RESEARCH

Academic Programs

The Ringling is a department of Florida State University (FSU) and a partner institution in the Cross College Alliance (CCA) along with New College of Florida (NCF), Ringling College of Art and Design (RCAD), State College of Florida (SCF), and the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM). As an educational institution, The Ringling supports the work of students, faculty, and scholars from around the world who use the museum’s collections and other resources for teaching and research.

For the 2021–2022 academic year, The Ringling was excited to restart its in-residence internship program. We hosted 10 students for two graduate programs in museum studies and museum education, each in partnership with FSU’s Art History and Art Education departments. We also hosted four NCF undergraduate interns as part of NCF’s Community-Driven Internship program, sponsored by the Mellon Foundation. Along with in-residence interns, The Ringling offered three students remote internships to work and learn with our Archives staff. Students combined course work with internship projects offering practical experience in a professional environment.

ART LIBRARY

22 BOOKS PURCHASED

The Ringling also resumed its annual summer internship program for the first time since 2019. We hosted five internally funded and two externally funded internships where students spent the summer learning and working in The Ringling’s Archives, Collections, Education, Human Resources, Historic Asolo Theater, and Visitor Services – Box Office departments. The Ringling was honored to be selected as a host organization for internships supporting early-career professionals from underrepresented communities (the Diversity in Arts Leadership (DIAL) program, sponsored by Americans for the Arts, and Opportunities for All, sponsored by the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation). All seven summer interns completed projects in their respective departments along with professional development and cultural enrichment activities learning about The Ringling’s overall mission and operations.

211 BOOKS GIFTED

1,480 PATRONS

296 PROGRAM ATTENDEES

Art Library

The Ringling Art Library supports the research of museum staff and guides; students, faculty, and scholars from colleges and universities; as well as visiting scholars. There is a robust sharing of Ringling materials with other academic and museum libraries, and the Library’s borrowing of research materials extends to libraries around the world. The Library programming has not only continued uninterrupted during the past year, but the Literati, an art book discussion group, has added a number of participants and expanded its meetings to include the summer months.

Archives

Archives has been busy processing and digitizing the museum’s archival collections to make them accessible to staff and researchers. A second major emphasis has been stabilizing The Ringling’s Audio-Visual collection. Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an assessment of this collection was completed, findings will assist in directing the future storage needs for this material. With a $27,000 grant from The Peck Stacpoole Foundation and a donation from Fred Pfening, funds have been raised to purchase a sprocket-less scanner so staff can safely digitize our 16mm and 8mm film. With $21,016 of support from the Center for Library and Information Resources, the Tibbals collection of 8mm films captured by Buster Bailey were digitized and are now accessible on Florida State University’s on-line public access catalog DigiNole.

To enhance our knowledge of John and Mable Ringling and support their legacy, the Archives staff compiled the Sarasota County real estate records of John and Mable Ringling, the Ringling family, and the Ringling Bank and Trust Company. This information will be used to inform how the Ringlings impacted our community. The archives staff assembled digital assets of John Ringling’s Sarasota County probate records and records from seven Tampa civil case lawsuits involving John Ringling from the National Archives and Records Administration. The Archives seeks to expand scholar and public access to its holdings by stabilizing a collection of forty-one Barnum & Bailey Circus press department scrapbooks from further deterioration and digitize this collection.

Archives staff guided ten department interns who contributed to a variety of departmental initiatives and provided tours to board members, donors, college classes and colleagues, which helped to raise awareness of the archives as a resource and of archives as a discipline. Archives staff contributed and participated in the museum’s digital initiative through development of the DigiLab, supporting the digital asset management project, working with Florida State Libraries hosting archival collections on DigiNole and curating social media content.