The Ringling Magazine | May – September 2023

5401 Bay Shore Road

Sarasota, FL 34243

941.359.5700

ringling.org

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

Richard McCullough President

Jim Clark Provost

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Steven High

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Warren R. Colbert, Sr., Chair

Margaret D. Hausberg, Vice Chair

H. Michael Bush, Treasurer

Sarah H. Pappas, Secretary

Jasleen “Ritu” Anand

Dennis W. Archer

Francine B. Birbragher

Larry J. Cuervo, Jr.

Rebecca Donelson

Andrew M. Economos

Leon R. Ellin

Robert D. Hunter

Thomas F. Icard, Jr.

Ronald A. Johnson

E. Marie McKee

Lisa A. Merritt

Cynthia L. Peterson

Frederic D. Pfening, III

Kelly A. Romanoff

Mayra N. Schmidt

Debra J. Short

Mercedes Soler-Martinez

James B. Stewart

Edward M. Swan, Jr.

Janice Tibbals

Marla Vickers

Kirk Ke Wang

EX-OFFICIO BOARD MEMBERS

Joan Uranga, Chair

Volunteer Services Advisory Council

Dear Members,

On March 18, The Ringling celebrated the opening of Reclaiming Home: Contemporary Seminole Art with free admission to all venues for our visitors. Over 2,000 people attended that day to help us commemorate this milestone, the museum’s first exhibition of contemporary Seminole art. Curated by Ola Wlusek, the Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art, this was the culmination of over three years of work that brought together over 100 works by twelve different artists. Joining us for the celebration were the exhibiting artists and Seminole leaders, including Mitchell Cypress, president/vice chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida; Shaa-nutch Billie, Big Cypress council woman; and Gordon Wareham, director of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, the official museum of the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Many members may be familiar with our painting

The Flight into Egypt by Juan de Pareja, the only signed work by the artist in the United States. Pareja was enslaved in Velázquez’s studio for over two decades before becoming an independent artist. His famous portrait by Velázquez was acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1970. After four centuries, our painting was finally reunited with the portrait in The Met’s exhibition Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter, which will continue through mid-July.

In this issue of The Ringling Magazine, we feature several new exhibitions that will be opening over the summer months. Lorna Bieber: Natural World showcases Bieber’s dense and beautiful images. Of an enormous scale, these images of nature and structure are constructed from image fragments woven together and then photographed. From the Chambers: Honoring John Sims is a small exhibition highlighting the final works of John Sims, the conceptual artist, writer, poet, and mathematician who died suddenly in December. The exhibition consists of a sculpture and video by Sims created in response to the demolition of John Chamberlain’s studio last year. The Ringling’s Chamberlain sculpture, Added Pleasure, will also be included in the exhibition.

As we approach the summer months, we are once again proud to partner with the Circus Arts Conservatory (CAC) to present Summer Circus Spectacular in the Historic Asolo Theater. The CAC has curated a magnificent group of performers who will amaze and delight audiences both young and old. Please make sure to buy a ticket to support this wonderful summer experience.

Steven High Executive Director

ISSN 2165-4085

Reclaiming Home: Contemporary Seminole Art | This exhibition is supported, in part, by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Endowment; the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation Endowment; and the Bob and Diane Roskamp Endowment. Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture; the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

LEFT: Hanpo (Japanese, active early 20th century), The Eighth Attack on Port Arthur: The Flagship of Russia Struck our Buoyant Mine and Sank Instantly, and Vice Admiral Makarov Drowned (detail), 1904. Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 28 11/16 × 14 15/16 in. Gift of Mary and Robert Levenson, 2022. 2022.25.3

COVER:

Lorna Bieber, Quiet Night (detail), 2019-2022. Hannemuhle canvas and Ultrachrome II inks, 107 x 228 in. Courtesy of the artist. ©Lorna Bieber. Photo by Brad Trent.

ABOVE: John Sims (American, 1968 – 2022), Still from Lost Chambers, 2022. Video, run time 4:11. Museum purchase, 2022. 2022.38.2

LEFT: John Sims (American, 1968 – 2022), From the Chambers, 2021. Metal, 72 × 48 × 36 in. Museum purchase, 2022. 2022.38.1

FROM THE CHAMBERS

In December 2022, the innovative artist, activist, writer, and filmmaker John Sims passed away suddenly at his studio in Sarasota. The tragic loss of Sims left a deep impact on the art world. Sims’s art, informed by mathematics, design, sacred symbols, and poetic text, boldly confronted white supremacy, the Confederate flag, and the deep disparities and division within our society. The Ringling is honored to have had the opportunity to work closely with Sims, who

Shortly before his death, Sims penned a tribute to Abstract Expressionist sculptor John Chamberlain’s former studio site in Sarasota. The essay, along with a video poem by Sims, Sculpture magazine. Sims finished the essay standing before Chamberlain’s demolished studio, writing “I pour some coffee libation to the ground in memory, in honor and respect for the spaces that bring forth the best evidence of our humanity and capacity to create. Now, I am ready to get to the studio and work on my newest From the Chambers. Just weeks before his and the video poem Lost Chambers directly

From the Chambers: Honoring John Sims brings those two works together, on view publicly for the first time, in conjunction with John Chamberlain’s sculpture Added . The exhibition serves as just one part of the significant legacy the artist leaves

JUAN DE PAREJA at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

By Sarah Cartwright, PhD Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections

An important Spanish painting from The Ringling’s collection, the Flight into Egypt (1658) by Juan de Pareja, is currently on display in the exhibition entitled Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (April 3 to July 16, 2023). The exhibition is the first ever devoted to the life and art of Pareja, who was an enslaved assistant to the painter Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) before being granted his freedom and going on to pursue a successful career as an independent painter. Aiming not only to showcase Pareja’s artistic achievement, the exhibition will also offer important context for his work, examining enslaved labor in artists’ workshops within Spain’s multiracial society in the seventeenth century.

Though Pareja’s paintings are not well known, his likeness is, thanks to the Metropolitan’s famous portrait of him by Velázquez, painted in 1650 when Pareja accompanied Velázquez to Rome. The exhibition at The Met fulfills The Ringling’s longstanding desire that our Flight into Egypt be shown together with his magnificent portrait. Visitors to The Met will also have the opportunity to compare our Flight into Egypt—Pareja’s earliest signed and dated work—with several other works by him, including his monumental oil on canvas Calling of St. Matthew from the Prado Museum in Madrid, produced a few years later.

We still do not know where or when John Ringling purchased the Flight into Egypt, but there is little doubt that he was aware of the artist’s life as an enslaved assistant to Velázquez, since Pareja’s story was included in a number of the Spanish art books Ringling owned. He displayed the painting in Gallery 12 of the Museum of Art, with the rest of his Spanish collection.

In more recent years, interest in Juan de Pareja’s work has been steadily increasing, bringing greater attention to the Flight into Egypt; in 2019, our painting was included in a large exhibition of Spanish art at the San Diego Museum of Art. The Met’s exhibition will undoubtedly generate even greater awareness and appreciation of Pareja’s artistic achievements, and we are pleased to contribute to the study of this remarkable figure from seventeenth-century Spain.

TOP TO BOTTOM:

Juan de Pareja (Spanish, c. 1606-1670), Flight into Egypt, 1658. Oil on canvas. Bequest of John Ringling, 1936. SN339 Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660), Juan de Pareja, 1650. Oil on canvas. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc no. 1971.86.

FRESH BEADS

ART BY BRIAN ZEPEDA AND CORINNE ZEPEDA

By Ola Wlusek Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

The first major exhibition of contemporary Native American art at The Ringling, Reclaiming Home: Contemporary Seminole Art presents artwork produced by Seminole, Miccosukee, and mixedheritage artists from Florida, along with notable work by artists of Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole descent from Oklahoma, California, and beyond. The exhibition expands the conceptual framework of Native American art made in Florida today and provides a fuller understanding of the complexity of issues within art of the Seminole diaspora.

Reclaiming Home showcases examples of Indigenous beading, one of the defining mediums for contemporary Native art produced by southeastern tribes. Beadwork made from natural materials, such as shells and seeds, have been produced on this continent by Indigenous peoples for millennia. After the Seminole War (1816-1858), increased trade with Europe resulted in colorful glass beads being shipped from Italy and Czechoslovakia to bead distributors in the US, who then dispersed them to smaller trading posts in the Southeast.

Necklace beads became an important part of Seminole women’s daily attire in the nineteenth century, signifying independence and wealth. Today, many Seminole and Miccosukee women opt for a more minimal look, as seen in Corinne Zepeda’s intricate Blue Necklace (2022), as opposed to the heavy stacks of necklaces

worn by their female ancestors. Zepeda learned this skill-based practice from her father Brian Zepeda, who is widely recognized as one of the most skilled artists in the art form of beaded bandolier bags.

Bandoliers were shoulders bags worn by European militias in the eighteenth century and popularized by US soldiers during the Seminole War. By the nineteenth century, bandoliers had

the fraught history of the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, which not only brought war and slavery, but also carried plagues of viruses that devastated millions of Indigenous peoples.

Similarly, We the People (2020) merges traditional Seminole beadwork technique with a utilitarian object made ubiquitous at the beginning of 2020: a face mask. Two beaded visual motifs, a red open palm and a black clenched fist, occupy the mask’s finely beaded cloth surface. The red handprint, a symbol for silenced voices, indicates solidarity with missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people in North America. It is usually painted across the mouths of activists and campaigners to bring awareness to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement. The black fist, also known as the Black Power fist, is a symbol most closely identified in the US with the Black struggle for civil rights, most recently with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Corinne Zepeda’s works present a radical dimension to a traditional art form.

become an essential part of the regalia of Seminole leaders. During wartime, Native bandoliers functioned as communication and identification devices, due to the varied motifs and colors on their surface and the number of tabs on the strap, which were easily recognizable to different tribes and clans.

Today, bandolier bags, such as Sugar Ants Zepeda, have small square pouches with triangular flaps and straps worn over one shoulder. Zepeda’s bags contain meticulously hand-sewn floral and geometric designs created in tiny glass beads. The curvilinear imagery on Zepeda’s bags, sashes, and moccasins is inspired by local flora and fauna, popular culture, and even sci-fi television series.

Corinne Zepeda champions current social issues in her beaded utilitarian and ornamental work. Created in response to the COVID-19 global health pandemic’s sweeping effect on tribal communities, For Your Trauma (2020), a beaded Band-Aid lapel pin, functions as a visual reminder to practice self-care. The intimate work resonates on a larger scale as well, pointing to the resilience and determination of the Native peoples who have been navigating ways of caring for their communities, families, and elders since time immemorial. The work also recalls

OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM:

Corinne Zepeda (Seminole/Mexican, born 1997), Blue Necklace, 2020. Seed beads and ribbon, 14 × 1 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist. Brian Zepeda (Seminole, born 1971), Sugar Ants, 2021. Cotton, wool, and glass beads, 38 x 18 in. Courtesy of the artist.

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Corinne Zepeda (Seminole/Mexican, born 1997), We the People, 2020. Seed beads on cotton with elastic, 10 × 5 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist.

$45.00

By Heidi Connor Chief Archivist

At The Ringling Archives, technology continues to transform how researchers gain access to our information and the ways that we, as reference professionals, provide information to our patrons. The Archives is using digitization (the creation of digital objects from physical originals using a camera, scanner, or other electronic device) to offer access to the museum’s wide range of cultural heritage materials for research, learning, and enjoyment. The goal of digitization is to advance understanding of the rich and diverse world we have inherited. It provides greater opportunities to share, and it can even “virtually return” cultural heritage that was displaced from communities as a result of a disaster or other factors.

The newest addition to The Ringling’s digital technologies is a Bookeye scanner. Its specifications allow us to safely digitize oversized and delicate objects such as press books, scrapbooks, and diaries. Once digitized, they will be accessible on the Archives’ portal at Florida State University’s public access catalog DigiNole. Many of these coveted cultural heritage materials have been eagerly awaited by researchers and can now be made accessible around the world.

The Archives has selected two performers’ scrapbooks and an elephant keeper’s diary to be the first items digitized on the new Bookeye scanner. One of those scrapbooks, known as the Zazel scrapbook, is fragile and bears scars of fire damage but has long been sought after by researchers. Its original owner, Rosa Richter, performed under the stage name of Zazel. She was a tightrope and aerial acrobat, the protégé of rope-walker William Leonard Hunt (also known as The Great Farini). In 1871, Hunt built and patented a

mechanism for launching a human projectile through the air into a safety net. On April 2, 1877, at the age of 16, Zazel debuted in her aerial performance with a spectacular finale: she descended into a cannon and was shot out into the air and over the heads of the amazed audience. The explosion and simultaneous propulsion captured the attention of audiences everywhere. Her scrapbook holds clippings, photographs, sheet music, and correspondence.

Route books were published at the end of a show’s season and distributed to show personnel. These primary source documents capture the towns and dates where the circus performed, list circus personnel, and include anecdotal stories. They are an important resource that the Archives staff uses to respond to research requests. There were no route books published for the 1909 season of the Barnum and Bailey Show. However, the Tibbals Circus Collection holds a pocket diary that captures daily accounts of the 1909 show, written by the elephant keeper Fred M. Sonend. The diary is tightly bound, yet the Bookeye’s dual camera system can successfully digitize this volume with no damage to the diary. Technicians may need to hold the book open with their fingers; the scanner will erase the fingers from the scanned image.

Another unique treasure in the Archives is the scrapbook of Charles B. Tripp. Tripp was born in 1855 without arms but learned to use his feet and legs to carry out everyday tasks. He even became a carpenter and a calligrapher. In 1872, he joined P.T. Barnum’s Great Traveling World’s Fair and was billed as The Armless Wonder. The Tripp scrapbook in The Ringling’s collection is one he made for his mother on her sixty-first birthday (November 5, 1882). It holds family photographs, colorful floral scraps, family letters and greeting cards, printed poems, and verse.

These examples just skim the surface of the Archives’ digitization projects that will soon be available and easily accessible thanks to the Ringling’s acquisition of the Bookeye scanner.

ARCHIVES

OPPOSITE PAGE: Charles B. Tripp (1855-1930), Scrapbook, presented to his mother November 5, 1882 on her 61st birthday. Collection of the family of Charles B. Tripp.

THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM Fred M. Sonend, Diary, 1909. Tibbals Circus Collection of Diaries. Rosa Richter “Zazel” (1863-1937), Scrapbook, 1877-1879. Tibbals Circus Collection of Scrapbooks.

LORNA BIEBER NATURAL WORLD

By Christopher Jones

Stanton B. and Nancy W. Kaplan Curator of Photography and Media Arts

The Ringling will present a solo focus exhibition of works by Lorna Bieber in May that includes two new pieces making their debut in the Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Gallery for Contemporary Art. Bieber’s artwork first and foremost encourages us to indulge in the pleasures of looking and discovering anew the details of the visual world.

Bieber’s artistic practice is grounded in the principles of appropriating, recycling, and manipulating imagery. Her process involves painting on or collaging images, then rephotographing them to make them appear as seamless, if surreal, compositions. She discovered that banal, discardable images could become reenchanted through photographic means, such as amplifying detail into mammoth proportions or making grand objects small and intimate. The pictures she creates often appear as if they were artifacts from the looking-glass world of photographic images. In this uncanny landscape, we find

overlooked or trivial images elevated to the stature of allegory or archetype. Bieber is less interested in representing the world mimetically than in discovering visual touchstones that seem to emerge directly from our shared consciousness.

Bieber’s most recent work over the past decade has become increasingly monumental and process-oriented. These massive works, which she calls her Montage series, take up vast sections of wall, but are made from small graphic fragments painstakingly woven together. One of the first of these, Tapestry (2015), will be on display as part of the exhibition. It consists of a dense array of butterflies, flowers, and other photographic spolia of the natural world that Bieber gleaned and manipulated using a copier machine. As if assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle, she carefully considers the placement of each element, sizing and resizing when necessary, and seeks to create an overall visual harmony of parts relating to the whole. The process

PREVIOUS SPREAD:

typically takes a year or two to complete. Once finished, she digitally photographs the work and has it produced on canvas, connecting her practice to the medieval tradition of tapestries and textile wall-hangings.

In just the past few years, Bieber has further developed her methodology for making her Montages to include images that she herself takes on her iPhone, and she has also expanded from her black and white compositions into using a new palette of color. The Ringling will be debuting her two newest works, Ordinary Day (2019) and Quiet Night (2022), both of which demonstrate the evolution of Bieber’s process. In each of these engrossing artworks, buildings and structures emerge from an entanglement of dreamlike flora, much as memories emerge into consciousness. As viewers, our field of vision is overwhelmed by the scale and detail of the work, and our eyes can only apprehend small details and sections at a time. The artist likens this to stitching together a fragmented narrative without a discernible beginning or end.

Lorna Bieber’s work reminds us of the image world that inundates our daily existence. Our experience of reality is mediated through a barrage of photographic digital images that supplants our connection to the natural world. Yet, Bieber is less interested in a critique of this condition than she is in offering her work as an antidote, a way to inspire viewers and reconnect with our shared sense of wonder.

THIS SPREAD, ABOVE:

Lorna Bieber, Tapestry (detail), 2014-2016. Hannemuhle canvas and Ultrachrome II inks, 132 x 249 in.

Lorna Bieber, Quiet Night (detail), 2019-2022. Hannemuhle canvas and Ultrachrome II inks, 107 x 228 in. Photo by Brad Trent.

THIS PAGE, RIGHT:

Lorna Bieber in her studio in front of Quiet Night, 2022. Photo by Brad Trent.

All images courtesy of the artist. ©Lorna Bieber.

Internship Highlight DOMINIQUE GODEN

The Ringling’s internship program is one of the core tenets of the museum’s mission to educate and inspire. Interns work alongside Ringling staff and volunteers to learn foundational museum skills, and they also complete many important projects that bolster their resumes and distinguish them from their degree-seeking peers.

Dominique Goden started as a Ringling intern in August 2022. In May 2023, she’ll graduate with a master’s degree in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies (MCHS) from Florida State University. Dr. Jay Boda, Associate Director of Academic Affairs and Collections, sat down with Dominique to reflect on her time interning at The Ringling.

JAY BODA Hi, Dominique. Please say a little bit about your background before interning at The Ringling.

DOMINIQUE GODEN I graduated from the University of Tampa with a bachelor of arts, majoring in history with a global and culture concentration, and minored in business administration. I also got a certificate in international studies. I’ve researched Japanese culture along with taking museum studies courses. This led me to Florida State’s MCHS master’s program.

JB And why did you choose FSU’s MCHS master’s program?

DG To make myself more competitive as an early career professional. I looked at other schools, but the MCHS program offered The Ringling Track. Most museum program internships focused on just one discipline. The Ringling Track gave me a chance to explore a variety of my research interests and try jobs I hadn’t experienced before.

JB I know you’ve been busy the past year working in almost every department at The Ringling. Share some highlights.

DG Well, in the fall semester, I rotated through departments to learn about everything The Ringling does. I worked with staff in education, development, visitor services, security, the Historic Asolo Theater, registration and prep, archives, library, and even the conservation lab. As for highlights, I helped write a development grant and gathered information from

the departments for the next capital campaign. I really liked getting to work in the conservation lab, where I learned object handling and how to do light cleaning of Spanish ceramics. Oh, I also helped write a library research guide about women in circus from the 1960s to present. For this, I interviewed Peggy Williams, a retired Ringling Bros. clown who now works parttime at The Ringling Archives.

JB Sounds like you got to experience and do several types of jobs and projects. What about spring semester?

DG For spring, I’m specializing and doing projects of my choice. For this, I’m working with Jennifer Lemmer Posey, Tibbals Curator of Circus. I’m helping her develop a textile condition reporting tool for circus costumes. I’d like to be a textile conservator someday. I’m also helping Marissa Hershon, Curator of Ca’ d’Zan and Decorative Arts, as a research assistant to organize and catalog primary sources about The Ringling’s historic home. For my capstone research paper, I’m comparing wartime propaganda between the US and Japan, which connects to my research into Japanese culture.

JB It really sounds like you had a chance to explore the museum field and build a robust resume during your internship year. What’s next for you after graduation?

DG I’m applying to a variety of fellowship programs for a gap year. Then perhaps another master’s degree in textile conservation. After that, I’m not sure.

JB What will you remember from your time at The Ringling?

DG The opportunity to learn about everything The Ringling does. To see it in action. To see what it takes for everything to come together. It was great to actually be here and to see it happen in person instead of just reading about it in a textbook.

To help support The Ringling’s internship program, scan this QR code and select Internships. (or visit bit.ly/Give2Ringling )

TEACHING ARTIST OUTREACH PROGRAM LAUNCHES AT THE RINGLING

The Ringling remains committed to equitable access to the arts for all. Our long-standing outreach program is key to forging new relationships with our communities and sharing the museum’s resources with them.

Thanks to generous private donations, the Ringling Education and Outreach staff recently expanded to include two part-time teaching artists, both of whom are practicing artists from the community. These teaching artists bring art making to local partners such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee, United Way Suncoast, and the Sarasota Housing Authority (SHA). SHA’s Family & Youth Services Manager Michelle Stears says, “Sarasota Housing Authority is deeply grateful to The Ringling for the fabulous outreach arts and literacy programming they bring to SHA’s public house week-after-week, month-aftermonth, and year-after-year. We have many amazing partners but few as steadfastly committed to our kids and families as The Ringling. The teaching artists are not just teachers and they’re not just artists, they are passionate about connecting with and inspiring our kids.”

The Ringling, along with the program’s valued donors Robin and Roy Grossman, believes in the transformational power of the arts. We hope these programs may be the spark that can change the trajectory of a life, impacting a family for generations to come.

If you would like to help us deepen our impact through support of this new initiative, please contact development@ringling.org.

FREE FAMILY SUMMER PROGRAMS

RETURN JUNE 6!

Summer at The Ringling means opportunities for families to visit, cool off in the galleries, and create art together. Family programs return this summer with free activities for all ages, including Family Art Making (FAM), FAM Open Studio, ROAR!, and Stroller Tours. Learn more and register online at ringling.org

Have a great summer with The Ringling!

CIRCUS SEASON NEVER ENDS!

By Elizabeth Doud Currie–Kohlmann Curator of Performance

If you have spent any time in Sarasota and follow circus, you know that the Circus Arts Conservatory (CAC) is the region’s preeminent circus organization. However, you may not have realized that the CAC is also renowned both nationally and internationally for their contributions to the field. CAC’s annual world-class Circus Sarasota tent season, their thriving Sailor Circus Academy youth training and education program, and Summer Circus Spectacular, their exciting indoor summer variety show hosted in The Ringling Historic Asolo Theater, are all part of their mission to support the entertainment, education, and enrichment of the circus arts.

Over the last sixteen years, The Ringling has been honored to collaborate annually with CAC to present Summer Circus Spectacular as a distinctive attraction for local residents and visitors. Summer Circus Spectacular at The Ringling has delighted children and adults alike by selling out two shows daily to summer camps, senior centers, and other diverse community groups who love circus. Museumgoers visiting Sarasota for the first time find it irresistible to catch a show during their time at the museum, and there could be no finer way to connect The Ringling’s circus legacy with the thrill and vitality of live circus arts.

The Ringling’s collaboration with CAC began decades ago, when the museum invited the organization to perform in the Circus Museum. The first show resulting from this invitation took place in the Wagon Room of the Historic Circus Galleries in 1998. The Ringling’s staff and volunteers greatly admire the CAC’s leadership in the circus world, their deep commitment to circus pedagogy, and their continued advancement of the extraordinary legacy and heritage of the circus. CAC founders Dolly Jacobs and Pedro Reis are highly respected circus performers who boast far-reaching ties to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus ® lineage. For all their productions—including the annual Summer Circus Spectacular—they rely on rich experience and knowledge of world circus to assemble outstanding teams of behind-the-scenes and center-ring talent.

Join us for the 2023 Summer Circus Spectacular

June 9 – August 12. Tickets are on sale now!

Photo by Cliff Roles

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT WILMER PEARSON

Wilmer Pearson has been a Ringling Museum volunteer for more than 20 years. During that time, he’s contributed 12,000 hours from a dozen different volunteer assignments, even playing the role of John Ringling for special events. After having dedicated so much to his beloved Sarasota over the years, Wilmer has finally decided to move back up north to be closer to his family in Wisconsin. The Ringling’s staff, volunteers, and visitors will all miss him dearly.

Hailing from Ontario, Wisconsin, Wilmer began visiting Sarasota over the winters to escape the cold and snow. In 1969, he gave year-round Florida living a try and was hired by Riverview High School to teach tenth-grade English. During that time, he recalls visiting The Ringling and marveling at how it all came to be. He was especially taken with the Historic Asolo Theater. Wilmer enjoys performing and directing, and he was charmed by the eighteenth-century theater’s beauty.

After a few years of living in Sarasota full time, Wilmer returned to Wisconsin, where he worked as a teacher for thirty-two more years. Over the summers, he owned and operated a canoe rental and restaurant on the Kickapoo River. The restaurant offered homecooked meals along with plenty of homemade desserts. In fact, cooking and baking are Pearson family traditions. For the last fourteen years of his mother’s life, she and Wilmer enjoyed baking and delivering sweets to seventy-five of their neighbors on a regular basis.

ANNOUNCING DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP CARDS!

We are excited to introduce a new benefit as part of The Ringling Membership program! Beginning July 1, we will be converting to digital membership cards that can be downloaded

After he retired from teaching, Wilmer became a snowbird in Sarasota. He knew just where he wanted to volunteer. A restored Ca’ d‘Zan had re-opened to an eager public and was in need of tour guides. Wilmer joined a training class of other aspiring guides, many of whom became lifelong friends. After a few years of volunteering, Wilmer became a museum member, and he has been one ever since. He didn’t join for the free admission or other benefits; rather, he wanted to be deeply involved with the museum and support it however he could. In fact, Wilmer is now a member of the Legacy Society, inspired by John Ringling’s vision for what the museum could (and did) do for Sarasota. During his time at The Ringling, Wilmer witnessed the museum’s burgeoning stewardship by Florida State University and all the growth and support that came with it.

When asked what his favorite venue is, he answers without hesitation: “Circus!” Favorite object? “The Tibbals model!”

Wilmer observed that the addition of the Howard Bros. Circus Model turned the circus collection into a museum for all. Touring guests through the circus galleries provided him opportunities for interaction, storytelling, and meeting the circus community. Some guests even commented that with his booming voice and tall stature, he could be a ringmaster. In many ways, Wilmer has been The Ringling’s own ringmaster, guiding thousands of guests, sharing countless objects, and helping children of all ages find delight in their visit.

to your personal smartphone device. This new benefit will be included at all membership levels. We will be sharing more details and information in the near future, so stay tuned!

HANPO

The Eighth Attack on Port Arthur: The Flagship of Russia Struck our Buoyant Mine and Sank Instantly, and Vice Admiral Makarov Drowned

By Rhiannon Paget, PhD Curator of Asian Art

Pitching sharply amid clouds of smoke and spray, the Petropavlovsk, flagship of the Russian fleet, is depicted moments after striking a Japanese naval mine off Port Arthur (Lüshunkou), Manchuria. A gaping hole is visible below the water line. Its captain, Vice Admiral Makarov (1849–1904), appears on deck, sword raised in defiance. Six hundred sailors, officers, and crew members died in the impact and as the warship was swallowed by the Yellow Sea. Makarov was a respected strategist in Japan prior to the war; although the sinking of his ship was an unequivocal victory, the artist Hanpo (active early 20th century) and his peers depicted him as an honorable and valiant opponent. An English title is overprinted in silver at the bottom of the lower sheet, suggesting how Japanese publishers anticipated foreign interest in this event.

This is one of two dramatic battle prints by Hanpo that were donated to The Ringling by Mary and Robert Levenson. The images visualize pivotal episodes of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), a conflict fought over control of the Korean peninsula and parts of Manchuria, for Japanese audiences. Although facing competition from photography and lithography, which could be produced more cheaply and efficiently, woodblock-printed battle scenes enjoyed brief revivals during the first SinoJapanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War ten years later. The spectacular, vividly colored scenes made possible by woodblock printing gave this medium an advantage over newer reprographic technologies.

Hanpo’s surviving battle prints exhibit a flair for drama, sophisticated composition, and lively brushwork. The artist’s identity, however, remains obscure. These designs are frequently mis-attributed to the literati painter Yasuda Yanpo (1889–1947), who signed his name with different Chinese characters and was barely a teenager at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War.

Hanpo (Japanese, active early 20th century), The Eighth Attack on Port Arthur: The Flagship of Russia Struck our Buoyant Mine and Sank Instantly, and Vice Admiral Makarov Drowned, 1904. Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper, 28 11/16 × 14 15/16 in. Gift of Mary and Robert Levenson, 2022. 2022.25.3