RINGLING MUSEUM IN SARASOTA, SITE OF JACKIE EVANCHO’S
FIRST SOLO CONCERT, PROVIDES SPECIAL SEPTEMBER OFFER
Sarasota, FL —Aug. 31, 2011 — With SYCO/Columbia Records’ September release of Jackie Evancho’s
Dream with Me In Concert on DVD and live CD/DVD set, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla. -- the picturesque setting for Jackie’s Great Performances PBS special seen on the DVD -- is offering 2 for 1 admission this September. The museum is participating in “30 Days of Discovery,” a promotion being sponsored by the Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau. Jackie’s debut solo concert, recorded at the Ringling Museum in April, was co-produced by SYCO/Columbia Records and THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media partners. Hugely popular, it has been seen in 45 states and by more than 90 percent of all U.S. TV households. The DVD and live CD/DVD set will be released Sept. 13.
“The concert was a dream come true for me,” said Jackie Evancho. “The Ringling Museum is a big, beautiful place and I had such a great time there. My favorite part was the Peter Paul Rubens [art] gallery." The special’s co-host David Foster added, “The Ringling Museum is just magnificent. The venues, including the spectacular Museum of Art Courtyard, really added to the spectacle and excitement of that momentous day for Jackie, which marked her first solo concert.”
Visitors can trace Jackie’s footsteps at the Ringling Museum, which is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of John and Mable Ringling’s purchase of property in Sarasota that today is the Museum’s grounds. John, the circus king who built up the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus “The Greatest Show on Earth”, financier and art collector, and his wife Mable, laid down roots in Sarasota in 1911. One of the largest museum/university complexes in the nation, the Ringling Museum preserves the legacy and vision of John and Mable Ringling.
“Thanks to the PBS television special, the Ringling Museum has been invited into the living rooms of millions of Americans from coast-to-coast,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “With two for one admission in September, now is a great time to visit Sarasota/Manatee and come experience the galleries, grounds and gardens of the Ringling Museum where Jackie performed, as well as purchase the DVD or CD/DVD set of Jackie in concert at the Ringling Museum at the Museum Store.”
As Jackie did, visitors can gaze in awe at the towering tapestries in the Rubens gallery in the Museum of Art where she performed “Dark Waltz”. They can marvel at the Italianate Museum of Art Courtyard with its magnificent loggia, casts of original antiquities and renaissance sculptures, and towering 16-foot bronze cast replica of David by Michelangelo, where she sang “All I Ask of You,” “Angel,” and “Nessun Dorma”. They can see the enchanting Ca’ d’Zan mansion with its stunning Venetian-Gothic architecture, lavish décor and interior furnishings, where Jackie sang “Ombra Mai Fu.” They can step right up to the Circus Museum where Jackie and David Foster are seen on the DVD viewing the museum’s permanent collection, including historic circus wagons and Bruno Zacchini’s Super-Repeating Cannon, which propelled a “human cannonball” at speeds of 125 mph during the circus. They can stroll inside Mable Ringling’s Rose Garden, where Jackie is seen opening the PBS special seated at the central gazebo with its wrought iron dome, surrounded by roses of varying sizes, shapes and colors. There are more than 1,000 varieties to explore.
In addition to discovering the gardens, grounds and museums, September also marks the opening of The Amazing American Circus Poster exhibition. The exhibit tells the story of the immense impact the circus had on American culture through the lens of 80 bombastic circus posters made in America, and produced in Cincinnati by the Strobridge Lithographing Company. The exhibited works span the time of P.T. Barnum’s “The Greatest Show on Earth” to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. The exhibition runs from September 17, 2011 to January 29, 2012 in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing of the Museum of Art.
Asian art is also being showcased throughout September. The Art of Jade exhibition presents exquisitely chiseled objects from this hard stone fashioned chiefly during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The Crosscurrents of Design: Asian Export Ceramics exhibition features ceramics produced in Vietnam, Thailand, China and Japan for export during the fifteenth through twentieth centuries. These two exhibitions will continue through September and close in October.