Explore Horvitz Hall

Horvitz Hall is a strikingly handsome building from the outside, with its generous north-facing windows in front and its inviting patio in the rear. The genius of the place, though, is the inside. On the inside Horvitz Hall is exactly what it needs to be-not only attractive and comfortable, but above all utilitarian, spacious, superbly well-equipped, safe, and smart. In all of the visual media taught at Kenyon, this building gives students and professors the right spaces and the right tools.

Here's an overview of the facilities:

MAIN LEVEL (SECOND FLOOR)

Lobby/Gallery
Horvitz Hall welcomes visitors with a large, light-filled space that serves as gallery, lobby, and lounge. Students critique and exhibit projects in an ever-changing display of their artwork. They also relax, study, and socialize together informally and during department receptions. Ample wall and floor space accommodates exhibitions both formal and informal.

Digital Labs
Computer workstations fill two large classrooms dedicated to digital art, including still photography, video, and animation. Technology includes scanners, speakers, large screens, and state-of-the-art software. A server links the two labs. Like the printmaking, drawing, and painting studios on the upper level, these labs are lit by Horvitz's expansive north windows. But shades, including blackout shades, can be deployed to reduce glare and color distortion on computer screens.

Print Production Room
Located between the two digital labs, this room provides technology for quality fine-art printing. One of the printers here can handle paper widths of four feet. Other equipment includes scanning stations and a special white-balance light array allowing for the accurate assessment of color.

Audio Lab
In this room, built with acoustic walls, students create sound tracks for video and animation projects.

Faculty Offices
The faculty offices are located along a single hallway around the corner from the departmental office, making professors easily accessible to students, and to one another.

Departmental Office
The office for the studio art program includes a storage area for equipment that students can borrow.

Other Second-Floor Facilities
Seminar room
Multi-purpose classroom
Computer room for advanced work
Art technician's office

UPPER LEVEL (THIRD FLOOR)

Printmaking Studio
The studio supports techniques ranging from monotype, woodcut, and linoleum print to dry point, intaglio, and photo etching. A separate room for working with acid (used in etching) has state-of-the-art ventilation and other safety features.

Drawing Studios
The building has two drawing studios, one of which can be used for more advanced classes or for classes in other areas. Kenyon classes stress both formal and conceptual issues, with an intermediate course focusing on the human figure. The studios incorporate ample storage space as well as a spray booth and sinks.

Painting Studio
Students work with oil-based paints, acrylics, and other media. Courses at various levels address the traditional genres of still life, landscape, and portraiture, while also exploring nontraditional approaches and methods. A separate room has the equipment for preparing canvas stretchers.

Art Major Studios
Six studio rooms are set aside for senior art majors, with two to three students typically sharing a studio. These studios become creative, cluttered homes-away-from-home, because each major spends senior year preparing a coherent body of new work as part of the Senior Exercise. It's an intense, time-consuming, and very rewarding process, resulting in an exhibition that is always one of the highlights of the academic year.

LOWER LEVEL (FIRST FLOOR)

Sculpture Studios
The sculpture area has separate studios for metal and wood, along with a sculpture classroom and a work space for senior majors specializing in sculpture. Glass garage-style doors, with enough clearance for large artworks and materials, open onto a spacious patio, which can be used for social gatherings as well as the display of sculpture. Specialized safety equipment throughout the sculpture area collects dust and filters particles.

Photography Facilities
The photography wing reflects the fact that while Kenyon's art program has embraced digital virtuosity, "wet" photography continues to be a vital, multi-dimensional medium among contemporary artists-as well as a realm that today's students love to discover and explore. This part of the building includes a darkroom with fourteen enlarger stations, a smaller darkroom for advanced work, a photography classroom, and facilities for processing film, mixing chemicals, and hand-coating papers. In addition to teaching traditional gelatin silver printing, professors introduce students to alternative processes like the cyanotype and palladium printing.

Lighting Studio
This is a professional-quality lighting studio, with a wide variety of remote-controlled lighting rigs, backdrops for still photography, a "green screen" for video, and ample storage space for portable equipment.

Installation Studio
With movable wall panels and sophisticated lighting controls, this space provides the flexibility needed for the creation of installations-"sculptures you can enter," which may incorporate sound and video in addition to two- and three-dimensional forms. The room will also be used for instruction in stop-motion animation.

THROUGHOUT THE BUILDING

• Classrooms have built-in projectors.
• Studios and classrooms have state-of-the-art lighting installations, including control panels allowing for fine adjustments and effects.
• Expansive windows bring ideal north light into studios.
• Many wall sections are backed with plywood, so that students and professors can easily set up "critique walls," hanging artwork for discussion and evaluation.
• Safety features are also state-of-the-art, and range from specialized ventilation and filtering technology, to emergency power-shut-off buttons, to eyewash stations throughout the building, to rooftop "strobic fans" that disperse fumes.
• Flooring is polished concrete - the surface makes it easy to clean up spills and fits with the utilitarian aesthetic.