Allie Terry-Fritsch
Dr. Allie Terry-Fritsch
Professor, Art History
Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)
Ph.D., University of Chicago, Italian Renaissance Art History, Minor fields in Medieval and Byzantine Art, 2005
M.A., University of Chicago, Italian Renaissance Art History, 1998
B.A., Duke University, Art History and Medieval & Renaissance Studies, 1996
Dr. Allie Terry-Fritsch is Professor of Art History at Bowling Green State University. An expert on the art and culture of fifteenth-century Florence, her research investigates the performative experience and political implications of Renaissance visual encounters. Dr. Terry-Fritsch has published more than 23 articles and book chapters on subjects ranging from Cosimo de’ Medici’s strategies of art patronage to examinations of the works by Renaissance masters Fra Angelico, Donatello, Benozzo Gozzoli, and others. She is editor of and scholarly contributor to Beholding Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Ashgate, 2012; Routledge; 2016), and author of Somaesthetic Experience and the Viewer in Medicean Florence: Renaissance Art and Political Persuasion, 1459-1580 (Amsterdam University Press, 2020). Her next book, entitled Angelico and the Library of San Marco: Sacred Art and Secular Viewers in Cosimo de' Medici's Florence, is currently being prepared for submission. In addition to academic research publications, Dr. Terry-Fritsch has participated in the research development and staging of several prestigious art exhibitions across the United States, including exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and, most recently, Terry-Fritsch curated a section of the international blockbuster exhibition on Fra Angelico at Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo di San Marco in Florence, Italy, which has been received with critical acclaim.
Dr. Terry-Fritsch is a critical voice in Italian Renaissance Art History. She is known internationally for her innovative approach to the politics of art patronage and thinking through the bodies of historical viewers of Renaissance works of art. A leading scholar on the field of somaesthetics, Terry-Fritsch's 2020 book on Somaesthetics and the Renaissance Viewer in Medicean Florence provided a groundbreaking examination of the strategies by which artists cultivated their viewers' bodies and minds to enhance aesthetic experience. Dr. Terry-Fritsch's latest collaboration with Carl Brandon Strehlke on the Fra Angelico exhibition in Florence has been described as the most important exhibition on the artist in over seventy years and the definitive research catalogue that will shape Renaissance studies for generations to come. The exhibition brings together more than 140 works of art from 70 institutions across the world and highlights the most important research on the artist that has been produced in the last two decades. Dr. Terry-Fritsch was responsible for curating a selection of the original manuscripts that once formed the collection of the public library of San Marco, the focus of her highly anticipated book on Fra Angelico, which has been supported by awards from the J. William Fulbright Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, University of Chicago, Universität Salzburg, and BGSU, among others. Terry-Fritsch worked closely with the Chief Curator, Carl Strehlke, for close to four years on the project, which entailed extensive archival research in Florence and close collaboration and negotiation with the Strozzi Foundation, who sponsored the exhibition, and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, who are the lenders of the rare manuscripts. Read more about the project in the October 2025 BGNews.
Dr. Terry-Fritsch has been invited to speak at over 25 international venues and has delivered over 40 lectures in the U.S. She was selected to present six times at the College Art Association conference. In addition to winning an impressive repertoire of nationally competitive research awards and fellowships, Terry-Fritsch has been invited to collaborate in long-term research groups at the prestigious art-historical institutions, the British Academy and Warburg Institute in London. The wide range of scholarship produced by Dr. Terry-Fritsch has led to the use of her work in multiple disciplines beyond just art history, including law, history, philosophy, Italian studies, and dramaturgy. Her work on art and violence in the Renaissance, as well as her scholarship on somaesthetics, has had broad citational impact, although the influence extends beyond publications and into art history classrooms in the U.S. and Europe where Terry-Fritsch's methodology has been introduced to graduate students through her publications and invited talks and workshops.
Dr. Terry-Fritsch engages in ambitious and constant scholarly activities on both national and international platforms. She has been invited to present her research in Paris (Musée du Louvre), Florence (Museo Nazionale del Bargello), Rome (American Academy), Venice (Ca’ Foscari Universita’), Istanbul (Bogazici University), Edinburgh (Univerity of Edinburgh), Glasgow (University of Glasgow), and has served as the Keynote Speaker at the international Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference and Attending to Women congress, as well as conferences held at Oklahoma State University, University of Toledo and a featured scholar in lecture series at Villanova University, Idaho State, SUNY Oneonta, Hartwick College, Oakland University, Northern Illinois, and upcoming events at Miami University and University of Minnesota. She has been a participating member of the professional organizations of the College Art Association, Renaissance Society of America, Sixteenth Century Studies, and the Italian Art Society for two decades. She recently was inducted into the International Committee on Museums (ICOM).
Dr. Terry-Fritsch's Courses at BGSU
Dr. Terry-Fritsch is a dedicated educator who provides high-impact experiences for graduate students in Art History and the Studio arts at BGSU. Although the Art History program is a small graduate unit, three of her M.A. in Art History students have received the "Distinguished Thesis Award," the highest possible honor from the BGSU Graduate College, for the high quality and innovation of the scholarship. Terry-Fritsch has worked with graduate students on successful grant and fellowship applications, including recent awards of the highly competitive James Marrow Research Travel Award from the Fitzwilliam Museum (University of Cambridge) and the TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France) Prize in Versailles, France, 2025-2026.In addition, Dr. Terry-Fritsch has worked diligently with the undergraduate art history student population to elevate their professional skills and work with them to be competitive for graduate school and the job market. Recent BGSU graduates have matriculated in graduate programs at the prestigious Florence Program in Italian Renaissance Art, Temple University, and Art Institute of Chicago, and have obtained positions at the Columbus Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others.
Dr. Terry-Fritsch teaches a range of courses across the undergraduate and graduate curriculum at BGSU.
Undergraduate courses include the broad survey that introduces the history of art at the 1000-level, the “Methods & Theory” seminar offered at the 2000-level, the geographically- and chronologically-defined surveys at the 3000-level (including “Medieval Art”, “Italian Renaissance Art”, “Northern Renaissance Art”, and “Baroque Art”), and thematic “Critical Issues in Early Modern Art” seminars at the 4000/5000-level.
Graduate courses include the thematic “Critical Issues in Early Modern Art” seminars at the 5000-level and the theoretically-conceived advanced “Seminar in Art History” at the 6000-level. Dr. Terry-Fritsch’s seminars offered at the advanced undergraduate level and graduate level engage with contemporary scholarship and provide a platform for students to gain mastery of critical theory and current methodological strategies.
Regardless of course level, Dr. Terry-Fritsch’s expertise in the cultural history of medieval and Renaissance Europe and deep interest in art historiography and the critical traditions of art history provide students with the tools to meaningfully engage in the critical analysis of visual culture. Students explore the technical process by which art was created at different historical moments—and often are assigned to investigate a work of art within the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art through first-hand analysis or test out historical artistic techniques in class—while at the same time, consider the larger socio-economic conditions of the making and reception of art.
Students interested in applying the BGSU’s MA Program in Art History to study one of the areas of Dr. Terry-Fritsch’s research expertise should contact her at alterry@bgsu.edu
Dr. Terry-Fritsch's Courses in Florence, Italy
Dr. Terry-Fritsch connects her research to her teaching practice through the high-impact experiential learning seminar, known as the Mary T. Wolfe Primavera Art History Seminar in Florence. Offered every other summer at our Italian partner school, ISI-Florence, the seminar is organized around a critical issue in art history that offers students the opportunity for firsthand research in the museums and research institutions of Florence and is sponsored by the Wolfe Family Charitable Foundation, who offers substantial scholarships to art history students to defray the cost of study abroad.
Dr. Terry-Fritsch organized the seminar of the first Mary T. Wolfe Primavera Art History Seminar in Florence on the theme of "Angelico and the Florentine Renaissance," which provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the staging of the Fra Angelico exhibition. Drawing on her extensive professional contacts in Florence, Dr. Terry-Fritsch was able to work with the Director of the Museo di San Marco, Marco Mozzo, to provide six weeks of after-hours access to San Marco, organize several sessions with Chief Curator Carl Brandon Strehlke, an exclusive chance to examine the newly restored Angelico fresco in Fiesole, a visit to the conservation studio of Daniele Rossi, who was responsible for one of the most important restorations of the exhibition, the San Domenico in Fiesole altarpiece, and many other fantastic onsite lessons in museums and convents throughout the city.
Learn more about the seminar here:
June 2025 Exhibition Reception [video]
The next Mary T. Wolfe Primavera Art History Seminar in Florence will be offered in Summer 2027 on the theme, "Partying in the Renaissance," the subject of Dr. Terry-Fritsch's next research monograph. A competition for the Mary T. Wolfe ARISE Scholarship will be held in Fall 2026 to determine the student cohort. More information will be distributed to students in the School of Art via email and on the School of Art website.
Professional Practices in Art History with Dr. Terry-Fritsch
Dr. Terry-Fritsch rotates teaching the Professional Practices seminar in Art History with the other faculty of BGSU's Division of Art History. In Fall 2025, Dr. Terry-Fritsch designed the seminar to focus on teaching students the ins and outs of staging their own exhibition on BGSU's main campus in the University Galleries. The theme of the exhibition was "Italy in the Artist's Imagination," and featured nearly 90 works from the BGSU University Galleries collection and contemporary works by BGSU artists. Dr. Terry-Fritsch drew on her past work experiences in museums and galleries in the US and Italy to guide the students in the curation of their exhibit.
Read about the class and exhibition here:
BG Independent News, Dec. 2, 2025
The Scribe, December 2025, p.10-11
American Frame (exhibition partner)
Dr. Terry-Fritsch's 2018 Professional Practices seminar focused on providing instruction in firsthand archival research and was focused on the Neo-Renaissance architectural revival in Downtown Toledo. Students completed original research on buildings and works of art in the Toledo area and organized a symposium and an online exhibition catalogue.
Read more about Dr. Terry-Fritsch's seminar here:
David DuPont, “Arts Beat: BGSU art history students look at the once & future Toledo Renaissance,” BG
Independent News, May 27, 2019
BGSU Zoom News, “Art History exhibition explores Toledo Renaissance,” May 2019.
BG Independent News, "Art history seminar presents symposium & exhibit on Toledo Renaissance,"
May 2019. http://bgindependentmedia.org/art-history-seminar-presents-symposium-exhibit-on-toledo-renaissance/
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Faculty member at BGSU since 2005.
Updated: 01/08/2026 11:06AM