Art Exhibition Hall - School of Art and Art History

Art and Exhibition Hall (AEH), is a renovated 5-story factory building immediately north of campus. In addition to classrooms, exhibition areas and laboratories this building also houses 24 individual graduate studios, shared studios spaces for our BFA Art degree program thesis year, and Gallery 400 (see the Gallery 400 stop on the tour for more information!)

We offer the following undergraduate degree programs:

BFA Art, BFA Art Education, BA Interdisciplinary Education in the Arts (IDEAS), and BA Art History.

At the School of Art and Art History at UIC, we are committed to educating the next generation of artists, visionary scholars, creative thinkers, and innovators. 

Our curriculum, public programs and engagement within communities support your growth as a fearless and ambitious artist and scholar, developing the critical tools you need to succeed in a global society.

Our School is the intellectual and creative home to some of the world’s most renowned artists and scholars. MacArthur geniuses, Guggenheim Fellows, Whitney Biennial artists and curators, and distinguished, internationally acclaimed art historians have all taught here. We cultivate a supportive creative communitywhere students can study art and art history intensively and forge lasting professional relationships with colleagues and teachers. We believe in the importance of interdisciplinary thinking and work, and blur the boundaries between critical thought and engagement.

The main portions of the photography department are located in the basement of the AEH building. The photography department comprises of a check-out office, Lab Specialist office, photography darkroom, large computer lab/print lab, secondary computer lab/print lab, mounting/matte station as well as a student lounge area. The department also has classrooms on the 3rd and 5th floor, a graduate digital print lab on the 5th floor, as well as a School-shared lighting studio on the 3rd floor.

All of Moving Image program facilities and some of the Photography facilities are located on the third floor of Art and Exhibition Hall. This space includes Moving Images space of two classrooms/computer labs, a lecture/screening room, a film editing lab, an edit and transfer suite, a darkroom, an audio post-production studio, an equipment checkout area, the Lab Specialist’s office, and a video edit suite reserved for use by graduate students. The Photography spaces on this floor are a dedicated photography classroom as well as the multi-use lighting studio used by the Moving Image and Photography programs. The remaining space on the third floor of AEH is comprised of seven individual studios for MFA students in the art programs and three faculty offices.

The fourth floor of AEH houses the majority of the Studio Arts program with the remaining portions of the Studio Art Program located on the 5th floor. The spaces on the fourth floor include the Woodshop, Lab Specialist office, Metal Shop, Plaster room, assemble space, material storage space, sculpture studio and painting studio. The remaining spaces on this floor are 7 MFA graduate studios.

The fifth floor of AEH is actually a combined floor of both the AEH building and the CUPPA Hall building. These spaces include Art Education classroom, New Media classroom, Lab Specialist office, fabrication room, student working lab, Drawing studio, BFA Thesis studios, Great Space, 5th Floor gallery space, and Graduate Print Lab. The remaining spaces include 4 graduate studios and 3 Faculty offices.