Facilities

We offer the latest resources, including live performance spaces, film production studios, sound and lighting facilities, and a large collection of periodicals, photographs and prints.

Drama and Theatre

Our wide range of facilities will help improve your practical skills and technical knowledge. We have five licensed performance studios which are used for teaching, performances, rehearsals and workshops.

The Jarman Building at Canterbury contains two large, fully rigged studios with semi-sprung floors with under-floor heating, the Lumley Studio is a large and flexible 'black box' space. We also have the 113-seat Aphra Theatre, the Forest Studio, and a 1000msq construction workshop including Design Suite.

In addition to the fully equipped studios, Drama students have access to a variety of audio and visual equipment designed to enhance practical work.

People look at an exhibit in Studio 3 Gallery — Art exhibition in Studio 3 Gallery

Workshop

Our workshops, covering 2000 square feet, are designed, and outfitted to cater to the diverse needs of scenic arts, design, and model making. You'll benefit from a comprehensive range of facilities and top-of-the-line equipment, tailored for working in theatre and film sets, props, and costumes.

With industry-standard machinery and specialized areas such as 3D printing, a dedicated paint room, and spaces for sculpting, set building and puppetry, students are provided with an immersive learning environment where they can explore their creativity.

Our workshops serves as a hub for aspiring professionals in the drama and film industry, offering them the ideal platform to develop essential skills essential for their transition into the professional creative world.

Students can get involved with projects beyond their studies in the workshop, when Kent was a stop on 'The Walk' puppets created in the workshop peformed with 'Little Amal'.

Film

Our professional facilities include a fully soundproofed film production studio with a complement of projection, chroma-key green and black serge cycloramas, a fully soundproofed digital sound dubbing suite, and editing facilities include eight Apple Mac Pro dedicated individual suites, and a digital studio accommodating ten Mac workstations, used as our primary instruction facility for post-production work.

Film students also have access to a wide array of industry standard camera, lighting and sound equipment.

Art History

We house wide-ranging library holdings and a large collection of works on photography and contemporary visual communications. We also have a substantial stock of periodicals, plus a slide library of more than 100,000 classified slides covering areas such as garden history and the film still as well as traditional media.

The Kent Print Collection showcases different styles of European art and printmaking techniques. It now includes several hundred museum quality works ranging from the sixteenth century to the present day, with many of these works now on display in the Jarman Building. The Jarman is also home to the Studio 3 Gallery which allows students to engage with a wide range of exhibitions and the opportunity to curate shows in a professional surrounding.

Media Studies

With 15 Apple Mac Pro’s situated in our modern ‘Media Hub’ in the Jarman building we can accommodate an exciting array of theoretical and practical modules. Our students are encouraged to have creative and intellectual agency in their learning which is further assisted not just by our great selection of cameras and audio equipment but by our carefully selected software packages such as; Adobe Premier Pro for editing video productions, Adobe Lightroom for crafting Photography and Logic Pro X for audio editing such as podcasts.

Music and Audio Technology

Our ongoing investment in state-of-the-art facilities include a spatial audio studio, a Foley studio, ensemble rehearsal spaces, practice rooms, an SSL studio and a flagship Neve recording studio located at the University's Medway campus.

Our studios are equipped with technology from leading manufacturers including AMS Neve, Solid State Logic, Avid and Universal Audio. The Music and Audio Arts Sound Theatre (MAAST) is a portable and flexible sound diffusion system designed for the performance of electroacoustic music and research in spatial sound.

The award-winning Colyer-Fergusson Music Building, located on the University's Canterbury campus, is a purpose-built, flexible performance space with adjustable acoustics and retractable seating. At full capacity the hall can accommodate up to 600 audience members and performers combined. There are also four practice rooms and a sound-proofed rehearsal room.

The Gulbenkian is adjacent to the Colyer-Fergusson Building and hosts an array of music events ranging from classical and jazz to pop, world and folk and is home to a 340-seat performance space.

There are also opportunities to perform in other venues, including the spectacular surroundings of Canterbury Cathedral and other historic and exciting spaces around the region.