Convocation 2023 - Message from the Deans

The convocation ceremonies for the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications are always momentous events, as we combine the “pomp and circumstance” of graduation rites with the artistry, the virtuosity, and the compelling stories of our remarkable graduates. Viewers and participants in the 2023 CFAC Convocation will also be a part of history as we celebrate our graduates, for the first time, in the new BYU Music Building.

We are so proud of the Class of 2023. The burdens students bear in our demanding programs are heavy under the best of circumstances. But you CFAC graduates of 2023 overcame unique challenges that neither you nor your faculty mentors could have anticipated four years ago. During the Covid-19 pandemic many of you gave concerts for empty halls, but learned how to cultivate online audiences around the world. Aspiring theatrical artists treated social distancing as a feature, not a bug, and the challenge led to ingenious technological and artistic solutions. Artists, designers, and communicators, you embraced the challenges of the Covid pandemic by asking with greater urgency the same question storytellers always ask themselves: how do I take what’s in my mind and my heart, and find a way to send that over a distance--from a stage, a page, a gallery wall, or a screen--to the heart and the mind of the person who needs it?

We’d barely recovered from the disruption of Covid when we undertook another daunting adventure: many of you moved into temporary facilities at West Campus, while others made the sometimes tumultuous trek mid-year to the new music building. Graduates of 2023, you will go forward into your lives as artists, scholars, citizens, and saints with a type of grit, creativity, resiliency, and passion that only emerges when it’s hard-fought. We invite you and your loved ones to join us, in-person or virtually, to celebrate your amazing accomplishment!

Best,

The Dean’s Office
The College of Fine Arts and Communications