The Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida, the Historic Asolo Theatre - Essay Example

The Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida Introduction The Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida now under the new State Art Museum of Florida, contains preeminent cultural and art collections of the United States. The museum dates back to almost a century back, with the stories of the circus impresario with the beloved wife who shared their intense love for Sarasota, a town in Italy and the Italian art (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). John Ringling started the museum from humble beginnings, after purchasing a vast land in 1911 and hired an architect who designed the gothic-like museum resembling the Venice’s Sarasota. The construction of the museum commenced in 1924 and after its completion, it stood five stories building tall, covering 36, 000 squares with 41 rooms and the 15 bathrooms (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 12). Today, the Venetian Gothic gateway is the entrance to the grounds, an iconic point where the Ringlings would welcome their guests to the House of John or "Ca dZan" (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 7). Therefore, it is vital to research the cultural history of the Ringling Museum and Its operations in the modern day America including how the art collections end up in the museum and the preservation of all the artifacts. How the Ringling fast collected arts into the museum As John Ringling travelled across Europe fulfill his acts of circus, he embarked on the collection of arts and as such, built an excellent collection for the wealthy industrialists (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 9). Therefore, John would collect the arts and soon became more passionate about the activity that added to his education on the art collection, meeting influential dealers like Julius Bohler. Eventually, John would begin buying as well as devouring art books; these would lay the basis for the Ringling Art Library. After finishing the Ca dZan, John Ringling embarked on building the 21-gallary museum where he preserved the art objections and paintings, housing his famous collections like Velazquez, Rubens, van Dyke, and Poussin; all these were his Old Masters collection (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). After his intense effort of paintings and art collections, the result is what currently remains in the museum as well as a beautiful courtyard full of the Roman and Greek sculpture replicas, including the famous Michelangelo Davids bronze cast. Satisfied that the arts collection was enough, John went ahead to open the Museum in 1931 as a museum of art to the public, two years after the wifes death (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 12). Therefore, John Ringling had opened the art museum art with the intentions of promoting education and appreciating art, especially for the young people (Asoka and Michelle 18). Five years after opening the museum, John offered the museums to Florida State. Some of the collections from the museum The museum contains some of the antiquities as ancient artifacts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 13). The collections have reached 3,070 in number today where one of the outstanding arts is the Cypriot art of Luigi Palma including other antiquities like the vessels as well as Roman glass fragments in addition to the selected Etruscan and Greek objects (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). Moreover, the antiquities collections include terracotta sculpture, ceramics, stone sculpture, gold and jewelry, bronzes as well as Early Bronze Age glasses. The museum also has Asian Art collection that today contain a variety of objects from Asian cultures including Buddhist Gandhara sculpture, Chinese ceramics, Japanese woodblock prints, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese ceramics (Asoka and Michelle 19). The museum has a collection of circus history including performers wardrobes, utility wagons, cannon, and beautifully carved parade wagons (Asoka and Michelle 19). Besides, there are lithograph posters for advertising circuses as well as the fine art prints as a documentation of the influence that the circus had on European and American cultures. Besides, the art has a collection of singular objects like the Howard Bros, the Greatest Show on Earth Mural, Pullman car (John and Mable’s car) and The Wisconsin (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). The collections and preservations of arts in the Museum The museum invites rare antiquities and promotes the creation of modern and old masters who work on various mediums to fill the museum with arts. In this case, the museum invites artifacts that portray some of the phenomena that have been entertaining the USA for 200 years (Asoka and Michelle 20). On the other hand, the museum has a collection of theatre artifacts, as well as botanic wonders and these, appear on display throughout the 66 acres that the Circus Museum sits (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). In this regard, the museum boasts of astonishing art collections that are ever changing and that all the pieces are never available for viewing all the times. Moreover, the museum invites online collections where visitors can visit the Collections Homepage and see the selection of the objects displaying particular themes as well as the period that the artifact portrays (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). When submitting the online collections, it is a requirement for the artists to name the groupings whereby indicating the themes and type of art or painting that the collection represent or illustrates. As such, the museum’s website lists the art groupings under the “Collections” link (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). Other collections are available through the museum’s The Ringling Art Library, which is undoubtedly among the biggest art research libraries in Southeastern region of the United States (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 17). The library strategically locates in the Education Center, housing thousands of 16th-21th art research volumes containing topics revolving around decorative and fine arts, architecture, art history, theatre and fashion (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). Though the library research collection never circulates to the public, the museum allows the collection to be open for the public to use. There are spacious rooms with comfortable reading locations in the library. On the other hand, the museum offers access to the public computers that have access to various scholarly databases, including the Wi-Fi to aid in art research. At the Art Library, there are programs that help in research including the engaged scholarly lectures, arts-based story-time for the children and the book club discussions (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). Moreover, the library has a well-defined and stated program for tours, community events all aiming to help in knowledge exchange about the arts; thus promoting the collection and preservation of the Asian, European, and American arts among others. The art collections also end up Ringling Museum of Art through exhibitions that invite artists to display their paintings, drawings and other projects that promotes the past and current culture. For instance, the museum organized the Trenton Doyle Hancock exhibition in April 2015 (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). Trenton Doyle Hancock is undoubtedly famous for the visual works that portray the Mounds and the Vegans personal mythology’s two opposed forces on the good and evil battle. On the other hand, the From the Four Corners of the Globe is an exhibition that is currently going on until September 2015 in the Circus Museum to display the printed advertisement as the dominant media in the 19th and earlier 20th centuries (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). The exhibition offers the chance to explore the evolution of the American attitude, as the society became informed and got interested in their culture as well as the experiences of people from other parts of the world. The Museum Art, under Florida University is organizing the Back and Forth: Thinking in Paint exhibition to dialogue the modern paintings and the Ringling’s permanent art collection (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). In fact, the exhibition is the first that the Florida State University faculties and as such, features paintings from the College of Fine Arts. The Samurai: the Way of Warrior is another outstanding exhibition from the Museum of Art that will feature around 70 objects to display Samurai warriors, legendary, and as such, will include such objects like helmets, swords, full suits of armor, and saddles among others (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). All these exhibitions aim at identifying the best paintings, sculptures, arts and other objects that are of cultural importance. The museum also has a conservation laboratory as the finest and among the few remaining conservation laboratory in Florida (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). Here, conservationists have the responsibility of protecting the vast collections that Ringling left behind. In fact, the laboratory is the only part of the museum that serves the purpose of preservation of the art collections where the experts engage in preventative conservation by examining the artifacts for any damage and inspect their conditions on a regular basis. Initially, the work of the laboratory was to restore the previous paintings and arts, but an ethical question on the changing of the original works made the museums management refocus on preservative conservation. The conservationists must be university degree holders and must be part of the professional associations to learn how to respect the codes of ethics concerning reversible methods, minimal intervention, and documentation of all the works. As such, the museum invites professionals who have good knowledge of physics, biology, and chemistry (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 18). The science knowledge is necessary especially knowing the solvents to use, or developing solutions that address the surface problems on the art objects. Therefore, the laboratory is where the professionals use the best methods by focusing on preservation and not the restoration of the artifacts. The implication is that the role of the laboratory is to preserve to the intended outcome of the original artist. On the other hand, the conservators apply cautious approach because the whole process of preservation has a higher degree of risk. The Historic Asolo Theatre (HAT) The first director of the Circus Museum, A. Everett Austin directed the purchase of all the Ringling memorabilia from the Venice Asolo Theatre (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). Finally, the director oversaw the building of a U-shaped theatre having three box-tiers with decorative panels. The Asolo Theatre by then served as the centre for lectures, operas, concerts, films and plays among other cultural programming. However, the theatre closed in the 1990s until the recent renaissance of the Ringling. The Historic Asolo Theatre is one of the unique features of the Circus Museum because it portrays the Italian culture, Asolo (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 25). The theatre the FSU faculty founded an acting company that has been performing series of plays. The theatre thus, invites everyone interested in learning the act of plays and preserves both the Italian and American culture because the word Asolo has become part of Florida State culture since John and Marble Ringling introduced the art collection to the state. What remains of the Historic Asolo Theatre is the Asolo Repertory Theatre as a name that denotes what the players do because the company in charge produces professional theatre of the highest quality using true rotating repertory as a rare feature among the modern artists or theatres (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 25). Though the building may have been undergoing renovations, it still represents the real Italian Asolo culture besides inviting other plays from European and America cultures, thus an important arena for student internship especially those studying arts and plays. In fact, most of the students from the near Florida State University prefer their internship at the HAT. The museum under Florida State University After negotiations for years, the Florida state passed the governance of Museum to the Florida State University with a promise to fund the immediate repairs in addition to the funding for the Historic Asolo Theatre, Museum of Art, Circus Museum, and Ca d’Zan (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). After the handing over, John Wetenhall would assume the new role of as the director, and under his governance, the museum experienced a tremendous rebirth. Besides, the FSU governance introduced a new building, the Visitor Pavilion and introduced the Tibbals Learning Centre as a state of the art Education Centre for the art library, storage facilities, and offices (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 35). The art library has since served an important purpose for the students, students, and scholars. After the Florida state legislature placed Ringling under Florida State, the institution changed the museum because of its long history of excellence in arts, especially through the College of Fine Arts that offers some of the best arts programs in the USA (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). The FSU established the Ringling cultural campus that housed Sarasota Ballet, Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, and the Asolo Repertory Theatre as one of the outstanding college arts complexes in the USA. As such, FSU has tied its academic departments with Ringling where the aim is to provide students with educational opportunities cutting across all faculties (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 36). On the other hand, the FSU manages the museum by linking its educational programs, including the masters programs, with the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and as such, contributes to the preservation of cultural arts. After students complete their art and museum history courses, the education program shifts to the Ringling museum where they participate on the museums specific departments, thus involved in all the aspects of the operations of John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. On the other hand, students undertake their internship at the museum, and this implies more control of the museum by the FSU. The iconic Charles brother house The iconic Bayfront Campus owned by New College situates at Charles Edward Ringling house, the elder brother to John Ringling and lived between 1863 and 1926 (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 2015). As such, Charles building also left a legacy because he was among the owners of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Charles Ringling family built the estate between 1925 and 1926 (Asoka and Michelle 19). A covered walkway connects the Charles houses, and this marks the unique transition of the architectural styles. The National Register of Historic Places recommends the Charles Home among the historical monuments, and it is no wonder the home became part of the Ringling Museum. However, the New College of Florida purchased the building in the 1960s for developing a campus where it changed the name of the former Ringling mansion to College Hall (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 39). The house is a unique historic monument with a music room having burnished wooden floor, a fireplace fitted expansive living, vintage Aeolian organ like pipe, enclosed terrace having Italian décor, besides the wrought iron staircase having the contemporary mural as an homage to the Ringling Hall (Brilliant and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 41). Outside the Charles house is the spectacular vistas with a spacious grassy lawn that overlook the Sarasota Bay. The house, as part of the New College, is unique with the rose garden containing various rose species unique to North America. Conclusion In summary, the Ringling Museum Art is the unique feature that characterizes the Florida State as the iconic museum that preserves a collection and paintings from the 19th C and early 20th C. The museum project would not have been successful without the effort from John and the wife, Mable, who took their time to collect historical paintings and arts. However, it was after the handing over of the museum to Florida State University that the museum got a face-lift; the University linked its departmental programs to daily operations of the organization. As such, the museum remains a learning centre for musicologists who apart from learning the art collections, preserve them for the researchers and visitors. The museum also serves educational purposes for the local schools that bring their students to the Museum for lectures. On the other hand, the museum invites exhibitions worldwide to study other people’s cultures and invite modest collections of artifacts that have cultural or historical significance. Therefore, the Ringling Museum of Art preserves arts and paintings and as such, is the centre stage for students to learn about theatre or plays especially from the Historic Asolo Theatre. Works Cited Asoka, Kaavya, and Michelle Chen. "Introduction: From the Margins." Dissent 62.2 (2015): 18-22. Brilliant, Virginia and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art: Curator’s Choice. Scala, 2010. Print The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. TheRingling. 2015. Web. Accessed 6 July, 2015 https://www.ringling.org/historic-asolo-theater Read More