Sarasota, Fla. – Dec. 12, 2012 ­– The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and Feld Entertainment are proud to announce the installation of one of the largest circus murals ever painted, William Woodward’s The Greatest Show on Earth. Originally commissioned by Feld Entertainment Chairman and CEO Kenneth Feld in 1989, the massive circus mural adorned the main lobby of the company’s headquarters for more than two decades. The mural is being donated to the Ringling Museum by Feld Entertainment and the Feld Family.  Once complete, the installation of The Greatest Show on Earth will mark the first time the mural will be readily accessible by the public.

Measuring 22 by 42 feet, the Mural, The Greatest Show on Earth, captures many of the Circus’s greatest personalities from the Feld stewardship of Ringling Bros., ranging from aerialists and clowns to high-wire artists.  The Ringling Museum will unveil the Mural to the public Saturday, January 19, 2013. A special ceremony earlier that week will reunite for the first time many of the iconic performers immortalized in the work. 

“The Feld Family’s gift of this spectacular mural by William Woodward is a significant addition to our collections on the modern circus,” said Steven High, Executive Director, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.  “Seeing the Mural, The Greatest Show on Earth, will be the first experience our visitors have as they enter the Circus Museum’s Tibbals Learning Center.  It will be a stirring prelude to the rich story we tell of the history of the American circus and its cultural impact on society.”
 
“The Greatest Show on Earth impressed and inspired visitors to our company’s headquarters for more than 20 years.  Since Feld Entertainment is moving our global operations to a new site in Ellenton, Florida, not far from the Ringling Museum, we thought it fitting that the legacy of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey^® shown in the mural belonged in the Ringling Museum,” said Kenneth Feld.  “The Feld Family is thrilled that public audiences will now be able to enjoy this work, which truly captures the magic, drama, and excitement that can only be found at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.”

To conceptualize the grandiose subject of the Mural, Woodward traveled across the country with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus during 1989 to 1990.  While on tour, Woodward spent much of his time behind the scenes, closely studying the performers, animals, wardrobes, and props of the many acts and created more than 100 preliminary drawings.   His extensive research culminated in the Mural evokes the unique excitement of the show. Among the notable figures include:

• Gunther Gebel-Williams (1934-2001): known as the “Lord of the Rings” and the “Greatest Animal Trainer of All Time,” Gebel-Williams worked with tigers, elephants, horses, leopards and many other animals while performing with Ringling Bros. from 1969 through 1990.
  
• Lou Jacobs (1903–1992): one of the world’s most famous clowns, Jacobs performed for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey for more than 60 years.  He was the first living person ever featured on a U.S. postage stamp and his face remains an iconic symbol of the American clown.
  
• Dolly Jacobs: Lou Jacobs’ daughter, Dolly, known as the “Queen of the Roman Rings”, performed as an aerialist with Ringling Bros. during 1977 to 1986.
  
• Flying Vazquez: The Vasquez family performed with Ringling Bros. during the 1980s and Miguel was the world’s first flying trapeze artist to complete a quadruple somersault. 
  
• Fudi (Gyorgy Zsilak): The world-renowned master juggler, Fudi won the International Juggler’s Association All Around Championship in 1969 and performed with Ringling Bros. during the late 1960s.

• King Tusk & Living Unicorn: King Tusk was the largest land mammal to ever travel with Ringling Bros.  His pair of truly titanic tusks measured over six and a half feet in length. The “Living Unicorn” was one of “the most talked about spectacles” in Ringling Bros. history, touring with the circus in 1985-86.

The Mural, The Greatest Show on Earth, took Woodward and his two assistants two years to complete.  The Mural began as a gridded drawing, which was then divided into four panels, enlarged by 400%, and transferred onto canvas.   Then Woodward and his assistants were able to begin the meticulous and physically demanding process of applying multiple layers of paint and glaze across the work’s 968-square-foot surface. 

As part of the gift of the Mural, the Feld Family and Feld Entertainment, Inc. also donated the services of Page Conservation to transfer the mural to Sarasota and install the work in the Ringling Museum.  The de-installation of the Mural from Feld Entertainment, Inc.’s headquarters lasted more than 360 hours.  The installation at the Ringling Museum began in October, as a team of painters and conservators­ – including Woodward himself – work to apply the painting to the wall of the Tibbals Learning Center.

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About William Woodward
William Woodward is Professor Emeritus of Fine Art at The George Washington University where he taught and directed the painting program for graduate students.  Woodward grew up in Washington D.C., and earned his B.A. and M.A. from American University. He studied at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, and at the Accademia di Belli Arti in Florence, Italy on a Fellowship from The Leopold Shepp Foundation.

Predominately working as a muralist, Woodward has several decades of experience in creating narrative art.  In addition to The Greatest Show on Earth, Woodward’s most notable works are The Great Odyssey of Medicine at the Conference Center of Fairfax Inova Hospital, and A Loudoun County Story at the Thomas Balch Library Mural in Leesburg, Virginia.  His most recent commissions include the mural, Thomas Jefferson at Monticello at the new visitors’ center at Jefferson’s home, and a mural at the Lincoln National Monument in Washington, D.C.

About Feld Entertainment

Feld Entertainment is the worldwide leader in producing and presenting live touring family entertainment experiences that lift the human spirit and create indelible memories, with 30 million people in attendance at its shows each year. Feld Entertainment's productions have appeared in 74 countries on six continents and include Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey^®, Monster Jam, Supercross, Nuclear Cowboyz, Arenacross, Disney On Ice and Disney Live! 

Paolo Veronese Exhibition Opens Dec. 7 in Sarasota, Florida

Sarasota, Fla. – Oct. 8, 2012 – This December, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art will present a major exhibition of the work of Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), a master of Venetian Renaissance painting. The first comprehensive exhibition of Veronese’s work in North America in over two decades, Paolo Veronese: A Master and His Workshop in Renaissance Venice brings together more than 50 of the artist’s finest paintings and drawings from North American museums and private collections. Presenting imposing altarpieces and smaller religious paintings for private devotion or collectors, striking portraits, depictions of sensual narratives drawn from the classical tradition, and majestic allegories glorifying the Venetian state, the exhibition will introduce the range of Veronese’s art, in which the opulence and splendor of Renaissance Venice comes to life. Veronese was also a highly accomplished draughtsman, and this exhibition will provide audiences a rare glimpse into his work on paper, from gestural sketches to highly-finished chiaroscuro sheets. The Ringling will be the sole venue for Paolo Veronese, which will be on view from December 7, 2012 through April 14, 2013 in the Museum’s Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing.

         One of the exhibition’s highlights will be the Ringling’s own work, Rest on the Flight into Egypt (ca. 1572), one of only two complete Veronese altarpieces in North America and the first Old Master painting acquired in 1925 by the Museum’s founder, John Ringling.  The exhibition will also feature two other works from the Ringling’s collection:  Portrait of Francesco Franceschini (1551), the artist’s first known surviving, full-standing portrait, painted when Veronese was just 23 years old, and a painting John Ringling bought as a Veronese, A Family Group (ca. 1565), now understood to be the work of his talented pupil Giovanni Antonio Fasolo.

        “One of the most impressive paintings by Veronese in America is the Ringling’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt, which happens to be the first Old Master painting acquired by John Ringling for this museum,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “In recent years, the Ringling Museum has made a concerted effort to organize important exhibitions based on prominent works in our European collection, and Paolo Veronese is the latest in this series. This exhibition hopes to introduce new audiences to the broad spectrum of Veronese as a painter and draughtsman, while making a major contribution to the study of the artist.”

       Conceived and organized by Dr. Virginia Brilliant, the Ringling Museum’s Curator of European Art, in cooperation with Frederick Ilchman, Curator of Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the exhibition highlights Veronese’s artistic process and his rich and varied artistic production. Veronese often depicted the same subjects time and again throughout his career, and the exhibition will examine the artist’s evolving perspectives on the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, the Baptism of Christ, and the Death of Christ through the side-by-side comparison of works in a variety of formats, sizes, and media. For example, the Ringling’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt will be placed in conversation with the National Gallery of Canada’s painting and the Harvard Art Museums’ highly finished drawing of the same subject, as well as the Cleveland Museum of Art’s preliminary sheet of sketches in which the artist’s ideas for all of the finished works originated.

      “Veronese is  broadly represented in American collections, in contrast with contemporary Venetian painters like Tintoretto and Titian, and thus the exhibition ably surveys his career and oeuvre,” said Virginia Brilliant, the exhibition’s lead curator. “Yet Veronese is often dismissed as a merely decorative painter, more elegant and ‘happier’ than Titian or Tintoretto. This exhibition hopes to shift this perception, and to shed light on Veronese as a masterful, deeply empathetic storyteller and narrative painter whose works were often invested with rich layers of meaning.”

       Paolo Veronese will feature prominent works drawn from private collections as well as museums such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Harvard Art Museums, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Canada, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, among others. As Veronese was known for his rich representations of Renaissance Venice’s luxurious fashions and fabrics, the exhibition will include rare 16^th-century textiles from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, such as a red damask made of silk and gilt metal thread brocade and a reticella lace towel, which will be displayed alongside paintings portraying similar fabrics. 

      This exhibition will also mark the first reunion in the U.S. of four works that were once part of the same decorative ensemble—Allegory of Painting (1560s) from the Detroit Institute of Arts, and three panels from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Jupiter and a Nude (1560s), Actaeon and Diana with Nymphs (1560s), and Atalanta and Meleager (1560s)—oil on canvas paintings that are believed to have been installed together as a frieze along the walls of a palace or country villa. Curators will also be testing a new hypothesis that two paintings depicting scenes drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Diana and Actaeon (ca. 1560–65) from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Apollo and Daphne (ca. 1560–65) from the San Diego Museum of Art, may have been from the same decorative ensemble. The paintings, which share a similar provenance, dimensions, and scale of figures, will be displayed side-by-side so viewers can compare their use of light, landscape, and color.  The exhibition will also feature Thomas Struth’s Galleria dell'Accademia 1, Venice 1992 (1992) from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inviting visitors to reflect on Veronese’s impact on contemporary audiences.

    An illustrated catalogue published by Scala Publishers Ltd., accompanies the show, featuring scholarly yet accessible perspectives on the artist from more than ten contributors, including Dr. Virginia Brilliant, Curator of European Art at the Ringling, Frederick Ilchman, Curator of Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and David Rosand, Meyer Shapiro Professor of Art History Emeritus at Columbia University, among others. The catalogue will be available in the Ringling Museum’s store and from retailers online.  Several programs are planned in conjunction with the exhibition, including a lecture by Venetian Renaissance scholar Peter Humfrey, Professor of Art History at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland on Saturday, December 8, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. A scholarly symposium devoted to the artist is also planned for March 8-9, 2013. 

     Recent exhibitions of European art at the Ringling have included: The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance (2008); Venice in the Age of Canaletto (2009 –10), Gothic Art in the Gilded Age: Medieval and Renaissance Treasures in the Gavet-Vanderbilt-Ringling Collection (2009–10), and Peter Paul Rubens: Impressions of a Master (2012).

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Sarasota, Fla., Jan. 8, 2013 – New Stages: Narrative in Motion heralds the welcome return of storytelling in the new theatrical and choreographic forms for the 21st century. It is a four-part series of contemporary performance at the Ringling Museum’s Historic Asolo Theater that runs January through March 2013. A continuum of the Art of Our Time initiative at the Ringling Museum it is curated by Dwight Currie, associate director of programming. It features works by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Bill Bowers, Circle of Eleven, and the Kate Weare Company. Tickets are $15, $20, $25. Call 941.360-7399 or visit www.ringling.org

“The presentation of contemporary art at the Ringling dates back to its first executive director, A. Everett Chick Austin, Jr., who helped transformed the arts in America in the twentieth century and the Museum with the addition of the Historic Asolo Theater and Circus Museum in the late 1940s,” noted Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “Chick advocated that, ‘the function of a museum is more than merely showing pictures….it is the place to integrate the arts and bring them alive.’ With the ‘Art of Our Time,’ we hope to enrich our community through the exploration of rich ideas and art forms at play today and in the future.”

Currie added, “By embracing the power of language, gesture, character, and emotion, artists are moving beyond the inscrutable abstractions of the experimental to once again explore the narratives of human relations.” He said, “The authentic embodiment of those narratives in motion – when combined with poetry, media, and a renewed sense of musicality – emerges into new forms that explore and exemplify the rich diversity of ideas at play in the world today.”

THE PERFORMANCES

 Word Becomes Flesh, January 24-26, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Named in the 2012 Class of Doris Duke Artists as one of America’s most vital and productive performing artists, Marc Bamuthi Joseph derives his performance narratives out of interdisciplinary collaboration that incorporates spoken word poetry, contemporary movement, and live music to birth a new theatrical form based on hip hop aesthetics.  Presented as a series of performed letters to an unborn son, Word Becomes Flesh documents nine months of pregnancy from a young single father’s perspective. It is a powerful and passionate plea for social responsibility and understanding that critically, lyrically, and choreographically examines the experience of fatherhood in America’s black community.

Beyond Words, February 7-9, 2013, 7:30 p.m.

Bill Bowers employs an eloquent mixture of music, monologues and mime in his ongoing investigation of the silence surrounding the enigmatic matters of gender in our culture today. Often compared to Chaplin and Keaton, he has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. For Beyond Words, Bowers draws his characters from life and moves beyond mere anecdotes to create a vibrant and visual poetry. With audacity and compassion he explores what it means to be a boy and the messages we receive on our way to becoming men. It is an inclusive montage that celebrates maleness and humanity in capacious terms rather than any narrow punitive viewpoint that diminishes us all.

LEO, February 21-23, 2012, 7:30 p.m.

From Berlin, the Circle of Eleven blends music, acrobatics, dance, and theater into a sophisticated form of entertainment that carries on the spirit of classic German variety theater at a contemporary circus level. It is not a play, or a circus act, or a film project. It is a self-contained, genre-defying performance that won the Carol Tambor Foundation’s “Best of Edinburgh Award” in 2011 and went on to become the hottest ticket at Spoleto. LEO explores a world where gravity has shifted and the hero must undertake a logic-defying adventure that reveals not only his dreams and desires but also his lust for life. Through a clever juxtaposition of live performance with projected film, two Leos move through identical spaces governed by opposing physical laws. It is a small but meaningful story of a man stuck in a box, hoping one day to find his way out.

Kate Weare Company, March 7-9 , 2013, 7:30 p.m.

With both rawness and precision, Kate Weare maps a humanism that is contemporary and profoundly stirring. Hailed for its startling combination of formal choreographic values and visceral, emotional interpretation, her work has been seen at The Joyce Theater, Danspace Project, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, and at venues throughout the U.S.  For the Historic Asolo Theater, Weare presents a program of open narrative spaces into which she invites the viewers to insert themselves and to see the work through the lens of personal experience. While in Drop Down she employs the power of tango to investigate the negotiations of erotic proximity, in Garden, she elicits innocence by drawing upon primitive issues origination, collective identity, and safety in the face of the nature’s unpredictable forces.

ViewPoint: The Interplay Between Music and Dance, January 19, 2013, 10:30 a.m.

Choreographer Elizabeth Weil Bergmann presents a duet danced by Moving Ethos directors to illustrate how music influences the way we experience modern dance.

FSU Dance Theatre, March 22 & 23, 7:30 p.m.

Works by the renowned resident faculty, alumni and guest artists performed by the highly skilled students of this top-ranked university dance program.

By purchasing tickets to all four performances in the Narrative in Motion series, get free admission to ViewPoint: The Interplay Between Music and Dance (Jan. 19, 10:30 a.m.) and FSU Dance Theatre (March 22 & 23, 7:30 p.m.).

The 2012-13 Art of Our Time season at the Ringling Museum is supported by a $50,000 grant from Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

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Sarasota, FL –Dec. 4, 2012 – The third annual ‘Ringling in Bloom’ springs to life Feb. 28 with a Designers Preview and runs through March 3, 2013 at Sarasota’s The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. This year’s ‘Ringling in Bloom’ continues to blossom with more floral arrangements than ever before inspired by the Museum’s collection. Thirty floral designers from a wide variety of garden clubs as close as Sarasota and as far away as Michigan and Wisconsin are expected to participate. The four-day celebration combines fine art and flowers. It includes lectures, demonstrations and workshops by Parties to Die For, Atlanta’s premier event planners and floral designers, as well as tours of the Museum’s grounds and gardens. For the first time, patrons can cast a ballot for their favorite arrangement. The winner will be announced on www.ringling.org Monday, March 4.

“Floral designers see works of art through a different lens – their interpretation can make us see familiar works in new ways and attract us to other works we may not have noted before,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “This floral festival at the Ringling Museum really brings people together. Many wonderful conversations between family members and friends ensue from walking the galleries and seeing the Ringling collection and its interpretation through floral art. It is fitting that 2013 is the 100-year anniversary of the creation of Mable’s Rose Garden.  ‘Ringling in Bloom’ celebrates Mable’s love of art, flora and fauna.”    

The Designers Preview will open the event on Thurs., Feb. 28 from 5:30-8:00 p.m. in the Museum of Art and its courtyard. This year’s floral designers hail from a variety of garden clubs. Represented are Sarasota Garden Club, Founders Garden Club, Lemon Bay Garden Club, Venice Area Garden Club, Naples Garden Club, as well as the Ikebana Garden Club, Little Garden Club of Columbus, Lake Minnetonka Garden Club, and Wolfeboro Garden Club. Designers discuss their floral fantasies and Museum docents offer insights into the collection.  It includes lite bites served on the Museum loggia.  Tickets are $50; $40 for Museum members.

On Friday (March 1), Saturday (March 2) and Sunday (March 3) at 10:30 a.m., the Ringling Museum is offering grounds tours led by its horticulture staff. Tickets are $20; $10 for Museum members. Reservations are required.

On Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2, at 10:30 a.m. are lectures and demonstrations at the Historic Asolo by Atlanta’s Tricky Wolfes and Kathy Rainer with Parties to Die For. They are known for their “over the top” creative weddings and events.  Their motto is “anything worth doing is worth overdoing”. They call themselves the Ball Queens and have been the Ball designers for The Atlanta Botanical Garden’s annual Garden of Eden Ball for seven years, The Atlanta Ballet Ball, the State Botanical Ball of Georgia, The Candlelight Tour at the Atlanta History Center, The Legendary Ball for Shepherd Center and many others. Tickets are $20; $15 for Museum members and includes admission to the Museum of Art galleries. This event benefits Museum programs.

On Sunday, March 3, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Ringling in Bloom concludes with flower arranging workshops by Parties to Die For.  Each workshop, designed for budding beginners or skilled virtuosos, includes a brief introduction to flower arranging followed by a one-on-one tutorial from design to creation of a specific arrangement. Tickets are $125; $110 for Museum members. The price includes flowers, container and mechanics. Participants must bring their own flower clippers. 

‘Ringling in Bloom’ pays homage to Mable Ringling, the first president of the Founders Circle of the Sarasota Garden Club. The chair of the event is Sara Bagley. She is a member and past president of the Founders Circle of the Sarasota Garden Club. She is also a member of the Garden Club of America and Floralia 16.  For tickets, contact the Box Office at 941-360-7399 or visit www.ringling.org.

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Sarasota, FL —Oct. 13, 2012 — With yet another enthusiastically attended Ringling International Arts Festival wrapping up, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art announced today the 2012-13 Art of Our Time season, which is supported by a $50,000 grant from Gulf Coast Community Foundation. The third year of the initiative will feature three art exhibitions, 100 stage performances and 40 film screenings. All the works presented are by leading contemporary artists from around the U.S. and world.  The Museum anticipates reaching 185,000 patrons and estimates generating more than half-a-million in revenues for these programs and exhibitions.

“As a result of Gulf Coast’s strategic investment and our broad range of partnerships with arts organizations, museums, and academia around the state and country, the Ringling Museum has produced its most ambitious ‘Art of Our Time’ season to date,” said Steven High, executive director for The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “This collective of the ‘Art of Our Time’ aims to change the cultural landscape of Florida by creating a deeper awareness and engagement for Museum patrons with living artists transforming the visual and performative arts. It also represents a wonderful opportunity to enhance our appeal with our youth, building on the highly successful ‘Beyond Bling: Voices in Hip Hop and Art’ exhibition last year.”

On the final day of the 2012 Ringling International Arts Festival (Sat. Oct. 13), Dwight Currie, Associate Director of Exhibitions and Programs, and Dr. Matthew McLendon, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, shared Art of Our Time: A Look Ahead in the Johnson-Blalock Education Center. They previewed the New Art, New Artists, New Collections and New Stages coming to the Ringling Museum in 2012-13. The highlights include the presentation of The Artists of Our Time from The Hermitage Artist Retreat; New Stages: Narrative in Motion; and Summer Circus Spectacular, a partnership with Circus Sarasota in the Historic Asolo Theater. In the Museum of Art galleries, the schedule includes special exhibitions, such as The Warren J. and Margot Coville Photography Collection; Herb Ritts: L.A. Style; and Sarasota in the Age of the American Moderns.

"One of Gulf Coast's priorities is better leveraging and coordinating the arts to benefit both our region's economy and its cultural life," said Teri A Hansen, president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation. "This ambitious effort to bring contemporary and emerging artists to our State Museum of Art fits perfectly. Not only will the Ringling Museum's 'Art of Our Time' provide an economic impact, but it will also give members of our community cultural opportunities we have never had before."

The 2012-2013 Art of Our Time partners include Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Baryshnikov Arts Center, RIAF sponsors, Hermitage Artist Retreat, MAPP International Productions, Circle of Eleven, National Dance Project/New England Foundation of the Arts, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, J. Paul Getty Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Circus Sarasota. The Museum is also working closely with academic circles and local organizations to make the programming affordable and accessible to students and members of the community. The organizations include, but are not limited to, Florida State University, New College of Florida, Ringling College of Art and Design, University of South Florida, State College of Florida, and the Sarasota/Manatee Dance Alliance.

The Ringling’s Art of Our Time launched in 2009 with the inaugural Ringling International Arts Festival.  It showcases contemporary visual and performing art by artists that are profoundly influencing culture. Art of Our Time features the Museum’s on-going presentation of its permanent contemporary art collection, including Joseph’s Coat, the largest Skyspace created by internationally renowned artist, James Turrell. It also includes a rotation of special exhibitions, lectures, films, literature and performing arts, such as music, dance and theater.

“The presentation of contemporary art at the Ringling dates back to its first executive director, A. Everett Chick Austin, Jr., who helped transformed the arts in America in the twentieth century and the Museum with the addition of the Historic Asolo Theater and Circus Museum in the late 1940s,” noted High. “Chick advocated that, ‘the function of a museum is more than merely showing pictures….it is the place to integrate the arts and bring them alive.’ The Ringling Museum is building on his legacy and that of John and Mable Ringling. With the ‘Art of Our Time,’ we hope to enrich our community through the exploration of rich ideas and art forms at play today and in the future.”

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About The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, is one of the largest museum/university complexes in the nation.  It preserves the legacy of John and Mable Ringling, educating and enabling a large and diverse audience to experience and take delight in a world-renowned collection of fine art; Ca’ d’Zan, the Ringling historic mansion; the Circus Museum; the Historic Asolo Theater; and historic architecture, courtyard, gardens and grounds overlooking Sarasota Bay.

About Gulf Coast Community Foundation
Together with our donors, Gulf Coast Community Foundation transforms our region through bold and proactive philanthropy. Gulf Coast is a public charity that was created in late 1995. Since we began making grants in 1996, we have funded more than $124 million in the areas of arts and culture, health and human services, education, civic affairs, and the environment. Gulf Coast is the largest community foundation in Florida.

Sarasota, FL —Oct. 2, 2012 — Mark Morris’ newest work, A Wooden Tree, set to music and words by the Scottish artist and humorist Ivor Cutler (1923 – 2006), makes its East Coast debut at the fourth annual Ringling International Arts Festival (RIAF), Oct. 10-13, 2012 in Sarasota. Fla. The dancers scheduled to perform the new creation, include the Festival’s artistic director and past performer Mikhail Baryshnikov. The Ringling International Arts Festival is co-produced by Sarasota’s The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and New York’s Baryshnikov Arts Center. It is part of the Ringling’s Art of Our Time initiative, which celebrates the performative arts by living artists who are profoundly influencing culture.

The dance, which premieres in Morris’s hometown of Seattle earlier this month, includes Cutler works titled Cockadoodledon’t, Beautiful Cosmos, Rubber Toy, I Got No Common Sense and more. The costume design is by Elizabeth Kurtzman and the lighting design by Michael Chybowski. For RIAF, the Mark Morris Dance Group is also performing, such classics as Canonic ¾ Studies, Silhouettes and Grand Duo during their 85-minute program held in the 500-seat Mertz Theatre on the campus of the FSU/Ringling Center for the Performing Arts.

“Misha is a fabulous dancer and a close friend,” remarked Mark Morris. “Our collaboration goes way back. We haven’t worked on a dance together for quite a while so it is exciting and comfortable to work on this new piece – A Wooden Tree. He fits right in with my wonderful dancers.”

Since 2010, Baryshnikov has been developing and performing in In Paris, a theater work that toured in the U.S. and Europe. Missing performing in more movement based work, he sought an opportunity with decades old friend and deeply respected choreographer Mark Morris.

“After working on theater projects for the past two years, I wanted to have a taste of dance, explained Mikhail Baryshnikov. “I missed being on stage in that way. It is a great comfort to work with Mark Morris, a dear friend and collaborator whose work I love and who has an ensemble I adore. It is humbling to be invited to work amongst a group of such accomplished dancers.”

This appearance marks a return engagement to performing and collaborating at the Festival for Baryshnikov. In 2010, the Festival commissioned and presented three sold-out performances of “Solos with Mikhail Baryshnikov and David Neumann”. 

The Mark Morris Dance Group’s performances at the Ringling International Arts Festival are Wed., Oct. 10, 7pm (RIAF Inspires Opening Night, $500 per person includes reception, performance and formal dinner in the Museum of Art Galleries), as well as Thurs., Oct. 11, 5pm; Fri., Oct. 12, 8pm.; and Sat., Oct. 13, 2pm. Tickets for the Dance Group’s performances Oct. 11, 12 and 13 are $30, $40, and $50.  To purchase tickets, contact the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office at 941.360.7399 or visit www.ringlingartsfestival.org

The 2012 Festival also features stage performances by Shantala Shivalingappa, Ensemble Basiani, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Adam Tendler, Phyllis Chen, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. It also includes the Festival’s first film series with screenings of Carmen and Geoffrey directed by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob; Joseph Brodsky: In the Prison of Latitudes directed by Jan Andrews; and a double bill, Labyrinth Within directed by Pontus Lidberg followed by Park Avenue Armory Event by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. To purchase tickets contact 941.360.7399 or visit www.ringlingartsfestival.org

About the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG)

The Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG), now in its 31st year, continues to perform nationally and internationally. In 2001, MMDG opened its permanent home, the Mark Morris Dance Center, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, housing rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children, as well as a school offering affordable dance classes for all. The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center, now home to over 5,000 students of all ages and abilities, offers quality, year round instruction at affordable rates in a variety of disciplines.  MMDG maintains its commitment to providing free and low-cost dance and music opportunities for the company’s Brooklyn neighbors. 

About the Ringling Museum’s Art of Our Time initiative

The inaugural Ringling International Arts Festival launched the Art of Our Time initiative at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in 2009.  The annual Festival celebrates contemporary arts and features dance, film, music and theater by well-known and emerging artists. Art of Our Time showcases contemporary visual and performing art by artists that are profoundly influencing culture. It features the Museum’s on-going presentation of its permanent contemporary art collection, including Joseph’s Coat, the largest Skyspace created by internationally renowned artist James Turrell. It also includes a rotation of special exhibitions, lectures, films, literature and performing arts, such as music, dance and theater.

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Sarasota, FL —Sept. 14, 2012 — The Warren J. and Margot Coville Photography Collection exhibition at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art explores iconic moments through the lens of many renowned photographers, including Berenice Abbott, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Barbara Morgan and Andre Kertesz. The show is a continuum of the Ringling’s Art of Our Time which focuses on leading contemporary artists. It comprises more than 75 images spanning the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. Among the stunning imagery on view is the 1888 construction of the Eiffel Tower and the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. It also includes a large collection of photojournalism. The exhibition runs Nov. 9, 2012 to Feb. 3, 2013.

“The Coville Photography Collection exhibition is such a powerful and moving show,” said Steven High, executive director for The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “It is a riveting account of recent world events and iconic moments taken by key photographers of this and the past century. These artists witnessed and captured history for this and future generations. I anticipate the images on view will have a deep and lasting impression, touching off a wide range of emotions for our visitors.”

It includes images, such as Walter Rosenblum’s unflinching portrayals of humanity, Hospital Workers, South Bronx, 1979. Barbara Morgan’s beautifully composed image of legendary dancer Martha Graham from 1940. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photograph of the triumphant Winston Churchill and Tony Spina’s photo of the contemplative Martin Luther King in Grosse Pointe, Michigan from 1968. It also features an unknown photographer’s chilling image of the Hindenburg crash taken in 1937.

“The exhibition documents monumental shifts in global politics and national identities, as well as showing examples of significant developments in art history and photographic technologies,” remarked Dr. Matthew McLendon, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “With their gift to the Ringling Museum, Warren and Margot Coville have created an enduring legacy that will enable the exploration of the photographic arts at the Ringling for generations to come. It is truly an encyclopedic resource from which to grow the Museum’s burgeoning photography collection.”

The Ringling Museum presents a variety of programs to extend exploration of the exhibited works in the Historic Asolo Theater. There is A Conversation with the Collector: Warren J. Coville (Wed., Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m.) featuring a discussion between Warren J. Coville and Dr. McLendon that introduces this significant gift to the Museum. It is free to the public, seating is limited.

Photography on Film is a series of film documentaries screened in the Historic Asolo Theater in mid-November that focus on photographers featured in the exhibition. On Thursday, Nov. 15 from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. the films includes Berenice Abbott: A View of the 20th Century by Kay Weaver and Martha Wheelock (5:30 to 6:35 p.m.), Masters of Photography: Edward Steichen (6:50 to 7:25 p.m.); and Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye by Heinz Butler (7:40 to 9 p.m.).

On Friday, Nov. 16 and Saturday, Nov. 17 from 1 to 4:30 p.m. the films show Berenice Abbott (1 to 2:05 p.m.); Edward Steichen (2:20 to 2:55 p.m.); and Henri Cartier-Bresson (3:10 to 4:30 p.m.). The films are free for Museum members and included for non-Members with their paid Museum admission for that day. 

From Nov. 5 to Dec. 10 at 7 p.m., the Museum is also presenting its Monday Nights Movies series, titled Exposed!: The Photographer in the Cinematic Imagination. The films include, Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Nov. 5); Blowup directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (Nov. 12); The Year of Living Dangerously directed by Peter Weir (Nov. 19); Fairy Tale: A True Story directed by Charles Sturridge (Nov. 26); Amelie directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Dec. 3); and The Midnight Meat Train directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (Dec. 10). Tickets are $7.

The ViewPoint: Forming History, Thomas Southall, Independent Curator, Author, and Lecturer (Sat., Nov. 3, 10:30 am in the Historic Asolo Theater) reveals the formal elements that make a powerful and lasting photograph. It is complimentary for Ringling Members at the Contributor Level and above, $10 for non-Members, $5 for all Ringling Members and Florida State college students and faculty with valid school I.D. 

Inside the galleries of the Museum of Art, GalleryWalk and Talks include close up conversations with two local photographers, Peter Acker, Commercial Photographer (Thurs., Nov. 29 at 6 p.m.) and Sally Pettibon, Photographer, RCAD Faculty (Thurs., Jan. 31 at 6 p.m.). Each will share his/her insights on specific works in the show. These discussions are part of Art after 5, which is free for Museum Members and $10 for non-members with paid admission.

The exhibition is made possible through the generosity of Warren J. and Margot Coville. Their gift -- the largest gift of photography in the Museum’s history totaling more than 1,000 photographs -- serves as the foundation for the exhibition. The Covilles are collectors living part-time in Sarasota and part-time in Detroit. A photography enthusiast himself, Warren bought his first camera at 13 years old with his bar-mitzvah money. Warren began seriously collecting the photographs of established (and not so established) artists in 1974, and continued until 2001.

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Sarasota, FL —Sept. 12, 2012 — The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art today announced that Dr. Matthew McLendon, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, is the recipient of the 2012 Florida Association of Museums’s “Outstanding Achievement Award”. Ringling Museum volunteer Dave Emison garnered FAM’s “Outstanding Volunteer Award”.  A representative of the Museum has been honored by the not-for-profit professional organization for Florida’s museums and museum professionals five of the last eight years.

“The FAM Award reflects Matthew’s truly outstanding achievement with the Beyond Bling exhibition in bringing new art, new energies, and perhaps most important of all, new audiences to The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art,” remarked Steven High, executive director. “As a relatively new curator at the Ringling, Matthew proved himself to be a visionary and supportive colleague as he led our staff of museum professionals in the realization of this wonderful project. Beyond Bling became the ‘talk of the town.’ A large contingent of Sarasota’s youth population paid their first visit to the Museum to experience it and that helped the Ringling set new attendance records for a summer exhibition.”

In May 2011, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art launched a new initiative, Art of our Time, with the opening of the exhibition Beyond Bling: Voices of Hip-Hop in Art. The exhibition served as the launching point for the cultivation of contemporary arts, both visual and performing.  Beyond Bling was comprised of works by ten internationally renowned artists each of whom has been influenced by hip-hop culture. All of the work exhibited was produced in the first decade of the 21^st century.

For the first time the Ringling Museum galleries showcased a monumental hip-hop mural that was originally created for the streets of New York’s Times Square. Muralist Sofia Maldonado joined forces with local skateboarders, two area schools, P(a)yne Skate Park, and the City of Sarasota to transform the local skate park into a magical work of public art. In the Historic Asolo Theater, Rennie Harris Puremovement from Philadelphia and the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival from L.A performed and sold-out crowds attended screenings of the film, Exit Through the Gift Shop. The exhibition formed the nucleus of a larger exploration of hip-hip culture that reached across the museum and community.

“Dave Emison clearly epitomizes what it means to be a Ringling volunteer,” noted High. “The FAM’s Volunteer Award is reflective of his knowledge and passion for the Museum. As Chair of the Volunteer Services Advisory Council’s Orientation & Communication Committee, he helped reinvigorate a critical orientation program for new staff and volunteers. Currently, Dave volunteers for six assignments in four departments, all of which benefit from his diplomacy, courteousness, and ability to see the big picture. The Museum and our visitors are the beneficiaries of the more than 500 hours Dave donated during the 2011/2012 fiscal year.”

When David Emison moved to Florida with his wife in 2006 from Connecticut he joined the Ringling Museum as both a member and volunteer. His more than 25 years of professional experience in Human Resources has proven invaluable with regard to his many roles.  He promotes the Museum’s exhibitions and programs as a Community Outreach volunteer, Speakers Bureau Ambassador and Media Escort for the Marketing and Communications Department. As a Docent he shares his love of art and history with visitors who tour John and Mable Ringling’s palatial Gilded Age Mansion, Ca’ d’Zan. As a Tram Operator, he familiarizes visitors with the Museum’s 66-acre estate and ensures they arrive at their destinations in a safe and timely fashion.

The Annual Museum Service Awards Program is sponsored by the Florida Association of Museums. The purpose of the FAM Awards Program is to recognize outstanding contributions to the museum profession in the State of Florida. Museum Service Awards may be given to museum staff, volunteers, or trustees, as well as to individuals outside the museum profession who make significant contributions to the advancement of Florida’s museums, either locally or statewide. The Florida Association of Museums is the not-for-profit organization of Florida’s museums and museum professionals. The mission of the Association is to represent and address the needs of the museum community, enhancing the ability of museums to serve the public interest.

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DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER FROM HURRICANE ISAAC

Sarasota, FL — August 26, 2012 — Due to inclement weather from Hurricane Isaac, the Ringling Museum venues, grounds, and administrative offices will be closed to the public on Monday, August 27th. We anticipate re-opening the Museum venues and grounds at NOON, on Tuesday, August 28th. 

Sarasota, FL — July 18, 2012 — The affordable and hugely popular “Monday Night Movies” series returns this summer to The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art with Five Films from 50 Years of Merchant Ivory. Producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory hailed for their elegant literary adaptations captivated audiences with their genius. Movie screenings Monday nights at 7 p.m. at the Historic Asolo Theater, include Heat and Dust (July 30), Maurice (Aug. 6), Mr. and Mrs. Bridges (Aug. 13), Remains of the Day (Aug. 20), and Jefferson in Paris (Aug. 27).   Tickets are just $7 per film. Contact the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office at 941.360.7399 or visit ringling.org to purchase tickets.

•           July 30: Heat and Dust

A witty and reckless young wife of a 1920s British civil servant succumbs to the charms of an Indian prince.  Six decades later, her niece follows in her footsteps and finds herself being seduced by the glories of India.  Adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from her Booker Prize-winning novel. Universal Pictures; Rated R; 130 minutes; 1984

•           August 6: Maurice

Stylish drama about two young men who fall in love while attending a British boarding school in the early 1900’s, only to painfully part ways to find love in socially different worlds.  Based on the autobiographical writings of E.M. Forster. MGM; Rated R; 135 minutes; 1987

•           August 13: Mr. and Mrs. Bridge

An entertaining, deeply moving, and magnificently acted film (by Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman) drawn from Evan S. Connell’s novel, about a ‘40s-era Kansas City family and told through a series of delightful vignettes about business, devotion, love, the war, and family. Miramax Films; Rated PG-13; 124 minutes; 1990

•           August 20: Remains of the Day

An English butler’s world of manners and decorum is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-World War I Britain. The possibility of romance and his master’s cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.Columbia Pictures; Rated PG; 134 minutes; 1993

•           August 27: Jefferson in Paris

The time is the late 1700s. The place is the romantic and politically charged streets of pre-Revolutionary Paris.  This is the dramatic account of Thomas Jefferson’s five years as the minister to France and his touching relationship with Sally Hemmings, the young slave who took care of his daughter. Touchstone Pictures; Rated PG-13; 136 minutes; 1995

Merchant Ivory Productions was created in 1961. By the mid-1980s, its films produced on modest budgets achieved grandeur through sheer ingenuity and imagination. 

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 OF PHILANTHROPIST ULLA R. SEARING

Sarasota, FL— June 28, 2012 – The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art today joins the community of Sarasota, Fla. in mourning the passing of Ulla R. Searing.  The philanthropist was passionate about art, culture, education, history, museums, and travel. Her $6.5 million bequest in 2005 -- one of the largest gifts in Ringling Museum history -- to the Ringling Endowment Campaign included the underwriting of a new wing of the Museum of Art. She also contributed to the Ringling’s Tibbals Learning Center, a building that opened in 2006 that celebrates the American Circus, as well as created a $2.5 million endowment for the Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections.

The Swedish born philanthropist and her husband, Arthur F. Searing, who died in 1983, arrived in Sarasota in 1973 and shared their time between Sarasota in the winter and Southampton, Long Island in the summer.

"Ulla Searing was not only a great visionary and contributor to The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, but a catalyst behind a significant part of our growth," said Steven High, executive director. "Following in the tradition of John and Mable Ringling, Ulla had the vision and wherewithal to carry out her dreams and help the Ringling complete the Museum’s Master Building Plan. The Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing is a testament to her passion and generosity, as well as a lasting symbol of her philanthropy. Their legacy lives on for the millions of visitors who come to see special exhibitions at the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing."

At the time of its opening on Feb. 3, 2007, the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing was integral to the completion of the Ringling Museum’s $76 million, five year Master Plan to restore and expand its facilities. Designed by architects Yann Weymouth, HOK, Tampa, Fl, the wing, named for Ulla Searing and her late husband Arthur, added 20,000 square feet of exhibition space. The building is used for major traveling exhibitions and rotating shows of art from the Museum’s extensive permanent collection of more than 15,000 objects. In 2011, Joseph’s Coat, a Skyspace created by internationally renowned artist, James Turrell, opened. Located in the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation Courtyard of the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing of the Ringling Museum of Art, this is the world's largest Skyspace and one of only two public Skyspaces on the East Coast.

“Ulla was fascinated by art and history,” remarked Ron McCarty, the keeper of the Ca’d’Zan. “She enjoyed reading an exhibition’s wall text. She also loved coming to the Ca’ d’Zan mansion at Christmas time.  It reminded her of Christmas in Sweden.”

Searing gave to many arts organizations and educational institutions, including the Asolo Repertory Theater, Circus Sarasota, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, New College, Ringling School of Art & Design, Sarasota Ballet, Sarasota Opera, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, University of South Florida, and Youth Opera.

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ANNOUNCES NEW BOARD CHAIR, ADDITION OF SIX BOARD MEMBERS

Sarasota, Fla. – June 22, 2012 – The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Foundation, Inc., announced the election of Cliff Walters as Board Chair, Mike Urette as Vice Chair, and Mike Pender as Treasurer, as well as the re-appointment of Michele Redwine, Secretary. It also announced the appointment of six members to its Board of Directors. The new members, include Martin A. Arch; Rebecca Donelson; Kenneth J. Feld; Patricia R. Lombard; Senator John M. McKay; and Jane Skogstad. With the exception of Senator John M. McKay (one-year term), their service to the board will run four years.

Martin A. Arch created MARCO Convention Supplies, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania business specializing in the sale of identification items and promotional products to the Meeting Industry. He sold the business after 40 years and retired to Sarasota in 1994. Arch is a graduate of Mercersburg Academy and the Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania majoring in journalism and marketing. He has served on many boards, including the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg. He has also volunteered at The Pelican Man, Sarasota Memorial Hospital, GWIZ, and the Asolo Theatre.  

Rebecca Donelson is an Art Dealer. She shares her time between Sarasota and Aspen. After working at the Corcoran Museum, Washington, D.C., The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and at The Art Institute of Chicago, she opened her own gallery, The Dart Gallery, in Chicago. It specializes in Contemporary Art representing some of the great artists of the last forty years: Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, David Smith, Jim Dine, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, Sam Gilliam and Frank Stella. Donelson serves on the International Council of Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO, is a Fellow at The Aspen Institute, and works with the Aspen Film Festival and Youth Entity in Carbondale, CO.

Kenneth J. Feld is a resident of Tampa, Fla., and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Feld Entertainment, Inc., the world’s largest live entertainment company. Founded in 1967, family owned and operated Feld Entertainment produces some of the best known family entertainment brands, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Disney on Ice, Disney Live, Super Cross and Monster Jam, and entertains more than 30 million fans a year worldwide. Feld’s philanthropic interests include the establishment in 1995 of the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation, a facility dedicated to the preservation of the endangered Asian elephant, and the Feld Foundation which focuses on the support of the arts, children’s health and education organizations. He is a trustee of Boston University and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Boston University School of Management. Additionally, he serves on the board of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Patricia R. Lombard is a native of Manhattan and moved to Sarasota in 1996. She earned a BA from Hunter College, an MA from New York University, and a MBA from Pace University. While earning her graduate degrees, she worked for Wells, Rich Greene advertising agency. Later, she managed the David Findlay Art Gallery on Madison Avenue. Lombard has dedicated much of her time to serving her community by being active in several associations and organizations.

Senator John M. McKay, of Bradenton, is a sixth generation Floridian. He was elected to the State Senate in 1990, served as chairman of five committees, and was Senate President from 2000 to 2002. A real estate developer and President of John M. McKay, Inc. and of The Riverside Real Estate Company, he received a BA in Social Work from The Florida State University. He is Chairman of the Board of the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center and serves on the Boards of The Manatee Community Coalition on Homelessness, The Manatee Rural Health Foundation, Goodwill Industries Manasota and The LeRoy Collins Institute.  

Jane Skogstad is a native of Atlanta, Ga., received a B.A. degree from The Florida State University with a major in English. She also earned a degree in Interior Design from Georgia State University. Pursuing a career in commercial interior design, Skogstad worked principally for Rich’s, a division of Federated Stores. She served as Committee Chairman and officer at the local and national levels with the American Society of Interior Designers, as well as president of the Georgia Chapter. While living abroad, she volunteered in the Education Department of National Gallery of Jamaica and served as an active member of the American Women’s Association there. She was also President of the 300 member multi-national American Women’s Association in Cairo. Jane and her husband Sam (a former member of the FSU Foundation Board) live part time in Dallas, Tex. and at least half the year in Sarasota.

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Sarasota, Fla. — May 21, 2012 — The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art recently received more than 700 photographs from the Warren J. and Margot Coville Photography Collection. It adds a new lens through which to view the Ringling Museum’s Art of Our Time, which features works by artists that are shaping the trends in contemporary visual and performance art. The gift by Warren J. and Margot Coville of Sarasota, Fla. and Bloomfield Hills, Mich., includes photography by Berenice Abbott, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstaedt, André Kertész and Herb Kratovil among many others.

"The Ringling Museum is honored to be the beneficiary of a large selection of remarkable images from the Warren J. and Margot Coville photography collection," said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. "They greatly enhance the Ringling’s photography collection and invigorate our permanent collection. They’ve also prompted two further gifts to the Museum."

Previously, the photographs were prominently displayed in the Coville home in Michigan and Warren’s offices there. They join previous gifts of photography by the Covilles to the Ringling Museum.

Dr. Matthew McLendon, associate curator of modern and contemporary art, noted, "The Coville collection comprises a number works that might be deemed photojournalistic and is, therefore, a potent mirror of social change over the century. An exhibition of representative works which focuses on the human condition and captures major world events from the 20th and 21st centuries is slated to open Nov. 9, 2012 and run to Feb. 3, 2013 at the Ringling Museum."

"Margot and I are proud to join in the re-blossoming of the John and Mable Ringling Museum's collection," remarked Warren J. Coville. "Now as residents of Sarasota, we will have the pleasure of revisiting images from our collection. Sharing these with our friends and neighbors gives us much joy."

The Ringling Museum’s Art of Our Time features the on-going presentation of its contemporary art collection, including Joseph’s Coat, the largest Skyspace yet and first in Florida created by internationally renowned artist, James Turrell. It also includes a rotation of visual art exhibitions, lectures, films, literature and performing arts, such as the Ringling International Arts Festival, Oct. 10-13, 2012.

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Sarasota, Fla. – May 11, 2012 – The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art presents the first comprehensive art exhibition in America in more than two decades devoted to Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), one of the giants of Venetian Renaissance painting. Titled Paolo Veronese: A Master and His Workshop in Renaissance Venice the exhibition brings together many of his finest paintings and drawings from North American collections, well as a group of prints after major works. The exhibition runs Dec. 6, 2012 through April 14, 2013 in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing of the Ringling Museum of Art.

        “One of the most impressive paintings by Veronese in America is the Ringling’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “It was the first Old Master painting acquired by John Ringling for his art museum here in Sarasota. In recent years, the Ringling Museum has made a concerted effort to organize important exhibitions based on prominent works in its European collection.  The Ringling’s Paolo Veronese exhibition is the culmination of these efforts. The show introduces to new audiences the broad spectrum of Veronese as a painter and draughtsman, as well as makes a major contribution to the study of the artist. The works on view come from museums and private collections around the country.”

       Dr. Virginia Brilliant, the Ringling Museum’s associate curator of European Art and the exhibition’s lead curator, added, “This exhibition sheds light on Veronese as a masterful, deeply empathetic storyteller and narrative painter whose works were often iconographically complex and invested with rich layers of meaning.”

      Not since the last major Veronese exhibition took place at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1988 have audiences in America been able to experience his remarkable versatility and artistic practice.

Conceived and organized by Dr. Brilliant in cooperation with Frederick Ilchman, the exhibition highlights Veronese’s artistic process, technical discoveries, and his rich and varied artistic production. Thematically arranged, the exhibition captures Veronese’s treatment of scared subjects from the Bible and the lives of the saints, secular subjects in the classical tradition, portraiture, and engravings and etchings after Veronese.  It features imposing altarpieces, religious paintings made for private devotion or for collectors, grand portraits, and sensual episodes drawn from the classical tradition, sketches and finished chiaroscuro sheets.  

      Other recent European Art exhibitions by the Ringling have included, The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance (2008); Venice in the Age of Canaletto (2009 –10), and Gothic Art in the Gilded Age: Medieval and Renaissance Treasures in the Gavet-Vanderbilt-Ringling Collection (2009–10).

    Coinciding with the exhibition, the Ringling hosts a series of Gallery Walk and Talks by engaging scholars to introduce different aspects of Renaissance Venice to general audiences. A scholarly symposium/study day is also planned.  Catalogues, programs, and educational components, including family guides and learning galleries support the exhibition. The exhibition catalogue published by Scala Publishers Ltd., contains new scholarly perspectives, including contributions from established and emerging scholars, curators, conservators, and academic art historians. The catalogue is available in the Museum Store.  

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Fourth Annual Festival Runs Oct. 10-13, 2012 on Florida’s Gulf Coast at the Ringling

Sarasota, FL — May 7, 2012 — The 2012 Ringling International Arts Festival (RIAF) showcases a variety of contemporary performance, Oct. 10-13 at the Ringling Center for the Arts in Sarasota, Fla. A continuum of the Ringling Museum’s Art of our Time, the fourth annual Festival features performances of dance, music and theater in its intimate theaters, galleries and courtyards by well-known and emerging artists.  RIAF is produced by Sarasota’s The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and New York’s Baryshnikov Arts Center.

“As an emerging center for the practice, study and presentation of contemporary art, the Art of Our Time, the Ringling Museum is taking bold steps to bring to Southwest Florida innovative, edgy, and dynamic works created by artists that are shaping trends in contemporary art,” remarked Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “RIAF is a community celebration where audiences have the opportunity to experience the best artistic talent in the world. This year’s RIAF lineup shapes up to be exciting.”

• RIAF’s Opening Night on Wed., Oct. 10 features the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) with MMDG Music Ensemble. Internationally hailed its ingenuity, humor, and commitment to eclectic live music, the Mark Morris Dance Group is one of the world’s leading dance companies, performing across the U.S. and at major festivals around the globe. Their rhythmic production stretches from joyful to bombastic to peaceful. Their will be a reception followed by MMDG’s performance, which starts at 7 p.m. in the Mertz Theatre. A dinner with RIAF artists in the Ringling Museum galleries caps the night’s festivities. This exclusive event is a fundraiser for the Ringling. Ticket price to be announced.
  
  
• MMDG returns to the Festival stage again Thurs., Oct. 11 at 5 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 12 at 8 p.m.; and Sat., Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Mertz Theatre. Tickets: $50, $40 and $30. 75 minutes. 
  
  
• Shantala Shivalingappa, who was born in India and reared in Paris, dances in the classical Southern Indian tradition of third-century B.C. Kuchipudi, marrying a fierce precision, sensual flowing lines and deft intricate footwork. 60 minutes. Show times: Thurs., Oct. 11 at 8 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 12 at 5:00 p.m.; and Sat., Oct. 13 at 5:00 p.m. in the Historic Asolo Theater. Tickets: $45, $35 and $25.
  
  
• The Pig Iron Theatre Company with their OBIE-winning blend of vaudeville, neuroscience, and fractured storytelling collaborates with Chelfitsch’s Toshiki Okada to present a new work of contemporary performance about re-reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, moving out of Tokyo, and a national scandal.  A funny, elusive, unusual work of autobiography. Approx. 80 minutes. Show times: Thurs., Oct. 11 at 8:00 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 12 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; as well as Sat., Oct. 13 at 5:00 p.m. in the Cook Theatre. Tickets: $45 and $35.
  
  
• Ensemble Basiani (the Folk Ensemble of the Georgian Patriarchy) from the Tbilisi Holy Trinity Cathedral choir from the Republic of Georgia come the polyphonic harmonies and complex rhythmic patterns of traditional folk music and chants that sound like the work of modern-day experimental composers. Their performance at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in 2010 received critical acclaim. 60 minutes. Show times: Thurs., Oct. 11 at 5:00 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 12 at 8:00 p.m.; and Sat., Oct. 13 at 2:00 p.m. at the Historic Asolo Theater. Tickets: $45; $35; $25.
  
  
• Adam Tendler, the 2012 American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Nominee, performs from memory John Cage's complete Sonatas and Interludes in honor of the composer's centenary. Celebrated for his uncompromising recital programming, unapologetic literary voice, and bold original compositions, Tendler has presented lecture-recitals of modern American music to underserved communities in all fifty states. Skyspace sunset light program at approximately 7:00 p.m. followed by concert at 8 p.m. in Joseph’s Coat. Thurs., Oct. 11. Tickets: $35.
  
  
• Phyllis Chen, the highly acclaimed pianist, toy pianist and multimedia artist performs original multimedia compositions and works by contemporary composers. Praised by the New York Times for her “delightful quirkiness matched with interpretive sensitivity,” Phyllis is one of the founding members of ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), a Chicago and New York-based collective. She has performed a variety of concerts and festivals, such as the Chicago World Music Festival and Lotus World Music Festival.  Skyspace sunset light program at approximately 7 p.m. followed by concert at 8 p.m. in Joseph’s Coat. Fri., Oct. 12. Tickets: $35.

• RIAF is also screening its first “Festival Film Series”. Tickets: $10 per film.
  
• Carmen and Geoffrey, two living legends of American dance, are the subjects of this documentary by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob. Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder helped energize the world of modern dance in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  The film contains interviews and dance performances with Alvin Ailey, Herbert Ross, Lester Horton, Joe Layton, Duke Ellington and Josephine Baker. 80 minutes. Show time: Thurs., Oct. 11 at 2:00 p.m. in the Historic Asolo Theater.
  
• Joseph Brodsky: In the Prison of Latitudes, a documentary film directed by Jan Andrews is about Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky. Interviews, cityscapes, and audio of Brodsky reciting his own work create an homage to one of the 20th century’s great literary talents. 60 minutes. Show time: Friday, Oct. 12 at 2:00 p.m. in the Historic Asolo Theater.
  
• Labryinth Within and the Florida premiere screening of a new dance-on-film project to be announced at a later date. A haunting take on jealousy, Labryinth Within posits a man, a woman, and an elusive lover in a series of intense pas de deux. Danced to a score by Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang, the work features New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan, Giovanni Bucchieri and Pontus Lidberg, who also directed the film. 90 minutes for both films. Show time: Sat., Oct. 13 at 5:00 p.m. in the Mertz Theatre.  

• Jazz on the Bay returns from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thurs., Oct. 11 and Friday, Oct. 12. Tickets: $10 adults; $5 children age 6-17; no charge for children age 5 and under, as well as Museum members. Free with the purchase of a ticket to any Festival production on Thursday or Friday.
  
  
• In the company of 2012 RIAF artists The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the world-famous New Orleans music machine, closes RIAF with a high octane concert of genre-bending romps. Sat., Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Museum of Art Courtyard. Tickets: $75 for Ringling Members and $85 for Non-Members.
  
  

            The Ringling is offering a 20 percent discount for Ringling Members -- or -- a 10 percent discount for Non-Members who buy a Festival ticket before June 30, 2012. A ticket package to all RIAF performances (includes the closing event, but not opening night), for Ringling Members is $296 if purchased before June 30, 2012 -- or -- $333 after July 1, 2012. A Non-Members package is $333 if purchased before June 30, 2012 -- or  -- $370 after July 1, 2012. To purchase tickets, call the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office at 941.360.7399 or visit www.ringlingartsfestival.org

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Sarasota, Fla. – April 17, 2012 – The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art presents Deco Japan: Shaping Art & Culture, 1920-1945, the first exhibition held outside Tokyo dedicated to Japanese expressions of Art Deco.  Nearly 200 fine art objects and goods mass produced for the modern home from the Levenson collection -- the world’s premier private collection of Japanese art in the deco era -- are on view. The first showing in the southern U.S., this traveling exhibition organized by Art Services International runs July 13, 2012 to Oct. 28, 2012 in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing.

        The exhibition features dramatic examples of sophisticated design and craftsmanship long associated with Japan, including sculpture, ceramics, furniture, glass, jewelry, metalwork, paintings, textiles, and lithography. Selected by Dr. Kendall Brown, Professor of Japanese Art History at California State University, Long Beach, these two- and three-dimensional works epitomize the contributions made by Japanese artists to Art Deco, a global international design movement in the early twentieth century.  Dr. Brown has developed exhibitions of twentieth-century Japanese art for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others.

       Recently, the Ringling Museum has exhibited a number of focused exhibitions to complement our permanent collection to create a clear association and appreciation for Asian art among our regular visitors and scholars in anticipation of the forthcoming Dr. Helga Wall-Apelt Gallery of Asian Art and Study Center at the Ringling. The Deco Japan exhibition highlights the cultural, formal and social aspects of Japanese deco. It sheds light on how during the early twentieth century Art Deco contributed to the emergence of a cosmopolitan nation shaping global trends in visual and performing arts, architecture, fashion and design.

        The exhibition explores a broad variety of themes, including cultural diversity and the formal qualities of Japanese deco. Among the artwork is a ubiquitous deco motif of the flying fish — the ultimate 1930s emblem of stylish power in sea and air.

       Beyond design, the exhibition features an examination of changing lifestyles with themes of travel, speed, consumption, luxury, exoticism and elegant distortion of form.  The deco style was also linked with luxury commodities that decorated the modern home, such as lamps, clocks and bowls. It also featured human and animal figurines, demonstrating the ubiquity of the deco style.
       Another key focus of the exhibition is how art reflected the social transitions that faced Japan in the first half of the twentieth century, including a greater visibility, prominence and freedom for women. The vitality of the era is expressed through the theme of the modern girl, known in Japan as the moga – the emblem of contemporary urban chic that flowered along with the Art Deco style of the 1920s and 1930s.     

      Lectures with specialists, Gallery Walk & Talks, and Art and a Movie evenings serve to complement the objects in the exhibition and create an enhanced cultural understanding.  A catalogue accompanying the exhibition features essays by Dr. Brown and specialists from Europe, America, Australia, and Japan. It is available in the Museum Store and retails for $49.95.

      The exhibition is drawn from The Levenson Collection and is organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia. Support has been provided by The Chisholm Foundation.

His Excellency, Mr. Ichiro Fujisaki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States of America is Honorary Patron of the exhibition. The exhibition’s first international showing was at The Japan Society Gallery in New York in March 2012.

Sarasota, FL — April 12, 2012 — Following his recent appearances at Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center Paraguayan and Mexican harp and violin virtuoso Celso Duarte brings his Ensemble to Sarasota on the eve of the 150^th anniversary of Cinco de Mayo. The stage is set for their unique “one performance only” evening of music, Friday, May 4, at 8 p.m. in the Historic Asolo Theater at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. All seats are $15.00.  Celso Duarte’s performance at the Ringling Museum is the first engagement resulting from a new collaboration between the Museum and the Mexican Consulate.

Mixing different styles Celso Duarte performs a variety of musical genres from traditional Latin folk and improvisational jazz to Spanish baroque and African music. The singers, percussionists, strings, and other instrumentalists weave through these styles with passionate conviction creating fresh new sounds.

 “As the State Art Museum of Florida, the Ringling is a museum for people of all backgrounds and cultures,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “Mindful of our mission to reflect the diversity of our community, we are developing programming of interest to our growing Latino population. Celso Duarte is one of those rare artists with a distinctive musical style. Drawing from his roots in Mexico and South America he’s created a unique sound that has universal appeal.”

The production is a continuum of the Ringling Museum’s Art of Our Time. This initiative showcases contemporary artists from around the world who are profoundly influencing modern art.

“The Consulate of Mexico in Orlando is pleased to partner with like-minded arts organizations, such as the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, that share an interest in presenting fine art and culture from Mexico in their local community,” remarked Alberto Fierro,  Consul of Mexico in Orlando. “Celso Duarte is exceptionally gifted at playing the Mexican Jarocha harp, a wooden harp with 32 to 36 strings tuned diatonically over five octaves that originated in Veracruz. The music he makes is melodic and soulful.”

Celso Duarte who also plays the Paraguayan harp and Celtic harp is the descendant of a musical tradition full of cultural richness. He has participated in festivals in the U.S, Mexico, Europe and Japan. He has also shared the stage with Lila Downs, Wynton Marsalis, Mercedes Sosa, Martirio, Mariza, Susana Baca, Joe Vasconcellos, Julieta Venegas and Celso Piña among others.  

To purchase tickets, visit ringling.org or call 941-360-7399.

 Sarasota, FL - March 23, 2012 — The newest work by artist Sanford Biggers will premiere at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, March 30 through October 14, 2012.  Codex, the latest exhibition in the Ringling’s Art of Our Time series, is comprised of a series of vintage quilts painted with forms inspired by star maps.  Both the quilts and star maps reference the journey of Harriet Tubman along the Underground Railroad. Codex is the result of Biggers’ residency at The Hermitage Artist Retreat and his 2010 award of the Greenfield Prize.

“Sanford Biggers’s blending of historical references, contemporary culture, and performance mark him as one of the most significant artists in America today and makes him ideally suited to be part of the Ringling’s Art of Our Time series,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.  “We are proud to be partnering with our colleagues at The Hermitage in bringing this remarkable contemporary work to Sarasota that illuminates a challenging time in our nation’s history.” 

This inspirational work, part of Biggers Constellation Series, was developed at The Hermitage Artist Retreat on Manasota Key, Fla. The not-for-profit artist community brings mid-career painters, sculptors, writers, playwrights, poets, composers and other artists from all over the world to its 8.5 acre Gulf-front campus in Florida for residencies that result in partnerships and programs that benefit Sarasota County and its residents. The Greenfield prize is awarded annually by The Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Greenfield Foundation to a mid-career artist to create a new work.

“Sanford Biggers latest work continues the exploration of identity, race, African American history, and spirituality through another stylistic departure, painting on historical quilts,” added Dr. Matthew McLendon, the Ringling Museum’s associate curator of modern and contemporary art.  “Many of these late nineteenth-, early-twentieth-century quilts were donated to Biggers by the descendant of slave owners adding a poignant historical echo to the work.”

A native of Los Angeles, Calif., and current New York resident, Sanford Biggers uses the study of ethnological objects, popular icons, and the Dadaist tradition to explore cultural and creative syncretism, art history, and politics. An accomplished musician, Biggers often incorporates performative elements into his sculptures and installations, resulting in multilayered works that act as anecdotal vignettes, at once full of wit and clear formal intent. His installations, videos, and performances have appeared in venues worldwide, including the Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London, the Whitney Museum and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, as well as institutions in China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland and Russia.

The Ringling’s Art of Our Time showcases contemporary visual and performing art by artists, such as Sanford Biggers, that are profoundly influencing culture. Art of Our Time features the on-going presentation of its permanent contemporary art collection, including Joseph’s Coat, the largest Skyspace yet and first in Florida created by internationally renowned artist, James Turrell. It also includes a rotation of special exhibitions, lectures, films, literature and performing arts, such as music, dance and theater.

 ART21 PARTNERS WITH ORGANIZATIONS WORLDWIDE TO HOST EVENTS INSPIRED BY SEASON SIX, PREMIERING THIS APRIL ON PBS

 Sarasota, FL – March 8, 2012 – The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in partnership with Art21 as part of its Access ’12 initiative, presents a sneak preview of the premiere of the sixth season of PBS’s Art in the Twenty-First Century, the only prime time national television series focused exclusively on contemporary art. An advanced screening of Episode 1, titled Change of Art21 featuring artists Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, and Catherine Opie, will be shown Fri., March 16 at 7 p.m. and Sat., March 17 at 10:30 a.m. in the Historic Asolo Theater. This event is free and open to the public. Advance reservations are required, contact the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office at 941.360.7399. As of this date of this announcement, the Ringling Museum is the only selected screening site in Sarasota/Bradenton and one of only ten across the state of Florida where the broadcast can be seen before airing on PBS.   

Art21 Access ’12 is an international screening initiative created to increase knowledge of contemporary art, ignite dialogue, and inspire creative thinking through hundreds of public screenings and events that tailor the ideas presented in series to the interests and concerns of local audiences. The season premieres on PBS April 13^th with a new episode each Friday during the April and May at 9 p.m. (check local listings).  Through in-depth profiles and interviews, the four-part series reveals the inspiration, vision and techniques behind the creative works of some of today’s most thought-provoking artists.

“Art21 Access ’12 provides an opportunity for organizations around the country and the world to experience a central goal of Art21—dialogue inspired by contemporary art and the ideas it expresses,” said Susan Sollins, Executive Producer of Art21. “We hope that participating organizations find ways to best utilize the Art21 materials for their respective communities and that audiences will take full advantage of the events in their area and discover the life-changing potential of viewing creative role models at work. Our goal is that these events spark new conversations, and expose all kinds of viewers to the important work of the artists profiled in the series.”

The recent acquisition and permanent installation of Joseph’s Coat, the largest Sksypace yet by James Turrell, made the Ringling Museum a natural fit and catalyst for our selection as an Art21 screening site. The Skyspace is the foundation for the Ringling’s Art of Our Time. This initiative reflects the Museum’s efforts to promote understanding of and appreciation for the contemporary visual and performing arts by showcasing works from artists, such as James Turrell, that are profoundly influencing our culture.

At more than 3,000 sq. ft., Joseph’s Coat is a space in which visitors are invited to contemplate light, perception, and experience as they gaze up at the sky through the 24’ square aperture in the ceiling.  Joseph’s Coat is art based on experience.  Every time is a unique experience (sunrise, sunset, during the day, rain or shine). At sunset, a sophisticated system of LED lights is employed to change the color of the space.  In doing so, the artist changes the context in which visitors view the sky and can radically change their perception of the color of the sky and its spatial relation to them. It is a place for contemplation, sustained experience, and conversation.

Art21 Access ’12 events are presented in partnership with the Arts Business Council, Emerging Leaders of New York Arts, National Guild for Community Arts Education, and the YMCA. An updated list of Art21 Access ’12 events and venues worldwide can be found at art21.org/access. Art21 Access ’12 events are being hosted by museums, schools, libraries, art spaces, community centers, and universities worldwide.

Episode 1: Change

This episode features artists who bear witness, through their work, to transformation—cultural, material, and aesthetic—and actively engage communities as collaborators and subjects. Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, and Catherine Opie are featured.

Episode 2: Boundaries

This episode presents artists who synthesize disparate aesthetic traditions, present taboo subject matter, discover innovative uses of media, and explore the shape-shifting potential of the human figure. David Altmejd, assume vivid astro focus, Lynda Benglis, and Tabaimo are featured.

Episode 3: History

In this episode, artists play with historical events, explore and expose commonly held assumptions about historic ‘truth’, and create narratives based on personal experiences. Marina Abramović, Glenn Ligon, and Mary Reid Kelley are featured.

Episode 4: Balance

Through sculpture, paintings, and installations, the artists in this hour grapple with equilibrium and disequilibrium as they create highly structured works that challenge conventional notions of perception and representation. Rackstraw Downes, Robert Mangold, and Sarah Sze are featured.

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ABOUT THE JOHN AND MABLE RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART 
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, is one of the largest museum/university complexes in the nation.  It preserves the legacy of John and Mable Ringling, educating and enabling a large and diverse audience to experience and take delight in a world-renowned collection of fine art; Ca’ d’Zan, the Ringling historic mansion; the Circus Museum; the Original Asolo Theater; and historic architecture, courtyard, gardens and grounds overlooking Sarasota Bay.

ABOUT ART21

Over the last decade, Art21 has established itself as the preeminent chronicler of contemporary art and artists through its Peabody Award-winning biennial television series Art in the Twenty-First Century. The organization has used the power of digital media to expose millions of people of all ages to contemporary art and artists and has created a new paradigm for teaching and learning about the creative process.

In addition to its PBS series and year-round series-based education and public programs efforts, Art21 has expanded its film production and educational efforts in recent years. Several new initiatives have been launched in the past year including New York Close Up, a new documentary series on Art and Life in New York City, and the premiere of Art21’s first feature film, William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible. Art21 also offers Art21 Educators, an ongoing professional development program for teachers now entering its fourth year.

 art21.org

 Find Art21 on Facebook and Twitter.

Sarasota, FL – March 6, 2012 – Ahead of one of his most challenging stunts yet and childhood dream of crossing Niagara Falls on a record-setting 1,800 foot tightrope this summer, get up-close and personal during the Ringling Museum’s Center Ring Saturdays with Nik Wallenda at the home of America’s first circus museum. Go backstage with the 33-year old high wire artist, acrobat and daredevil in the backyard of the Circus Museum on Saturday, March 10 from noon to 2 p.m.

     In a revealing and entertaining behind-the-scenes look with “The King of the High Wire”, the seventh generation of the legendary Great Wallendas relives his most dramatic and exhilarating stunts. He also shares stories of the Great Wallendas whose remarkable feats are memorialized in the new interactive family galleries of the Tibbals Learning Center, part of the Ringling’s vast circus collection. A family activity is included.

      Wallenda is the holder of six Guinness World Records, including the record for the longest distance and greatest height ever traveled by bicycle on a high wire set in 2008.  He first set foot on a practice wire at age two. In the past year, he has bicycled across cables strung between hotel towers, run atop a "wheel of death" attached to a 23-storey Las Vegas hotel (a kind of giant hamster treadmill) and hung by his jaw from a helicopter some 75 m over the asphalt of Silver Dollar City. He has climbed inside a wooden box with two sticks of dynamite, blown it up and lived to describe the sensation ("like getting kicked in the chest by a horse").

      Nik Wallenda is a visionary and showman in the model of John Ringling, the legendary circus king and leader in the early twentieth century of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus The Greatest Show on Earth. Center Ring Saturdays at the Ringling are a great way for youngsters and their families to be educated and entertained by stars like Nik Wallenda and the Ringling circus collection.

     A collaboration between the Ringling Museum and Circus Sarasota, Center Ring Saturdays offer a backstage pass and rare opportunity for families to learn the art, skills, and science behind the magic of a circus performance. Designed for families with young children (recommended for children 4 to 12 years old), Center Ring Saturdays occur every second Saturday of each month.

     Center Ring Saturdays are included with regular admission to the Ringling Museum. Tickets are $25 for adults; $20 for senior citizens; $5 for children ages 6-17; and free for children 5 and under accompanied by an adult, as well as museum members. 

      In this the inaugural year of the program, center ring stars, such as Dolly Jacobs (“The Queen of the Air”); clowns Karen Bell and Robin Eurich with the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus’s The Greatest Show on Earth; and hand-to-hand balancer Johnny Yong; have entertained patrons with captivating stories of their circus performance art and life behind the scenes.

       “Every time I visit The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art I am reminded that I am standing on the shoulders of giants,” said Wallenda. “John Ringling hired my great grandfather, Karl Wallenda, whose crowning achievement was the seven-person chair pyramid in 1947 with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The father of three children, I am passionate about our youth and inspiring them to pursue their dreams.  I commend the Ringling for bringing educational programs like this to the youth in my hometown and our surrounding communities. I am looking forward to sharing my passion for extreme performance art, as well as making new friendships with the boys and girls and their families.”

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Sarasota, FL – Jan. 25, 2012 – The stage is set for Ringling Underground – and  – Ringling by the Bay, the Ringling Museum’s Art after 5 live music vibe and scene for distinct audiences on select Thursdays.

The Ringling Museum is a great gathering place where people can socialize and dance to great music by local artists in an unforgettable setting. The Ringling hopes to create a loyal following for Ringling Underground and Ringling by the Bay, making each a staple of people’s overall art experience at the Ringling.

Ringling Underground is a new series of events featuring a mix of live music, art and pop-culture in a block party atmosphere.  Aimed at the college and young professional crowd, but open to all, Ringling Underground will be held in the Museum of Art Courtyard from 7-10 p.m. on the first Thursdays of February (Feb. 2); March (March 1); and April (April 5).

The February 2 event will feature music by Sons of Hippies, Red Feather and Physical Plant.  The new James Turrell Skyspace, Joseph’s Coat, and the exhibition Sculpting Sound, featuring the work of Swiss artist Zimoun, will be open throughout the evening.  Both food and cash bar will be available.

Tickets to Ringling Underground are $10 for adults, $5 for children 6-17 and college students w/ ID, and free for students from Florida State University, New College of Florida, Ringling College of Art and Design, State College of Florida and the University of South Florida.

Ringling by the Bay returns with a variety of local bands playing a mix of genres from the 60s through today, including rock, blues and folk, at the Bolger Campiello by Ca’ d’Zan, making it ideal for people in their mid 30s through baby-boomers. Ringling by the Bay takes place on select, third Thursdays of the month from 5 to 8 p.m. with live music on the bayfront.

Ringling by the Bay kicked off with Kettle of Fish performing a mix of original blues-rock compositions, covering songs, like Junior Wells’ Little by Little, the Neville Brothers’ Yellow Moon, and the Zombies She’s Not There, on Jan. 19.  

On February 16, Yesterdayze plays top 40 hits from the sixties, like Hey Jude, Dancing in the Street, and Louie, Louie.

On March 15, Boneshakers blasts a variety of classic rock favorites.  

On April 19, soulRcoaster runs through sets of beautiful melodic standards to funky disco dance tunes to hard driving classic rock and roll.

On May 17, Dr. Dave Band strums a mix of alternative country rock, new country, and classic rock, covering hits from Keith Urban, Sweet Home Alabama, Mustang Sally, and the Orange Blossom Special on the Fiddle.

On June 21, The Venturas feature musical favorites from past to present with music from the 1930s to current hits, including covers of Journey’s Sentimental, Janis Joplin’s Piece of My Heart, and Fleetwood Mac’s Gypsy.

Tickets to Ringling by the Bay are $10 for adults; $5 for children ages 6-17; Museum Members are free. No advance tickets. Limited seating provided. Guests are not permitted to bring their own chairs. Food and bar available for purchase. For further information, please contact 941-359-5700 x5705.

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Ringling’s Art after 5 program enables visitors to experience the permanent collection of the Ringling Museum of Art and Circus Museum after hours every Thursday from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.  After hours discounted admission is $10 for adults; $5 for children age 6-17; children age 5 and under are free; Museum Members free.

RINGLING’S SWEEPING EXHIBITION SPOTLIGHTS
PETER PAUL RUBENS: IMPRESSIONS OF A MASTER

Sarasota, FL – Jan. 24, 2012 – In a sweeping exhibition filled with prints and paintings showing triumphal allegories both sacred and secular, meditative landscapes, stately portraits, violent hunts, and fleshy female beauties from classical mythology who inspired the term “Rubenesque,” the Ringling Museum presents in partnership with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Peter Paul Rubens: Impressions of a Master.

The exhibition features more than 100 magnificent paintings by and prints after Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), that together celebrate the legacy of one of the greatest artists of all time. The show runs from Feb. 17, 2012 to June 3, 2012 in the Ringling Museum of Art’s Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Ringling will host noted Rubens scholars for a two day symposium on the artist’s Triumph of the Eucharist Series tapestry series, from March 30-31, 2012. Five large-scale canvases related to the series grace the Ringling’s Rubens Galleries and are highlights of the Museum’s collection.       

“Peter Paul Rubens’s canvases depicting the Triumph of the Eucharist series are the crown jewels and anchors of the Ringling Museum’s collection. For sheer spectacle, the Ringling’s Rubens Galleries are unrivalled in any museum in America,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “Rubens created for himself an illustrious career and is truly one of art history’s giants. This exhibition brings his distinctive style to the fore, as well as revealing the breadth of his artistic productions, from the paintings that made him famous to the prints that made his work available to a wide and international public.”

Renowned for his virtuoso handling of oil paint, energetic compositions, and dramatic, triumphal, and often sensual style, Rubens was also an international diplomat, a shrewd businessman, a scholar and collector, a friend to rulers and thinkers, and the director of a large workshop. Europe’s kings and princes prized his works, which included altarpieces and other religious pictures, portraits, hunt and mythological scenes, and monumental decorative programs in oil paint and in tapestry.  At the height of his career, Rubens undertook a campaign to reproduce and disseminate his paintings, drawings, and tapestry designs in printed format.       

Peter Paul Rubens: Impressions of a Master will be the Ringling’s first ever exhibition devoted to the work of its preeminent artist. The exhibition also invites visitors to discover a little-known aspect of Rubens’s artistic practice – his printmaking. Rubens was not simply an artist – with the help of his workshop and his collaborators, including his printmakers, he created a global “brand,” a particular style and a hallmark of quality valued the world over.

Rubens realized that through prints, his most famous compositions could be enjoyed by an international public, by those who could not afford his paintings or travel to see his magnificent schemes. Dissatisfied with the earlier, frequently unauthorized reproductions of his work, Rubens rather unusually obtained legal authority to copyright his images, engaging, it would seem, with the very same intellectual property issues that beset artists today. Yet unlike Dürer, Rembrandt, or Goya, Rubens did not make his own prints, but rather hired printmakers to translate his compositions into authorized reproductive engravings and woodcuts and supervised them vigorously. He avoided artists who tried to impose their own ideas and styles on the reproductions, encouraging printmakers to imitate his painterly effects.

At the show’s core are around forty magnificent prints after compositions by Rubens from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, repository of the largest group of prints after Rubens in the world. These are joined by several paintings by and prints after Rubens from the Ringling collection. While the paintings are well-known favorites to regular Ringling visitors, the prints have rarely, if ever, been on view. 

The exhibition gives audiences a chance to compare and understand how painted compositions were transformed into printed ones, pairing paintings from the Ringling with prints made after them, from the collections of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. For example, Rubens’s painting depicting the Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom from the Ringling collection is displayed alongside a print made after it by Lucas Vorsterman, one of the printmakers Rubens employed to make authorized reproductions of his images. The exhibition also includes a didactic installation by Bradenton-based artist Joe Loccisano to help visualize the artists’ process from painting to print. The exercise illustrates the distinctive differences between forms of print media, including engraving, etching and woodcuts.    

The Members-Only-After-Hours exhibition opening is Thursday, Feb. 16 from 5 to 7 p.m. Gallery Walk and Talks are held select Thursdays during Art after 5, including March 8: Rubens as a Printmaker; April 19: Baroque Babes, Hefty Heroines and Luscious Ladies; and April 26: Copyright Rubens.

On March 30-31, 2012, the Rubens symposium in the Johnson-Blalock Education Center features papers by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. (National Gallery of Art, Washington); Marjorie Wieseman (National Gallery, London); Anne T. Woollett (J. Paul Getty Museum); Fiona Healy (Independent Scholar); Koenraad Brosens (University of Leuven); Ana García Sanz (Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Patrimonio Nacional); Susan Merriam (Bard College); Lisa Rosenthal (University of Illinois); and Dr. Virginia Brilliant (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art).

Additional programming includes the Ringling’s Art of Food program and its presentation of A Baroque Banquet. Patrons can sample what it would be like to enjoy the fabulous fare that Rubens would have lavished guests with at his Antwerp home. A stroll of the exhibition with museum staff is followed by dinner at Treviso Restaurant, April 24, 2012. Tickets are $85 for non-members; $70 for members. Author and historian Mark Lamster presents Peter Paul Rubens and the Art of Diplomacy during a ViewPoint lecture, April 28, 2012 in the Historic Asolo Theater. Tickets are $10 for non-members; complimentary for Ringling Members at the Contributor (Supporting) Level and above; $5 for all other Ringling Members and Florida College students and faculty with valid school ID. 

Dr. Brilliant is also the author of Triumph & Taste: Peter Paul Rubens at The Ringling Museum of Art, a catalogue produced by Scala Publishing and available in the Museum Store for $19.99. It includes new research and insights into the paintings by Rubens in the Ringling collection.  Additional reading materials are available in the Ringling Museum of Art Library. The library owns one of the largest collections of books about Rubens in the U.S. 

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Sarasota, FL – January 17, 2012 – The second annual Ringling in Bloom springs to life February 23 through 26, 2012 with a four-day celebration of fine art, flowers, and fashion at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. A feast for gardening enthusiasts and fashionistas, Ringling in Bloom branches out with a budding assortment of floral fantasies. It features galleries flushed with floral arrangements, hands-on workshop and tips from celebrity floral designer Remco van Vliet, as well as a preview of Lilly Pulitzer’s Spring Collection of wearable floral art.   

“Last year’s inaugural Ringling in Bloom proved hugely popular with the community and our out-of-town visitors,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “Ringling in Bloom, the 2012 edition, touches all the senses with its creative presentations of fine art, flowers and fashion juxtaposed with the Ringling Museum’s galleries, grounds and gardens. One of the best experiences is strolling through the Museum of Art galleries, which resemble a lush oasis filled with fragrant garden art inspired by the Museum’s collection.” 

On Thurs., Feb. 23, the Museum of Art will be closed during the day in preparation for opening night of Ringling in Bloom and the Designers Preview from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Floral arrangements created by Florida Suncoast designers and inspired by the Museum’s collection are revealed in the Museum of Art’s 21 original galleries and loggia.  Designers discuss their floral fantasies and Museum docents offer insights into the collection.  It includes hors d’oeuvres and cocktails served on the Museum loggia.  Tickets are $85; $75 for Museum members.

On Friday, Feb. 24, at 10:30 a.m. or 2:00 p.m., is a lecture and demonstration at the Historic Asolo Theater by celebrity floral designer Remco van Vliet. Renowned for his designs for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, New York Philharmonic, and Carnegie Hall, van Vliet shows participants step-by-step how to create stunning and fashionable floral masterpieces from a classic centerpiece to a contemporary conversation starter.  A reception follows in the Welcome Center and Dwarf Garden. Tickets are $50; $40 for Museum members and includes general admission to the Museum. This event benefits Museum programs.

On Saturday, Feb. 25, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., is a feast of fashion, flowers and food with the featured showcase a preview of the Lilly Pulitzer Spring collection in the Museum of Art Courtyard and Loggia. See Lilly Pulitzer’s collection of bright floral prints created by their print designers who took inspiration from flowers to create each print and the line of wearable flower art.  A silent auction hosted by Sarasota Magazine and Lilly Pulitzer rounds out the event and supports Museum programs and operations. Tickets are $120; $100 for Museum members, and includes general admission to the museum. Reserved table sponsorships are available. The price for a table of 8 is $1,200; tables of 10 are $1,500.

On Sunday, Feb. 26, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Ringling in Bloom concludes with flower arranging workshops by van Vliet in the Johnson-Blalock Education Building.  Each workshop, designed for budding beginners or skilled virtuosos, includes a brief introduction to flower arranging followed by a one-on-one tutorial from design to creation of a specific arrangement. Tickets are $200 per person. The price includes flowers, container and mechanics. Participants must bring their own flower clippers.  Pre-registration required by Feb. 10, 2012. 

“Ringling in Bloom pays homage to Mable Ringling, president of Sarasota’s first garden club,” explained High. “Mable was passionate about flowers, particularly roses. It is our hope that attendees to Ringling in Bloom complete their floral fantasy by walking the estate grounds to see its natural beauty. Must-sees are Mable’s nationally accredited rose garden, secret garden and the Millennium Tree Trail.”

Sarasota, FL – Jan. 17, 2012 – On Friday, Jan. 20, the Ringling Museum plays host to Circus Celebrity Night, honoring the contributions of legendary performers of the Circus. This year’s honorees include, the singing ringmaster Harold Ronk; chimpanzee trainers Sue and Rudi Lenz; and comic daredevil and Sarasota native, Bello Nock. The evening’s host is Heidi Herriott. A reception will be at 6 p.m. followed by an awards ceremony at 7 p.m. in the Historic Asolo Theater. John Herriott and William Hall are among the presenters. The event is free of charge and open to the public.   

From 1951 to 1981, Harold Ronk was the voice of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus and defined the role of the singing ringmaster with his rich baritone voice. Born in 1921 in Peoria, Illinois, Ronk transformed the role of ringmaster, incorporating his talents as a mainstay of the production numbers, a tradition which he continues to this day. After appearing in more than 10,000 performances of The Greatest Show on Earth, Ronk retired in 1980. His contributions to the art of circus performance have been recognized for inclusion in both the International Circus Hall of Fame and Sarasota’s Ring of Fame.

For thirty years, Rudi and Sue Lenz entertained circus audiences in Europe and the United States with their performing chimpanzees. The Lenzs trained chimps to perform a variety of tricks, including cartwheels, somersaults, stilt-walking, and iron jaw. They even created a rhythmic chimp band. Their troupe usually consisted of six performing chimps with one or two others in the process of being trained to join the act. They held center ring with Ringling Bros. for twelve years before moving on to a variety of other American circuses. The honors they have received, include the World’s Fair Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, Induction in the International Circus Hall of Fame in 2003, and induction into Sarasota’s Circus Ring of Fame in 2010.

Easily recognized by his foot-tall natural red hair, oversized tuxedo with bow tie, white gloves and saddle shoes, seventh generation circus performer, Bello Nock is known around the globe as a multi-talented entertainer. Dubbed America’s Best Clown by Time Magazine in 2001, Nock considers himself to be a comic daredevil, bringing humor to some of the most dangerous stunts. He has performed 80 ft. high sway poles, a motorcycle on a high wire, two different giant wheels of steel, a motorcycle globe, a comedy high wire, bungee, trampolines, leaps over elephants and skywalks over such venues as the Reliant Stadium and Lincoln Center. Bello completed three tours with the Big Apple Circus before joining Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus in 2001. Bellobration, marked the first time in Ringling’s 140-year history a production was named after one performer.  In February 2009, Bello returned to Sarasota to perform in the aptly titled Bello Comes Home with Circus Sarasota. This February returns to Circus Sarasota with the production Bellomania! Bello has received numerous honors, including the Silver Crown at the International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo in 1998, the Walt Disney Award for Creative Entertainment, and the Gold Lion at the Lausanne International Festival. In 2009, Nock became the youngest inductee in Sarasota’s Circus Ring of Fame and in 2011 was awarded the Golden Clown in Monte Carlo.

Sarasota, FL – Jan. 16, 2012 – Children of all ages are invited to step right up to the Ringling Museum’s annual Celebrate Circus, Sat., Jan. 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Take the circus skills obstacle course challenge. Stitch a personalized, decorative pattern that will feature on an Elephant Blanket. Create a mobile that resembles, and spins through the air like, a Center Ring aerialist. Make a circus hat and bowtie. Enjoy interactive entertainment hosted by Radio Disney AM 1380 Tampa. All Museum venues are open.  Admission is free for children 17 and under with paid adult admission, which is $25 for adults; $20 for senior citizens 65 and over.           

        The festivities also include the Grand Opening of the Tibbals Learning Center’s expanded interactive galleries with Howard Tibbals. The creator of The Howard Bros. Circus Model, the world’s largest miniature circus and a crowd pleaser at the Ringling Museum, will be joined by circus stars, circus model builders, The Windjammers musicians, clowns, and jugglers for a ribbon cutting ceremony held in front of the new galleries at 11:00 a.m.  Thereafter visitors can step inside to see interactive stations celebrating the acrobats and aerialists, circus clowns, daredevils, and ringmaster. They can watch video footage of their exhilarating performances. Walk the wire. Squeeze into a miniature clown car. Snap photos next to a ferocious-looking faux tiger.   

         In honor of our community’s circus heritage, and the contributions of philanthropist and circus model builder, Howard Tibbals, the Ringling Museum has a colossal circus celebration planned for visitors on Saturday, January 21^st. Parents, grandparents, and their children can spend the day enjoying the Ringling’s circus collection and soaking up the circus atmosphere at the Museum.

      The schedule of events follows. Activities are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Explore the Minis of Circus Model Builders, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Circus model builders from all over the country display their own miniature circus model pieces in the Circus Backyard, from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Join the Grand Opening of the Tibbals Learning Center’s Expanded Interactive Galleries, 11 to 11:30 a.m.
Howard Tibbals and his wife Janice officially open the Tibbals Learning Center’s expanded interactive galleries from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Tibbals generously helped donate funding for the $7.5 million facility, which adjoins the building that houses his circus miniature masterpiece.

Step Right Up to the Interactive, Family-Fun Activity Stations, 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Families can visit a variety of circus-themed stations around the grounds and participate in interactive activities designed to show off their artistic talents from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. On the lawn of the Banyan Café, the Circus Sarasota Obstacle Course spurs a little family-friendly competition as contestants test their circus skills and agility. The challenge includes, creating a balloon animal without popping it, testing balancing skills while spinning a plate, and perfecting non-verbal communication skills through the art of mime. Beyond the obstacle course, the other themed areas encourage art-making. In the Circus Backyard, learn to make a circus hat and bowtie. Create a mobile that spins through the air like a Center Ring aerialist. In front of the expanded galleries of the Tibbals Learning Center, join others participating in a community quilt project. Each individual will be asked to stitch an 8” x 8” personalized, decorative Elephant pattern. Each creation will be incorporated into an Elephant Blanket for future display at the Ringling.

Rock with Radio Disney AM 1380, noon to 2:00 p.m.
The Radio Disney AM 1380 Road Crew will host interactive entertainment, including music, activities and prizes. They will be stationed at a tent outside the Tibbals Learning Center from noon to 2 p.m. Participants can register to win a copy of Disney Pixar’s “Cars 2.”

Be Uplifted by the Sounds of the Circus with the Windjammers Unlimited Concert, 2:15-3:15 p.m.
The Windjammers perform circus music in a foot tapping concert in the Museum of Art Courtyard. The organization of professional musicians is dedicated to preserving and performing the music of the golden age of the circus.

Dovetailing with the family-oriented programming, the Ringling’s Saturdays for Educators also provides personal, as well as professional enrichment, that day for teachers. The program runs from 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the grounds and includes hands-on workshops.  Through the Ringling’s permanent collection teachers learn how they can creatively apply mathematics and sciences to illustrate how circus acts amaze and astound audiences. The cost is $5 per person. It includes lunch, materials, and 3 CEU credit hours. Registration is required. For more information, visit the Ringling’s website at: www.ringling.org.  

The Celebrate Circus program is funded in part by the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Institutions Program; and in part by the Les and Judy Smout Foundation, as well as the Koski Family Foundation.
  
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Sarasota, FL – Jan. 12, 2012 – Asolo Repertory Theatre and The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art are joining forces to present a new opportunity for theater goers this season.  In addition to seeing RED, John Logan’s Tony Award-winning play set to open March 30 at the Historic Asolo Theater, enthusiasts will also be “Seeing RED,” a series of pre-production lectures beginning February 23 and continuing through March 22.

While John Logan’s stage script presents a compelling theatrical depiction of painter Mark Rothko as one of the 20th century’s most important and complex artists, the three-part lecture series – along with a special installation of art – focuses on the question asked in the opening line of the play: What do you see?  “It is our intent,” says Dr. Matthew McLendon, Ringling curator of modern and contemporary art “to give theater goers an opportunity to deepen their engagement with Rothko’s story prior to seeing the stage production.”  McLendon opens the series on Thursday, February 23 with a lecture entitled Revealing Rothko, in which he explores the circumstances leading to the events surrounding the infamous Seagram Murals which form the basis of the play. 

In the March 8 program, Seeing the Light, McLendon leads a curatorial tour of the special art installation Luminosity.  Taking as its subject the pivotal moment in the play in which Rothko describes the work of Caravaggio as being “illuminated from within...he gives it inner luminosity,” the focus exhibition explores how artists through the ages have engaged that most important element—light.  The final program in the series, Waiting for the Curtain, takes place March 22 and provides a closer look at the artistry and creative process of bringing Rothko’s story to life on stage.

All three programs begin at 7:00 p.m. in various locations at the Ringling Museum.  Tickets are $5 per program for members of the Ringling Museum, Asolo Repertory Theatre subscribers, and students with valid identification (all others: $10) and are available at the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office at the Ringling Museum of Art: 941.360.7399.

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Sarasota, FL – Jan. 12, 2012 – Howard Tibbals is being honored with The Fine Arts Society of Sarasota’s 2012 Luminaire Award at their Celebrate the Arts luncheon on Monday, January 16 at the Sarasota Yacht Club. The 75-year old retired business man, circus historian, philanthropist, and master model builder is perhaps best known locally and globally for The Howard Bros. Circus Model, which is on public display at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. He will be presented with the award by Deborah Walk, the Ringling Museum’s Tibbals Curator of the Circus Museum. 

In a prepared statement, The Fine Arts Society of Sarasota said the Luminaire Award recognizes excellence in creativity, philanthropy and advocacy, the elements that are keys to the future growth of the Arts in Sarasota.  It pays tribute to an individual who, by shining example, inspires others to follow in their lead. The Luminaire Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Society.

“Howard’s talent, vision, and philanthropic efforts are a boon to the Ringling Museum and greater Sarasota/Bradenton area,” said Steven High, executive director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “He brings so much pride to our community, and joy to our visitors, helping further our mission to educate, entertain and share our community’s circus heritage.”

Walk added, “I have worked with Howard for more than 20 years. To this day, he continues to educate me about the circus and inspire the Ringling Museum to achieve great heights. It is such a privilege to be presenting this prestigious award to Howard, who packaged his big dreams for Sarasota and the Ringling Museum in a tiny circus, known as The Howard Bros. Circus Model, in the aptly named, Tibbals Learning Center, which he generously helped fund. He, along with John Ringling and many others, helped earn Sarasota the moniker of Circus City U.S.A.”

Tibbals’s circus miniature, which is a replica of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus during in its heyday, has been a huge draw and crowd pleaser for the Ringling Museum. It has delighted millions of families since opening in 2006.  The model resides in the Tibbals Learning Center, which opened in 2006. It houses the Ringling Museum collection, and part of Tibbals’s collection, including circus memorabilia, posters, and costumes.

The Luminaire Award kicks off a busy week for Tibbals. He, his wife Janice, and their family, will be joined by Center Ring circus stars, musicians, clowns, and jugglers, and other performers for the Grand Opening of the Tibbals Learning Center’s expanded interactive galleries, which celebrate circus history and its Center Ring performers. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held in front of the Tibbals Learning Center’s expanded galleries at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 21.   The exhilarating drama of the circus then unfolds. Its Center Ring performers -- the acrobats and aerialists, circus clowns, daredevils, and ringmaster -- virtually come to life in the new space’s interactive exhibits that spotlight the art of circus performance, including gravity and death-defying feats.

About The Fine Arts Society of Sarasota
The Fine Arts Society of Sarasota provides cultural and education opportunities for its members and organizes projects which benefit the entire community and its many visitors.  Each year the Society plans and promotes events to support their education, community outreach, and scholarship programs.  The Society’s art collection is on public display at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.  The all-volunteer Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.