From BGSU Division of Art History
The Division of Art History and students enrolled in Dr. Allie Terry-Fritsch’s ARTH 4350/5350 seminar, “Critical Issues in Early Modern Art History,” will present an exhibition on “The Toledo (Ohio) Renaissance” in the
Lobby of the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery at the Bowling Green State University School of Art between May 8-August, 2019. A symposium on “The Toledo (Ohio) Renaissance” will be held on Wednesday, May 8 between 1:00-3:30 pm to mark the opening of the symposium.
While today the slogan “You Will Do Better in Toledo” is promoted ubiquitously on signs and t-shirts throughout the city, in 1913, it was emblazoned on an electrical sign, lit by 7000 ten-watt bulbs and erected on top of the Valentine Theater in downtown Toledo, to proclaim the early-
twentieth century city as a place of promise. Students in Dr. Allie Terry-Fritsch’s upper-level undergraduate/graduate seminar examined the ways in which early 20th-century Toledoans further shaped the city’s identity as a site of renewal through patronage of architecture and art inspired by the Renaissance.
As part of the requirements for the seminar, each student selected at least one Toledo monument and one Toledo personality or work of art from the Toledo Museum of Art to investigate over the course of the semester. Research responsibilities for each selected topic included gathering
primary and secondary sources at archives and libraries, organizing photographic documentation, writing an art-historical catalogue essay, collaborating on an exhibition. and presenting a summary of research at a small symposium.
A public symposium, “The Toledo (Ohio) Renaissance,” will be held from 1:00-3:30 p.m. in the School of Art on BGSU’s main campus in Room 1101. Research presentations will highlight the ways in which early 20 th -century Toledoans shaped the city’s identity as a site of renewal through patronage of architecture and art inspired by the Renaissance. Focused examination of select Toledo buildings reveals nuanced strategies of architectural appropriation that situated early 20th-century residents within a fantasy of the golden age, from the luxury department store that framed its wares with the insignia of the prestigious labor guilds of Renaissance Florence to the vaudeville theater that transported the Ca’ d’Oro from Venice to downtown Toledo.
The symposium will also feature a Keynote Lecture by the well-known Historic Preservationist, Dr. Ted Ligibel, an expert on the historic architecture of Toledo and the greater Northwest Ohio
and Michigan region.
A reception and the opening of the exhibition “The Toledo (Ohio) Renaissance,” in the Lobby of the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery in the School of Art, will conclude the symposium. The exhibition draws attention to the Renaissance precedents for Toledo’s urban cityscape and instigates reflection on the role that Renaissance culture played in establishing the city, and its citizens, as a sophisticated counterpart to the major metropolitan centers of the East Coast.
It also highlights the contributions of select Toledoans to the robust arts community of Toledo,
including the founders of the Toledo Museum of Art and patrons and artists of the early 20th century. Archival objects loaned from the Center for Archival Collections and the Toledo Museum of Art Reference Library will be on display.
A free digital exhibition catalogue accompanies the exhibition:
thetoledoohiorenaissance.wordpress.com.
Both the symposium and exhibition are free and open to the public.
