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On Friday, Sept. 5, the Blue Galleries in Boise State’s Center for the Visual Arts will open its fall 2025 exhibitions. One show will feature work from students, faculty and alumni produced as part of two Boise State Global Learning study abroad programs to Berlin and Venice over the summer of 2025.
Artistic experiences in Berlin
Professor Chad Erpelding, who teaches drawing and painting, led a group of students on a 10-day tour of Berlin in partnership with Associate Professor of German Beret Norman. During that time, the students met with working artists and visited galleries in neighborhoods throughout the city. The experience presented learning opportunities far beyond what’s possible for art students in Boise.
“Berlin is one of the most dynamic art cities in the world,” Erpelding said. “The amount of contemporary artists living there is staggering.”
Erpelding’s Berlin program was funded in part by a School of the Arts Student Success Grant.
Printmaking in Venice
A group of printmaking students under the direction of Professor Jill AnnieMargaret spent a month in Venice, as part of a one-month artist residency at Scuola Internazionale di Grafica. Scuola’s world-class printmaking faculty and artists gave process workshops on drypoint, monotype, letterpress, woodcut, etching and collage to students who produced several works of art on site.
“Venice was, historically, the center of the printing work back in the Renaissance,” AnnieMargaret said.
Students on the Venice trip got to experience some of that history, including viewing some newly restored wood blocks from 15th-century artist Jacopo de’ Barbari’s “View of Venice” woodcut
Both programs will be offered next summer as well. Interested students should email chaderpelding@boisestate.edu or JillAnniemargaret@boisestate.edu to learn more.
Exhibition in Boise
Opening with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 5 and running through Oct. 24, students who participated in the Berlin and Venice experiences will display the resulting artwork in the Blue Galleries in an exhibition entitled, “Broncos Abroad: Travel, Learn, Create-Berlin & Venice.”
“What surprised me was the work the students created when we got back,” Erpelding said. “And it’s from that exposure to world-class institutions and world-class artwork.”
Exhibition visitors will see a wide range of artistic techniques and styles, including paintings, videos and prints demonstrating a plethora of techniques and tools.
Work from local and national professional artists will also be on display in the Blue Galleries with the exhibitions “Placeless Space,” “Transliteration” and “I Dreamt I Was My Ancestor.”