Today I got to visit the printmaking facilities at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and learn a little bit about what an art program is like at a large public university. UT Knoxville has one of the top ranked graduate print programs in the country and top notch studios and facilities. The studio is set up in an open layout where spaces for litho, intaglio, relief, and silkscreen are all combined into one large room. Each print medium has its own section within the space. Letterpress is the only studio located outside of the main printmaking area on the floor above. There is also a separate, private grad and faculty studio on the other side where a massive 5 foot by 10 foot French Tool Press is set up and ready to print. I would love to print some of my 4x8 foot blocks on that press. It's a super crazy piece of equipment, but so awesome. The department is run by Beauvais Lyons, with Althea Murphy-Price and Koichi Yamamoto as associate professors, all of whom I was able to meet and talk with today which was great and very informative. I'm excited about what the program has to offer and will definitely be considering and thinking about UT Knoxville in the future.
http://art.utk.edu/printmaking
http://art.utk.edu/printmaking