quality:correction, linguistic:translation, structural:summarization
Bowling Green State University

The Gish Film Theatre and Gallery of Bowling Green State University 's Department of Theatre and Film was named for Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Gish was in attendance at the dedication on June 11, 1976; she accepted the honor for herself and her sister, who had died several years earlier. The university awarded Gish the honorary degree of doctor of performing arts the next day. In 1982, the University accepted a collection of Gish films and photographs that had previously been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art. It solicited donations from Gish friends and associates to renovate the Gish Theatre and create an endowment in the 1990s. Following Gish's 1993 death, the university raised funds to enlarge its gallery to display memorabilia received from Gish's estate.

In February 2019, the university's Black Student Union called for the renaming of the Gish Theatre due to Gish's involvement with the controversial The Birth of a Nation. In April 2019, a task force recommended removing the Gish name; the trustees unanimously voted to remove the name on May 3, 2019.

Mike Kaplan, co-producer of The Whales of August (1987), Lillian Gish's final film, circulated a petition urging Bowling Green State University to restore the names of actresses Dorothy and Lillian Gish to the film theater. The protest was signed by over 50 film-industry figures, including actors Helen Mirren and James Earl Jones and directors Bertrand Tavernier and Martin Scorsese.