Bowling Green State University's Fine Arts Gallery presented "Italy In The Artist’s Imagination," a student-curated exhibition running from November 21 to December 10, 2025, at the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery. The show featured nearly a hundred works from the university's permanent collection alongside student submissions, spanning Renaissance masters like Albrecht Dürer to contemporary artists, all exploring how Italy has inspired artistic creativity over centuries. Curated by students enrolled in Dr. Allie Terry-Fritsch's Professional Practices in Art History course, the exhibition highlighted pieces such as Dürer's woodcut "Christ Taking Leave of His Mother" (1511), Jessica Faber's screen print "Prospecttiva" (2024), and Jules Maidoff's "Lo Studio."
The exhibition matters because it demonstrates the transformative impact of study abroad programs—specifically BGSU's half-century-long connection to Florence, Italy—on student artists and scholars. By combining original archival research with art-historical scholarship, the student curators brought rarely seen works to public view and set a new standard for student-curated shows. The show also celebrated the legacy of Studio Arts Center International (SACI), a former BGSU partner, and underscored how cross-cultural artistic exchange continues to shape both historical and contemporary art practice.