Learning Environments

The Department of Art’s Lower Art Gallery is dedicated to showing National, International, Local and Students works throughout the school year. Every year the gallery offers one opportunity to a graduate student to curate a distinctive show.

The Project Space is a gallery open to all students and faculty to explore, test out and showcase new and experimental works. Students are encouraged to sign out the gallery to organize shows of their own making. 

State-of-the-art studios and labs are available for our students. This includes a variety of audio, graphic design and emerging practices labs, painting, drawing and print media studios, digital and wet-process photography labs and photography/video and sculpture studios.

In addition to our well-equipped classrooms, labs and studio spaces, we offer art and design students three popular service centers, the Art Resource Center (ARC), Big Archival Prints (BAP) and the Laser Cutting Lab (LCL)

The Department of Media Study offers access to a range of tools and devices integral to the practice of media arts. As the field of media arts grows, Media Study’s services and tool-set has also expanded.  

Media Study provides access to over 50 computer stations across multiple labs with various OS platforms for video production, programming, web, and more.

Media study also has access to several screening rooms and production classroom/soundstage and a production studio. The Silverman Multimedia Collections and Services on the third floor of Capen Hall is another excellent resource for students. The Department of Media Study also features its own collection of more than 1,000 videos, films, and DVDs accessible to instructors for their classes.

Slee Hall, connected to Baird Hall as part of the North Campus Academic Spine, adjacent to the Center for the Arts, plays a crucial role in the creation and presentation of music at the University at Buffalo. In addition to being the home of the Computer Music Studios, Slee Hall contains the 670-seat Lippes Concert Hall, a beautiful venue with a variable acoustical structure, which serves as the home to a number of notable concert series.

The centerpiece of Lippes Concert Hall is the C.B. Fisk organ, one of the premiere teaching organs on the East Coast. It is one of the largest mechanical-action organs in Western New York and is one of a very few organs to combine a fully mechanical stop action with a state-of-the-art computerized electronic combination action. Unique in its design at the time, the organ has become very influential, with numerous subsequent organs being based on its design. It is, however, most remarkable for its timbral and registral diversity, equally at home in the repertories of the North-German Baroque, 19th Century France, or the early 20th Century.

The primary home of the Department of Music, Baird Hall is located in the Arts & Athletics Complex on the UB North Campus. Classrooms are well-equipped with recently-updated audio and visual technology, including several large-screen LCD screens often used in courses on film music and multimedia study. Shared practice rooms containing pianos are assigned to all Undergraduates majoring in Music. Additionally, Baird Hall houses the Percussion Studio, two organ practice rooms, and instrument storage facilities. As a part of the "Academic Spine," Baird Hall is connected to the remainder of the UB North Campus through a series of elevated walkways and tunnels, and is directly connected to Slee Hall (containing the Computer Music Studios, Lippes Concert Hall and additional rehearsal facilities and faculty offices).

Centered in the building is Baird Recital Hall, one of two primary venues for Department of Music sponsored events. The hall is capable of seating 150, and is equipped with a stage, footlights, klieg lights, 5.1 surround loudspeaker setup, a large projection screen and control room. A more intimate setting than Lippes Concert Hall, Baird Recital Hall typically serves as the venue for chamber music performances, guest lectures and multi/intermedia presentations.

This space is used for acting classes and as a rehearsal space for department productions. The room is configured like the Black Box Theatre, but more modestly equipped for lighting and sound. Many excellent student-initiated shows have been produced in this space.

Most of our dance classes and rehearsals for dance concerts happen in these studios. Each studio has a marley floor, an individual sound system, and 18-foot high mirrors on two sides.

This shop houses all the tools and equipment used for building a show. Everything is done here, from carpentry to painting to welding. We place particular emphasis on providing a safe environment in which to work, so the shop includes a separate welding booth and dust collection system.

With its natural light and windows overlooking Lake LaSalle, this large airy room provides an excellent environment for designing and sewing costumes.

This large well-appointed room is dedicated to props and other craft-related projects.

This suite includes a drafting studio, lighting lab and a ten-seat computer lab with design software, including Vectorworks, WYSIWIG, and Adobe Photoshop. A separate Project Studio for Sound Design is located adjacent to the Black Box theatre, and houses our ProTools recording suite.

Katharine Cornell Theatre is located in UB’s Ellicott Complex for both class and performance use. This unique “diamond-in-a-diamond” shaped space seats up to 340 and yet still manages to have an intimate feel. For about a decade, PBS’s Mark Russell political satire shows were broadcast from this theatre.