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Facilities and Learning Spaces
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Learning Spaces
Creative Arts Center
Costume Shop
Costume Shop
The costume shop, which is in the basement of the Creative Arts Center, is populated with industrial sewing machines and irons, cutting tables and mannequin-like dress forms. The costume shop supports Wright State’s Theatre and Dance programs. During plays and performances, the room is used to maintain and launder costumes.
Music Wing
The Music Wing of the Creative Arts Center features Schuster Hall, a 250-seat concert and recital hall that seats 110. A 32-rank Casavant organ is located in Schuster Hall. Additional facilities include rehearsal space for choral and instrumental ensembles, choral and instrumental libraries, electronic piano laboratory, computer-assisted keyboard lab, classrooms, faculty offices and studios, student lockers, and practice rooms.
New Movement/Stage Combat Studio
Wright State Theatre’s new movement/stage combat studio can function as acting classroom and rehearsal space. Special flooring was installed in the studio to support the teaching of stage combat.
Painting
You can perfect your skills in three large, distinct, adjacent spaces designated for beginning, intermediate, and advanced painters. Enjoy overhead lighting control and electrical outlets that allow for the creative flexibility you need. The advanced painting room has a skylight running nearly the width of the room. All three studios are furnished with sturdy easels and rolling metal taborets that allow you an individual workspace for the duration of the course. Adequate space is provided for canvas-stretching and surface preparation. The advanced room is equipped with an electric miter saw for hand construction of stretchers. All three areas maintain sinks and OSHA-approved disposal units for a safe and ecologically-sound painting environment. Still life materials are stored in shared units within the painting area. You and your fellow students will have 24-hour studio access to the studios.
Photography
You can advance your photography skills in both darkroom and digital facilities that support your creativity, exploration, education, and community. You will study both traditional and digital technologies to acquire a well-rounded understanding of the medium and actively explore ideas, materials, and techniques.
- Darkroom Facilities: You will work at one of 18 stations equipped with large format enlargers in our gang darkroom. There is also a separate film processing area with two film loading rooms. As you advance, you can utilize the large format film processing/non-silver space area. There is also a dry area for mounting and matting of prints. A lab monitor is always available during darkroom hours. Intermediate and advanced students have 24-hour access to the lab.
- Digital Facilities: You will have 24-hour access to a state-of-the-art Mac lab with 20 stations located a short distance from the darkroom. There is also a smaller Mac lab inside the darkroom area dedicated to digital input and output. Each station has its own scanner and archival inkjet printer. The lab is also equipped with a 24-inch archival inkjet printer.
- Equipment: You will be supplied with much of the equipment required for your classes. You will have access to a variety of equipment, including single lens reflex and 4 x 5 field and monorail film cameras as well as digital single lens reflex cameras, tripods, and lighting equipment.
Printmaking
The Wright State printmaking program offers you a full range of printmaking disciplines, which include intaglio, relief, lithography, silkscreen, monotype, and collograph. This diversity of equipment and facilities allows you to explore and blend traditional and contemporary print methodologies. You will have 24-hour access to the lab.
The printmaking department area consists of three adjoining studios: lithography, etching/collograph/relief, and silkscreen.
- The lithography studio has three presses, the largest being a Takach with a 34 x 60 press bed. We have an extensive selection of litho stones that range in size from 9 x 11 to 24 x 36. The facilities also support your study of photo and aluminum plate lithography.
- The etching studio offers equipment and supplies for intaglio, relief and collograph processes. You will have access to three etching presses and an adjoining acid room contains the acid baths. A tabletop exposure unit is located in the etching lab for photomechanical processes.
- The silkscreen studio consists of three large vacuum tables and multiple tables for printing and workspaces. If you are incorporating photographic processes in your work, the screen-printing area has a bordering photomechanical area that contains a large exposure unit along with a washout booth.
Fine Arts Building
Sculpture
You can walk from the Creative Arts Center to our sculpture studio building in just a few minutes. The sculpture facilities include a large general space, a dust-free installation space, and wood and metal shops. Their full range of fabrication machinery includes electrical welding and cutting tools, compressed air stations for pneumatic tools, a clay studio with two electric kilns, a slab roller, a clay mixer, an extruder, and a digital media section equipped with computers and projection tools. Outdoor areas adjacent to the studios are available for stone carving and displaying sculptures. A sculpture technician supervises during regular hours and you can enjoy 24/7 access to the studio.
Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures
The Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures is a state-of-the-art facility housing award-winning motion pictures programs. Students study all aspects of the industry, including directing, producing, camera work, art directing and scriptwriting as well as film theory, history, and criticism.
Photo and Video Galleries
Tom Hanks dedicates Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures at Wright State
Tom Hanks makes impact on performing art students
Performance and Exhibition Spaces
Wright State productions take place on campus in the Creative Arts Center, which brings together the fine arts disciplines in one place, including Theatre Arts, Music, and Art and Art History.
The Creative Arts Center contains three unique performance spaces for theatre productions, where students demonstrate their talents as actors, dancers, directors, musicians, designers, stage managers, and technicians.
Festival Playhouse
Large-scale theatrical performances and dance concerts are presented in the Festival Playhouse (also known as the Robert and Elaine Stein Auditorium), which offers excellent sight lines and acoustics in an intimate atmosphere. The Playhouse features a large main stage comparable to many Broadway and regional theatres, offstage wings and storage areas, and a hydraulically adjusted orchestra pit. The handicap-accessible auditorium seats 376 on the main floor and in the balcony.
Dorothy M. and Isabel Herbst Theatre
The Herbst Theatre is a large, flexible performing facility, seating from 70 to 100 audience members. This unique space, often called a "black box" theatre, can be configured to host a wide range of actor/audience configurations, including proscenium, three-quarter-thrust, and in-the-round seating. Productions in the Herbst Theatre often "complement" the season of shows in the Festival theatre with a wide range of theatrical presentations, from classics such as Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Chekhov (such as "Uncle Vanya" featured in the above photo), to modern musicals (such as "A Little Night Music" and "Spring Awakening"), to world premiere experiemental theatre pieces, and contemporary 'cutting edge' scripts, such as Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things" and Tony Kushner's "Angels in American: Parts I & II."
Directing Lab
The Directing Lab is a 92-seat proscenium theatre, available to any theatre arts major who wants to rehearse and present his or her own theatrical production. This modern, fully equipped theatre has hosted a variety of productions, from modern dramas to one-person shows, from musical revues to original scripts. This Directing Lab presents an unique opportunity that few theatre programs in America can offer: a totally student-run performance space which is usually a hive of theatrical activity every weekend of the school year with student directed, designed and acted productions.
Dance Studio
The multifunctional dance studio — featuring performance-level sprung flooring and dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows — is used daily for courses in ballet, modern and jazz. It can also be converted to a dance performance space with specialized lighting, audience seating and dressing rooms.
Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries
The Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries function as an educational resource for Wright State University and the greater Dayton metropolitan area. The galleries strive to fill educational and cultural opportunities in our region by exhibiting exceptional contemporary art in a variety of media. Through the use of public lectures, workshops, and catalogues, we communicate the concepts and methods behind the exhibited work. We underscore our outreach objectives by being free and open to the public five days a week and during events.
The galleries strive to provide our audience accessibility to the best available contemporary art, both nationally and regionally. As a university gallery, we are able to utilize diverse intellectual and physical resources to provide quality arts education and cultural experiences to Wright State, the Dayton area, and southwest Ohio.
At the heart of all our programming is openness to new ideas as well as being innovative, informative, and showcasing excellence. We believe there are always connections to be drawn between the arts and the world around us, and these relationships are often best identified and understood through contemporary art.
