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Battle over clowns is nothing to laugh at

A Sarasota hospice wants to place clown statues around the city. Too kitschy, some say. Too scary, say others.

	[AP photo]
	Professional clowns Karen Bell, right, and Chuck Sidlow, seen here recently in Sarasota, are among those in the circus community upset about protests of an art project celebrating a hospice's anniversary that would put up to 70 fiberglass clowns around the city.

SARASOTA - With his monklike fringe of carroty hair, red pingpong ball of a nose and stenciled smiley mouth, Chuck Sidlow looked every bit the jolly fellow. But he was not a happy clown.

Feelings of rejection and dismay have gripped many show folks of late in the storied circus town of Sarasota, which earned its reputation as a big-top hub after becoming the wintertime home for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus 75 years ago.

At the root of Sidlow and his brethren's woes is a small but vocal group of local artists who object to a seemingly innocuous plan. To raise money and celebrate its 25th anniversary, Hospice of Southwest Florida wants to place up to 70 large fiberglass clowns - painted by artists and sponsored by businesses - around town.

The concept has ample precedent, from Chicago's cows to Miami Beach's flamingos. For hospice directors, clowns unquestionably captured Sarasota's spirit and history, and the City Commission embraced the plan.

But the dissenting artists say the mass-produced figurines are overly commercial and hackneyed. Sarasota's plan is made worse, they say, because the figures would be clowns, which they say would cheapen a city that bills itself as the "cultural coast."

Plus, they say, there are children and adults who harbor coulrophobia - a serious fear of clowns.

"The clown phobia thing is huge, I had no idea. There are people who just plumb hate the images of clowns," said Virginia Hoffman, a sculptor and head of Sarasota's Public Art Committee. "I'm concerned about fallout. What if there are protests by clowns haters, or people who want to vandalize clown statues?"

Controversy over the proposed figures swept Sarasota last month, with news of the plan drawing heated reaction from locals, both pro- and anti-clown. Amazed city commissioners fielded complaints from locals professing an ungodly fear of clowns. A television crew showed up at a Public Arts Committee meeting - dumbfounding its members - where a handful of artists begged the city to abandon what they described as an "ill-conceived" and "Disney-esque" plan.

The commotion struck a raw nerve throughout the circus community here, and many think that those who are grumbling about the clowns have snubbed an integral part of the city's past. Though the circus moved its winter home 20 miles south to Venice in the 1960s - it left that town in 1991 - John Ringling left an indelible imprint on Sarasota.

A major roadway, a museum and an arts school, to cite a few examples, bear his name. Untold thousands of Sarasota locals either performed in the circus or are descendants of elephant trainers, acrobats and workers, and hundreds perform in traveling shows while calling Sarasota home.

"Clowning and the circus are vital to the community," said Sidlow, 46, a full-time clown and graduate of the now-shuttered Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. "It was very hurtful, them saying that clowns put the fear of God in some people."

Karen Bell, a clown who works at hospitals and senior homes, acknowledged that fear of clowns is a genuine affliction, but said its prevalence has been grossly overstated and exploited by the anti-clown-figure faction.

The city is by no means up in arms, and the dissenters seem few. But the artists who object to the plan, to be called "Clowning Around Town," said mass-produced fiberglass figures constitute kitsch rather than art. Hoffman, the sculptor, urged the city and hospice to erect fewer clowns or huddle them all in one place.

The hospice plans to forge ahead with its original plan, which the City Commission endorsed. A spokeswoman said hospice leaders briefly considered the coulrophobes, but concluded that almost everyone is hung up on something.

[Last modified November 7, 2005, 01:09:07]