The Creative Research Laboratory (CRL) was a site for contemporary art and design, providing a year-round schedule of exhibitions and community programming by students and faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. The CRL closed in June 2010 in advance of the launch of the department's new exhibition and research space, the Visual Arts Center (VAC), opening in September 2010. The VAC inhabits the space in the Art Building previously occupied by the Blanton Museum of Art and features five gallery spaces in which a variety of exhibitions by leading contemporary artists, students, faculty, and alumni take place.