JPCatholic Announces BFA Degree Starting Fall 2023

John Paul the Great Catholic University is pleased to announce the addition of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The BFA in Visual Arts degree will be the new home for our existing emphases in Animation, Game Development, Graphic Design, and Illustration.

The Animation, Game Development, and Graphic Design emphases currently exist within the BS in Communications Media, while the Illustration emphasis exists within the BA in Humanities.

“The main idea for launching this new degree program is to consolidate these robust emphases under a more appropriate degree umbrella,” said Prof. Max Hulburt, Chair of Visual Arts. “Repositioning them in this new degree setting will foster their development, allow us to add more relevant visual arts courses, and accelerate their future growth.”

In this migration, much of the existing curriculum within these four emphases will remain intact, but the new structure provides the ability to offer a more relevant core set of classes specifically crafted for visual artists, and also enables a more intensive senior project experience and portfolio review process. It will also make it easier for students to pursue double emphases within these four programs.

“This BFA also creates a solid academic platform for the exploration of other art production areas in the future including concept art, painting, sculpting, production design, sequential art, and more,” said Hulburt.

The change will apply to students beginning at JPCatholic in Fall Quarter 2023 or later. However, students from the relevant emphases who enter JPCatholic between now and then will have the option to transfer to the BFA when it launches in 2023.

“Adding a BFA has been on JPCatholic’s academic roadmap for a number of years,” said President Derry Connolly. “I am thrilled with this compelling program that Prof. Hulburt has crafted. I expect it will be very well received by our future students and will be a tentpole program for the University. Praise God.”

View BFA Course Map