John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

By By Theresa Willingham, Times Correspondent
Published August 10, 2007

The scoop: The museum was established in 1927 as the legacy of John Ringling and his wife, Mable. Perched on 66-acres of stunning Sarasota Bay waterfront, the museum is recognized as Florida's official state art museum.

Why go? The Ringling Museum consists of several components, each a world unto itself:

- The Museum of Art, with 21 galleries of European, Asian and American Art, as well as Cypriot antiquities and contemporary art.

- The Venetian splendor of C d'Zan ("House of John"), a waterfront mansion that was restored in 2002.

- The Circus Museums, including the Tibbals Learning Center, featuring the world's largest miniature circus, costumes, wagons, performance equipment and other artifacts chronicling the history of the circus.

- The Asolo Theater, America's only 18th century European theater, restored in 2006.

- Mable Ringling's Rose Garden, completed in 1913, along with companion gardens that include banyan trees the size of circus elephants.

If that's not enough to send you over the Sunshine Skyway, the museum also offers ongoing cultural and educational programs, including courtyard concerts, "Third Thursday" socials on C d'Zan's terrace, lectures, workshops and children's programs.

Field report: We stopped in after lunch on a rather rainy day. We headed for the Tibbals Learning Center first and were enthralled by the huge circus model that dominates the building. It holds your attention for hours, full of tiny intricate details. The model is as much a tribute to its creator, master model builder and philanthropist Howard Tibbals who took 50 years to finish it, as it is to early 20th century circus life.

The model replicates the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1919-1938, and is built to 3/4-inch-to-the-foot scale across 3,800 square feet. It features eight main tents, 152 wagons, 1,300 circus performers and workers, more than 800 animals and a 59-car train. Lights dim automatically as you work your way around the model, giving you a view of the circus at night.

An older Circus Museum building next door houses a collection of original circus cars, costumes and artifacts that manage to retain a rather earthy aroma of canvas, perspiration and oil, for that full carnival effect.

Beyond that is C d'Zan, an ornate and lavish tribute to John Ringling's taste for the Venetian high life that stands in stark contrast to the toil and grit of everyday circus life that made C d'Zan possible.

My favorite part of the Ringling Estate by far, though, is the Art Museum, with its spectacular collection of Renaissance and Baroque art, set in galleries almost as stunning as the paintings themselves. The giant Peter Paul Rubens paintings that soar to the ornate ceilings of the first gallery can set your heart aflutter with their grandeur and age (17th century). And if that's not enough, there's the statuary garden outside, with its enormous full scale cast of Michelangelo's David, among others.

Upon further review: Even teenagers will have a hard time feigning disinterest in the Ringling Museum. Between roaming the grounds, ogling the circus history and artifacts and marveling at the art, there's something for everyone. The Museum also houses an art conservation laboratory, a 65,000-volume art library and archives.

You can even dine in at the museum, at Treviso Restaurant or the Banyan Caf, or shop at the two gift shops.

Do it again? This is our state art museum with good reason, worth repeat visits for yourself and definitely a great place to take visiting friends and relatives. For those doubting the existence of art and culture in Florida, look no further than The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

Get there

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is at 5401 Bay Shore Road in Sarasota.

Directions: Take I-275 south to U.S. 19 S toward Palmetto/Bradenton and follow U.S. 19 to U.S. 41 S. Continue 4 miles to U.S. 301 S. Proceed 8 miles to University Parkway, and then turn right and continue to Ringling Plaza.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's days. Estate grounds open until 6 p.m.

Admission: Adults $15; seniors and military $13; students and Florida teachers with ID $5. Free for members and children under 5. Also free to educators and students with Scholastic Program passes (available via the Ringling Web site, ringling.org). Call (941) 351-1660 for recorded information about events, hours and programs.

[Last modified August 8, 2007, 14:10:51]