Smith Hall of Art, dedicated in 1982, has five floors of office, classroom and studio space devoted entirely to art. There are classrooms with projection equipment as well as fully equipped studios, plus terraces for working outside. The art history and the design program share the ground floor. The second floor holds printmaking and photography. The third is divided between sculpture and ceramics. Painting and drawing are taught on the fourth and fifth floors, and three computer labs are located around the building. Smith Hall was designed with a range of safety features, and the studios are equipped for contemporary as well as traditional approaches to art-making. The main slide library has a collection of approximately 250,000 slides and is administered by a full-time slide curator.

Interior Design's home base is on the Mount Vernon Campus in the primary academic building. Studio resources include several classrooms with modern drafting tables, two computer labs with PCs and Macs and with letter to blueprint sized color printing capabilities, a Diazo lab, a weaving lab, and an extensive library of interior design sample materials (fabric swatches, lighting and furnishing catalogues, etc.).

University Art Galleries: The Dimock Gallery provides for hands-on experience in curating and presenting student and faculty creative endeavors. The Luther W. Brady Art Gallery features six to eight exhibitions each year and includes University-related shows and Permanent Collection exhibitions, as well as shows of historical and contemporary significance, often with a focus on the Washington area. The gallery also administers the University's Permanent Collection, which includes important paintings, sculptures, graphics, textiles, ceramics, historic furnishings, and photographs.

Washington Museums: The Department is located within minutes of an unusually wide range of museums and galleries -- the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution (comprising the African Art Museum, the American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, the Freer and Sackler Galleries, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden), the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection, the Dumbarton Oaks Collections and others. The rich holdings of these museums offer students the rare opportunity to experience works of art in ways that immeasurably enhance both the study and practice of art. Students in the Department have completed internships at many of these institutions, as well as in galleries around the Washington area.

Libraries: The University's Gelman Library holds more than 52,000 volumes on the subject of art. This research facility is complemented by numerous research resources in the Washington area, including the Library of Congress and the libraries of the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of American Art, and the Archives of American Art.

In addition to classroom instruction, internships may be arranged in selected Fine Arts areas. All undergraduate studio majors are encouraged to submit their works to internal and external exhibitions. Lectures and demonstrations by visiting artists are features of the program. Past visiting artists have included David Leach, John Leach, Larry Rivers, Bruno Lucchesi, Audrey Flack, and Helen Frankenthaler. Museum visits conducted by faculty members are also a frequent activity within the context of this program.

Every fall semester, the Department of Fine Arts and Art History sponsors a Graduate Student Symposium that features a special guest lecturer and four student speakers, whose papers have been chosen for their academic excellence. During the spring semester, the department is represented by one of its graduate students in the Middle Atlantic Symposium at the National Gallery of Art, a prestigious graduate student symposium that attracts participants from many major universities.

On- campus lectures are complemented, when possible, with museum/gallery assignments. The department has approved internships for graduate credit with numerous art institutions in the Washington, D.C. area, including the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Hirshhorn Museum and the Phillips Collection. Students also have the benefit of registering for courses at the other institutions belonging to the Washington Consortium of Universities.

Art History graduate students have organized their own association (AGHAST), which sponsors special lectures and social events and meets often for group activities and discussions.