Montgomery Hall
The Department of Art is located in Montgomery Hall, or, as it is affectionately known by students and faculty alike, “Monty.” In addition to classrooms and studios for art, the building is home to a teaching collection that includes plaster casts of classical art sculptures on indefinite loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Fine Art Collection
SMCM’s collection was started in the 1970’s, motivated by a desire to give students at St. Mary’s College the direct experience of fine art. Today, the College’s fine arts collection has swelled to over 2,000 paintings, prints, sculptures, textiles and photographs. Art and museum studies students benefit opportunities for hands-on study and curation of the art. The College community and our visitors are welcome to enjoy this rich array of art on display in the gallery and in the 47 buildings across campus.
The collection’s highlights include art works by Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, William Merritt Chase, Buckminster Fuller, Marc Chagall, Thomas Hart Benton, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Ad Reinhardt, and more. The collection also includes works by current and former SMCM faculty, current St. Mary’s College students, and alums.
Studio Classrooms
Drawing
In the heart of the Montgomery Hall studio art classrooms, the drawing classroom has skylights that provide excellent natural light and accommodates 18 students working at drawing benches with additional space for larger works on 6’ x 4’ movable walls. There is plenty of white wall critique space and still life object storage. Students can store their in-progress works in large racks in the room.
Printmaking and Book Arts
The new dedicated classroom has expanded space for student work in printmaking and book arts, and abundant natural light provided by large skylights and windows and opens to a large outdoor patio area with tables. The classroom has butcher block worktables, two etching presses, print drying rack, spray booth, board cutter, paper preparation area, four inking stations and flat files for storage of paper and in-progress work by students. The printmaking and book arts classroom is a non-toxic teaching and learning space. Print processes taught are relief, intaglio, collagraph, monotype and transfer techniques, plus a variety of bookbinding techniques.
Painting
Natural light fills this painting studio from skylights and a door opens to an adjacent outdoor patio. The classroom is outfitted with 18 painting easels and individual rolling taborets, ample wall white critique spaces and a large seminar table with digital projection. Students learn both oil and acrylic painting techniques that employ low-toxic approaches to the medium. Students can store their in-progress works in large racks in the room.
Photography
The photography studio features a spacious darkroom with 14 enlargers. It is also connected to a dry workspace classroom area equipped with LED lightboxes for students to prepare their analogue printing materials and negatives.
The Digital Classroom
The Montgomery Hall digital lab is equipped with 20 iMac computers loaded with the full Adobe Creative Suite, as well as several flatbed scanners and two medium-format inkjet printers. The lab is used as a classroom for courses in photography, digital art, and animation, and two ceiling-mounted projectors facilitate screenings, presentations, and technical demonstrations.
Animation and Digital Fabrication
The animation classroom provides space, controllable lighting, and dedicated software for stop-motion animation projects.
Senior Studios
Students completing an art capstone are provided with dedicated, shared studio spaces conveniently located in Montgomery Hall. Communal space includes a large seminar table, ceiling-mounted digital projector and screen, paper cutter, supply cabinet with hand tools and supplies. Students have access to their studios to work outside of class hours.
Interdisciplinary Classroom Experiences
Students have the opportunity to study the intersections of many disciplines; for example, science and art combine in The Artist Naturalist course, in which students create new scientific illustrations in collaboration with science faculty research. Art students could learn scene painting in theater studies classes; mural painting in the community arts class; or, as in the ART 369: Art for Educators class, collaborate with environmental studies students to build a tiny house in partnership with Leonardtown High School’s Forrest Career and Technology Center.
The Classroom Outdoors
Art classes often use the waterfront campus located on the St. Mary’s River and students enjoy working from the local landscape including the adjacent grounds of Historic St. Mary’s City.
Digital Resources
Digital Lab
In addition to its use as a classroom for photo and digital arts, the lab is available for students to use outside of class time to work on their projects. Students have access to an assortment of equipment available for checkout, including video cameras, DSLR’s and camera support systems; lights; audio recording equipment; and Wacom tablets.
DIL Lab
The Digital Imaging Lab (DIL) is used for media editing and large-format printing. It houses two 44-inch large format printers, as well as two flatbed scanners, and four iMac computers loaded with the full Adobe Creative Suite and cutting edge AI-powered software.
Exhibition Spaces
Boyden Gallery
In tandem with a rich and diverse program of exhibitions, the gallery also hosts student exhibitions, including the juried Annual All-Student Art Exhibition.
HallWalls
In the heart of the Art Department, HallWalls serves as a temporary exhibition space for student work from classes, departmental award shows and student-organized pop up exhibitions.
Lighting Studio
The lighting studio is equipped with a wide array of colored backdrops, rigs and professional studio lights for both still and moving image production. This flexible work space allows students to learn photography with professional studio equipment, understand lighting concepts and also to work actively without being restricted by weather conditions outdoors.
Media Center
The Media Center, located on the 3rd floor of the library, provides AV technical resources and assistance for student projects and assignments. The computer lounge has individual Mac stations, medium and large format flatbed scanners. Adjacent rooms include a digital editing lab, audio recording studio and a video conferencing room. Also available for all SMCM students is the Media Equipment Room which holds a wide variety of media equipment used for events or available for checkout.
