches for annealing
- 4 acetylene and air torches for soldering and brazing
- An oxygen-acetylene micro torch for small scale soldering operations
- A large oxygen-acetylene torch for casting
- 2 chemical hoods for pickling, etching, electroforming, and patina processes
- A variety of anvils, mandrels and stakes for metalsmithing
- Rolling mills
- Metal shear
- 36″ sandblaster
- Scroll saw
- Centrifugal and vacuum casting equipment
- A large burnout kiln for casting
- Vulcanizer for rubber mold making
- Small and large drill presses
- A belt sander, disk sander, and grinder
- Polishing machines
- Hydraulic press
- Tumblers for mass finishing processes
- Ultrasonic cleaner
- Steamer
- Small and large enameling kilns
- 10 Flexshaft stations
Students enrolled in all levels of coursework in Painting have access to professional grade Klopfenstein easels and a large painting storage room outfitted with metal storage units for various size works. Advanced Painting students have access to individual lockable taborets. The studio is equipped with a stationary electric miter saw and many hand tools to build stretcher bars or other structural supports. In addition, two computer stations allow students the opportunity to access the internet for research and scanning imagery.
The Photography facilities are located within the main Arts Building in a 6500 square foot suite. Many of the spaces have been recently remodeled to support several large traditional wet process labs, individual color darkrooms, alternative process labs and a digital photography lab. All traditional labs are well ventilated and are equipped with medium and large format Saunders enlargers. A Hope 32″ color processor serves traditional color printing. The digital facility utilizes Mac computers and Epson wide format printers and scanners. The facility provides a safe, comfortable, clean working environment.
The Printmaking area, housed in a studio of approximately 3300 square feet, is fully equipped for production in intaglio, lithography, screenprinting, relief and the various photo-mechanical processes. The intaglio section contains two Charles Brand and two Takach presses with bed sizes up to 48″ x 96″ and etching facilities for zinc and copper. The lithography section has three Takach and one Griffin press with the largest bed size being 40″x72″. The area is equipped for both plate and stone production and contains over fifty stones in various sizes up to 22″x30″. Screenprinting uses four vacuum bases for production up to 30″x44″, making use of water-based technology. Servicing all photo-mechanical processes is an area comprising a complete wet darkroom, a NuArc exposure unit, and a Macintosh computer station supported with an HP laser jet printer, an Epson 7200 ink jet printer, and scanner. Ample workstations support the production of prints ranging in size up to 48″x72″.
The 5000 square foot Sculpture facility includes fully equipped wood and metal studios, classrooms, a state of the art ceramic shell investment room, separate sanding and metal finishing studios, and a fully equipped tool room with hand, power, and pneumatic tools, and assorted supplies. The wood studio includes table saws, band saws, compound miter saws, assorted sanders, a panel saw, wood lathe, planer, jointer, and several drill presses. The metal facility includes MIG, TIG, Stick, Spot, and Gas welders, a plasma cutter, finger break, step shear, rollers, horizontal and vertical band saws, hydraulic pipe bender, abrasive chop saw, drill presses, and a 2-ton bridge crane throughout. A newly renovated 1000 square foot, fully enclosed sculpture yard will be completed before the Spring 09 semester and will include a fully paved patio, soft metal crucible furnace, burn-out kiln, sand pit, rolling work tables, electric glass kilns, an outdoor welding area, and a fully traversable bridge crane.
Innovation Garage at Auraria Library
The Auraria Library Innovation Garage provides high quality 3D printing, large format printing, and vinyl cutting services in support of project-based learning and research.
The Innovation Garage also serves as a drop-in support space for multimedia projects. Our lab includes specialized software workstations and large format scanners.
All services in the Innovation Garage are available for current students, staff, and faculty of Auraria Campus.
Learn more about the Innovation Garage
Auraria Library’s Digital Media Studio (DMS)
The Auraria Library Digital Media Studio (DMS) is a bookable space designed to provide hands-on support for photo, video, and audio production.
