Introducing the new studio arts minor
Art strikes something in the human heart that words can’t convey. It’s the momentary pause in breath when you step into a cathedral adorned with mosaics and stained glass. It’s the long minutes that don’t feel so long as you look at a painting, seeing it anew with each tilt of light.
“Art is a distinctly human form of expression,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church says. It combines gifts given by the Lord and man’s efforts “to give form to the truth of reality” (CCC 2501).
And starting fall 2026, Franciscan University students can hone their creative talents through a new studio arts minor. The minor comes from an influx of interest, notes fine arts Professor Amber (Pitts ’17) Knorr. Last spring, she had more than 80 students enrolled in her iconography classes alone.
“Art helps give life meaning. We were made to create,” Knorr says. “We also have an innate need for beauty and to be able to express ourselves.”
The studio arts minor will include courses in drawing, painting, and Visual Arts and the Catholic Imagination. Students can then focus on one of three tracks: a fine art track, sacred art track, or graphic design track.
The minor can be completed alongside almost any major. Knorr, a sacred artist herself, says this flexibility is important. For example, those who desire a fine arts career could pair the minor with a business major to know how to market their work. Or those who just want to refine their skills can do so while pursuing science, theology, or other interests. Regardless, Knorr says the studio arts minor will strengthen their professional and personal development.
“God is the Creator, and we’re made in his image and likeness,” she says. “I’m hopeful for not just the technical growth of my students and that they can visually communicate their ideas, but also that they’re able to communicate with God through their art.”
Part of what made this minor possible is a new dedicated space in St. Junípero Serra Hall, which includes two studios, a classroom, and student work area. Another part is the talented group of instructors. Led by Fine Arts Department Chair Dr. Monica Anderson, that group includes Knorr, artist-in-residence Ann Schmalstieg Barrett, and professors Carl Fougerousse ’98 and Marisa Lilje, who both teach at Franciscan’s study abroad site in Austria.
“Every studio arts course at Franciscan has a waitlist. We have so many students eager to develop their artistic gifts,” Anderson says. “This minor provides a vehicle by which they can direct that desire into a formal program of study. It’s my hope we will attain the resources to grow our offerings in the visual arts, so we may accommodate every student who wishes to develop their Godgiven artistic talents.”
“My predecessor, Professor Linus Meldrum, laid a great deal of the groundwork for this minor,” Knorr adds. “He planted many of the seeds I’m now able to tend and harvest.”
When Knorr graduated almost a decade ago, she didn’t know she would return to her alma mater and sit on the other side of a professor’s desk, but she’s grateful the Lord brought her “full circle.”
“It’s an honor to be able to give back to the University that’s given so much to me and hopefully foster these young artists’ skills,” she says.
