Studio facilities, workshops and labs

Ceramics embraces a diverse approach to the medium of clay and encourages experimental expression. Our ceramics facilities include:

• A pottery wheel room
• Slip-casting and mould-making facilities including plaster lathe, jigger-jolly and drying cabinet
• Glaze and clay laboratories
• Electric, gas and raku kilns that can accommodate large-scale artworks.

Guided by experienced practitioners and using cutting-edge technology, you will learn throwing, hand building, mould making and casting, and master kiln and materials technology.

Technical Officer: Canbora Bayraktar

Within the newly designed Glass studios students work with various techniques and processes to create both small scale objects and larger scale sculptural, installation-based artworks.

As one of few schools with this studio, the SCA’s glass facilities house state-of-the-art equipment, including a newly designed Hot Glass Studio where artists can explore glass blowing and hot sculpting. We also offer a highly advanced kiln forming studio for glass fusing, slumping and flameworking, combined with a well-equipped cold glass studio featuring lathes, diamond saws, linishers, suhners, core drills, engraving stations, and flatbed grinders.

To complement these studios, specific projects can be realised in our a designated sandblasting room and mould making facility.

Technical Officer: Cobi Butcher

The Timber and Metal workshops at SCA are equipped with a wide selection of hand and electric tools, along with an extensive array of specialised equipment for a range of materials and processes.

The timber and wood facilities include task specific saws, drill press, a planner/thicknesser, a lathe, foam cutting table, oscillating and large disc sanders.

The metal workshop is equipped with welders for various metals with oxyacetylene and plasma cutters, in addition to a drill press, vertical and horizontal band saws, polishing and linishing machines and a sheet metal roller, box bender and guillotine.

Technical Officer: Timothy Osborne

In the jewellery and object space, you can work with an extensive variety of materials and processes for artwork of both a utilitarian and conceptual nature.

This space also offers fully equipped workshops with hydraulic presses, enamelling kilns, plastics and silversmithing facilities and 3D-visualisation equipment.

Technical Officer: Rhonda Dwyer

In printmedia workshops, you can produce a wide variety of work, from fine-art prints to comics, screen printed artworks to drawing, artist books to installations.

The workshops facilitate primary print processes including screen printing, etching and relief printing, through to digital prints, artists publications and installation.

Technical Officers: Joshua Boerma, Michael Brewster

Our painting facilities include specially designed studios for oil-based and acrylic-based painting. These spaces are also often used for drawing classes.

There are specialty stretcher preparation areas, painting racks to store large canvases, easels, data projectors and space to experiment with painting in an expanded field.

Technical Officers: Joshua Boerma, Michael Brewster

In photomedia, you can access photographic facilities that allow use of a variety of analogue photographic media from 35mm through to large format. This includes film-processing for both colour and black and white mediums, and cameras ranging from 35mm up to 8 x 10 inch large-format.

Black-and-white wet darkrooms and specialised mural enlarging and processing facilities are used for creating wet darkroom work on a large scale. We teach various alternative photographic practices which synthesise digital and analogue practices.

The photomedia area also offers digitally oriented facilities, including fully equipped photographic lighting studios with a selection of professional flash lighting and camera equipment. To complement, we have computer labs with a comprehensive offering of image editing and manipulation software and industry-standard scanning hardware.

Technical Officers: Isobel Markus Dunworth, Harry Klein

Our screen arts facilities include a production studio with professional grade lighting and green screen along with a mini-jib, dolly and tracks, and a fleet of 4K cameras for teaching.

Our sound studio has live and control rooms that are interconnected, a vast array of studio microphones, 16 channel mixing desk, midi keyboards, unique early synthesisers, and analogue audio equipment.

Traditional film-editing equipment includes 16mm Steenbeck editing tables supporting classes that explore hand-made scratch film processes. We also can print both 16mm and Super8 film.

The screen arts analogue lab supports animation techniques with a copy stand, light boxes, equipment to convert analogue media into digital, live video mixing and a flatbed film scanner.

Post-production of both digital-media and video projects can be carried out in our specialist Mac computer lab. We support our students with an extensive range of video and sound production equipment for use in-studio or on location.

Technical Officers: Virginia Hilyard, Harry Klein 

The Print Lab uses industry-leading wide-format printers to produce museum-grade archival pigment prints at competitive prices.

You can select from an array of prestigious fine art and photographic paper stocks to print your work. The Print Lab is open to the public and can support a variety of creative projects.

The Print Lab also provides:

• Vinyl cutting services for vector-based signage jobs
• Printing on a range of films to support analogue printing processes.

Technical Officer: Nicholas Boerma