Sarasota Art Museum Archives - �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design

The glamour of the machine age at Sarasota Art Museum

awalters — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

By Jace Gonzalez ’28, Illustrations

Art Deco takes center stage at Sarasota Art Museum in Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration. During one of the Curator’s Tour events at the Museum, Senior Curator Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D., led a group of visitors through an in-depth exploration of one of the early 20th century’s most influential art movements.

This exhibition is pretty much a graphic designer’s dream. The centerpiece is a collection of 100 rare promotional posters from the 1920s and 30s, essentially the early days of modern advertising. The posters are large-scale and cover a wide range of products and experiences, from drinks and cars to luxury travel and sporting events. What’s interesting is that several of the brands featured are still around today: Bouillon Cube, Twinings Tea, Chrysler, and even the London Underground.

Yoon discusses the role of the toy plane replicas in the exhibition. Photo: Jace Gonzalez

I met with a small group of Museum visitors in the second-floor gallery. It was here that we began our journey into the evolution of Art Deco.

Alongside the posters, furniture pieces from the same period on loan from the Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University in Miami help bring the early 20th century to life. One standout is a round wood and glass table inspired by airplane propeller blades, that also doubles as magazine storage—a pretty clever design solution. There’s also a curved orange bench that was originally installed in the Cincinnati Union Terminal, one of the best surviving examples of American Art Deco architecture. It’s hard to walk past without stopping to look.

The gallery also features a solid range of other objects from the era, including original poster ads, tea sets, emblems, and toy replicas of vintage aircraft.

Photo: Ryan Gamma

One of the more unexpected highlights, though, is the Prohibition era barware. Designed to look like silos, bowling pins, airplanes, and car radiators, these pieces were created specifically to hide illegal alcohol, and they’re an example of just how creative people can get when under pressure.

The Art Deco movement drew heavily from the industrialism of its era, weaving machine-age aesthetics directly into its artistic identity. Its connections to the development of cars, planes, and other vehicles mark the height of the industrial period in the Americas and Western Europe.

French advertisement for Kub Bouillon, painted by Leonetto Cappiello. Photo Jace Gonzalez

Next to Kub Bouillon is an advertisement by Cappiello for the French newspaper Le Petit Dauphinois. Photo: Jace Gonzalez

As my visit extended into the late afternoon, I had the chance to speak with another visitor on the tour, a pharmacy student who had come to the Museum with his family. Despite his STEM pursuits, he grew up surrounded by artists and has spent his life so far learning to appreciate art, even if not creating it.

My tour mate reflected on the unique impact of seeing the work in person. “You can see pictures online, but they don’t really capture the scale of it,” he said.

His favorite piece was the Normandie poster by A.M. Cassandre (1935), which he called “a really powerful image, scary, almost.” As someone drawn to ships and trains, the sweeping scale of Cassandre’s ocean liner spoke directly to him.

The exhibition’s appeal spreads through all walks of life, welcoming artists and art enthusiasts alike.

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Can you see it? Different audiences, different perspectives at Selina Román: Abstract Corpulence

awalters — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

By Arsine Mkrtchyan ’28, Game Art, and Mateo Ortiz de la Pena Gomez Urquiza ’27, Game Art

At first glance, the gallery feels soft, almost sweet. Walls washed in pastel pink and powder blue hold what appear to be abstract landscapes: rolling curves, gentle shadows, fields of color. Some visitors pause. Others hesitate. A few turn around and walk out.

Then comes the realization.

They are not landscapes at all—they are bodies.

Currently on view at Sarasota Art Museum, Selina Román: Abstract Corpulence transforms tightly cropped photographs of the artist’s own body into large-scale abstract compositions. Through careful framing and pastel bodysuits, �Ļ�Ӱ�� Fine Arts faculty member Selina Román turns stomachs, thighs, hips, and backs into studies of line, shape, and color. The result is both intimate and disorienting; a quiet challenge to traditional notions of beauty and femininity.

But perhaps the most fascinating part of the exhibition is not what hangs on the walls—it’s how differently people see it. Sandra Lefever, a staff member at the Museum, has observed audiences navigating the space over the past six months. She noted that older and younger women often spend the most time with the work, studying it closely. Others, she observed, step inside briefly before deciding it may not be for them.

One piece in particular became her favorite after hours of looking. At first, she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Eventually, she recognized it: “It’s her back,” Lefever explained, pointing out the mirrored spine within the composition. That moment of recognition changed everything. “The whole thing reminds me of an iceberg,” she added, suggesting that what viewers first see is only a fraction of the meaning beneath the surface.

Even now, she says, visitors frequently misidentify the body parts. One canvas in the lower right remains “pretty ambiguous… it could be anything.”

The exhibition takes on yet another life through younger viewers. Lefever recalled guiding a group of third graders through the gallery. Many of them interpreted the works as landscapes, drawn especially to the pastel tones they described as “ice cream” colors. Their reactions reveal something essential about abstraction: meaning shifts depending on who is looking.

Organized by Sarasota Art Museum of �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design, and curated by Rangsook Yoon, senior curator at Sarasota Art Museum, Abstract Corpulence turns the gallery into a space of subtle resistance. By magnifying the body until it becomes unrecognizable, Román invites viewers to reconsider scale, perception, and the politics of size.

As the exhibition approaches its closing in March, one question lingers in the quiet, color-washed room: Is this exhibition about the body or about the way we choose to see it?

Perhaps it is less about identifying what part of the body we are looking at and more about recognizing how our own experiences shape what we see. In the end, the work does not demand a single interpretation. It asks only that we stay long enough to look and to look again.

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Director of Learning and Engagement from Sarasota Art Museum presents at national arts and disability conference

awalters — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0000

At this year’s Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disabilities (LEAD) Conference—hosted by the Kennedy Center in Cleveland, Ohio, from August 20–22—arts leaders from Sarasota institutions took center stage. The conference, now in its 25th year, is one of the most prominent national gatherings focused on accessibility in the arts, and this year saw record attendance with over 700 participants.

SAM’s Connie Cuadrado, alongside Kelli Maldonado and Allison Hunter from the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation, present on their experiences founding the Accessibility Advisory Council, here in Sarasota.

Saratota Art Museum’s Director of Learning and Engagement Connie Cuadrado, along with Kelli Maldonado, Executive Director of Mission and Impact at the Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation (SPAF), and Allison Hunter of SPAF, represented a collaborative effort born out of the 2023 LEAD conference in Boston: the Accessibility Advisory Council. Co-created by Cuadrado and Maldonado, the Council is a growing initiative focused on engaging community voices—particularly those with lived experiences of cognitive and physical disabilities—to help shape more inclusive and accessible arts programming.

The Sarasota team’s session, “Making it Happen, �մǲ��ٳ��,” shared the successes and challenges of launching the Council. Their presentation highlighted two key Council meetings held on November 18 and June 6, where members recruited through community partnerships participated in feedback sessions, tactile exhibition tours, and hands-on activities led by SPAF’s teaching artists.

The Accessibility Advisory Council at Sarasota Art Museum.

Topics covered included program engagement, accessible communication, and community outreach. Council members reviewed web accessibility tools and sensory-friendly resources like activity boards used at events such as the Wonder Symposium at The Ringling Museum, with plans to expand to the Van Wezel’s Full Family Fest on September 27, 2025.

As the Accessibility Advisory Council continues to grow, the Sarasota team looks forward to inviting more organizations to join this inclusive journey—one that began with a conversation at LEAD and is now making a tangible impact in their community.

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Fine Arts and Photography and Imaging faculty featured in Sarasota Art Museum solo exhibition

awalters — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 15:23:46 +0000

�Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design Faculty Member Selina Román will exhibit Abstract Corpulence, which draws from the artistic genres of photography, self-portraiture, and installation to explore and challenge conventional ideas of beauty and the plus-sized female body. Curated by Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D., senior curator at Sarasota Art Museum, the exhibition will be on view at the Museum from August 31-March 29, 2025.

Using her own body as the subject, Román creates tightly-cropped compositions that deconstruct the human figure into a series of abstract shapes and forms. Wearing pastel bodysuits and tights, the artist transforms her flesh into undulating landscapes and still-life compositions by photographing her body in a series of unconventional postures. The result is an intimate, provocative, and dreamlike installation that invites viewers to consider the human figure from a point of true abstraction and inquiry.

Román has long been interested in portraiture, often choosing women as her models. According to the artist, she loves photographing people, putting her subjects in strange positions, and emphasizing the essence of the portrait through fashion and prop selection. In this exhibition, however, it’s the artist herself who is in the crosshairs of the camera lens. Román says she has avoided self-portraiture for years, but now finds the approach freeing both artistically and psychologically.

“I think self-portraiture may be the most challenging genre of artmaking,” shared Román. “To turn the camera on ourselves takes a good deal of bravery. In these images, we reveal ourselves in a multitude of ways.”

Roman’s evolving artistic process has led to a shift from single-frame photography to composite images that border on collage. This new approach allows for greater control and scale, resulting in photography that is at once meticulously crafted and emotionally raw.

“Here, my body is the environment,” Román explains. “It’s too big again, but this time, that’s the point. This is what I want people to feel: that bigness is not a flaw. It’s a presence.”

While Roman’s newest exhibition is very personal, it’s also widely accessible.

“I find it thrilling when people connect with the art on view and bring their own experiences, memories, and stories to the work,” shared Román. “I create the initial meaning, and then my viewers create their own layers of meaning.”

“This exhibition is another example of how, as part of �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design, Sarasota Art Museum is able to draw on the talents and expertise of our accomplished colleagues to ensure that our exhibitions are exciting and compelling,” shared Executive Director Virginia Shearer. “In the past, we’ve been able to engage the talents of faculty like Joe Fig (Contemplating Vermeer, 2024) and Jamie DeRuyter (Future Now, 2025). This season, we are pleased to be bringing these wonderful photographs by Ringling photography faculty Selina Román to the Museum to share with Sarasota locals and tourists alike.”

In addition to being a faculty member at �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design, Román is a proud Floridian and Tampa Bay-based artist. Her work is currently in the collection of the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs, The Tampa Museum of Art and Hillsborough Community College, as well as numerous private collections.

Román will give an opening-day talk about the exhibition on Saturday, August 30, from 11 am-12 pm at Sarasota Art Museum’s Sarasota High School Alumni Auditorium. Learn more or buy tickets on the website. �Ļ�Ӱ�� students, faculty, and staff can attend for free, but must reserve a seat.

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�Ļ�Ӱ�� Department Head Joe Fig featured on CBS spotlight for Vermeer-inspired exhibition

awalters — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000

�Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design’s Fine Arts and Visual Studies Department Head Joe Fig was featured on the CBS morning show, Great Day Connecticut, for his traveling exhibition Contemplating Vermeer, which is now on view at the New Britain Museum of American Art. The exhibit was first shown at Sarasota Art Museum and curated by Senior Curator Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D.

During the segment, Fig gave a short tour of the exhibition, which includes an additional painting depicting a scene from the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Contemplating Vermeer features small-scale paintings inspired by the 2023 Rijksmuseum Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam. These works depict museum-goers closely engaging with Vermeer’s intimate scenes. They continue Fig’s decade-long Contemplation series that shifts focus between the art, its viewers, and the gallery spaces they occupy.

Great Day Connecticut segment, featuring Joe Fig and his exhibition Contemplating Vermeer.

The exhibition is currently on view at the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut, until January 11, 2026.

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Sarasota Art Museum to donate 650 basketballs from installation by David Huffman to local area schools and community centers

awalters — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Sarasota Art Museum of �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design (SAM) is proud to announce plans to give back to the community by donating 650 basketballs to Sarasota County Schools and select community groups following the close of its exhibition, Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press. The basketballs are currently featured in a towering pyramid sculpture by artist David Huffman titled Basketball Pyramid, as part of SAM’s presentation of the nationally traveling exhibition on view now through August 10, 2025. This commitment to giving back to the community through the arts began with a powerful gesture initiated by Huffman and proudly carried forward by Sarasota Art Museum.

“We are thrilled that the impact of this powerful exhibition will live on long after its closing date in the hands of local area youth,” said Sarasota Art Museum Executive Director Virginia Shearer. “We all know that art makes a meaningful impact here on the suncoast. This is just one more example demonstrating the many ways art benefits the everyday lives of Sarasotans.”

“This generous donation will come just in time for the 2025-2026 school year,” shared Angela Hartvigsen, Fine Arts Program Specialist for the Sarasota County Schools. “Community support like this fuels dynamic, hands-on learning and keeps students moving—literally! We are extremely grateful to Sarasota Art Museum of �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design for their amazing gift of hundreds of basketballs, which will bring energy and excitement to our physical education programs across the district.”

Of the 650 total basketballs, 546 balls will be distributed to 39 Sarasota County Schools, including 16 Title I Schools. Recipients include Alta Vista, Ashton, Atwater, Bay Haven, Brentwood, Cranberry, Emma E. Booker, Englewood, Fruitville, Garden, Glenallen, Gocio, Gulf Gate, Lakeview, Lamarque, Phillippi Shores, Southside, Tatum Ridge, Taylor Ranch, Toledo Blade, Tuttle, Venice and Wilkinson Elementary Schools; Booker, Brookside, Heron Creek, McIntosh, Sarasota, Venice and Woodland Middle Schools; and Booker, North Port, Oak Park, Pine View, Riverview, Sarasota and Venice High Schools. Additional balls will be distributed to Laurel Nokomis and Sky Ranch schools. The remaining 104 basketballs will go to serve local organizations including All Star Children’s Foundation, Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota, Girls Inc., Gulf Coast Sports Group’s Lions Club program, Sarasota City YMCA Branch and Sarasota Housing Authority’s Youth Thrive program.

“Sarasota Art Museum has consistently gone above and beyond to make sure every corner of our community feels seen, included, and supported,” shared Charles Walker, Sarasota Housing Authority Youth Thrive program manager. “Their latest donation of basketballs is just one more example of how they truly understand and respond to the needs of our youth. With Orange Ave. Park just steps away, basketballs are one of our most requested—and hardest to keep—items. This thoughtful gift from SAM is more than just equipment; it is an investment in the well-being of our youth, and a reflection of a partnership that continues to enrich lives in a meaningful way.”

“We are honored to be part of this inspiring initiative that brings together art, community and youth engagement,” said Roscelyn Guenther, senior director of Program Services for Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties. “The donation of basketballs from David Huffman’s Basketball Pyramid is more than just a gift of equipment. It’s a creative way to connect young people with the ideas and energy behind the exhibition. At Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties, we’re always looking for ways to spark curiosity, promote healthy activity, and broaden horizons. This generous contribution helps us do exactly that, both on and off the court.”

Personal to Political is a nationally traveling exhibition organized by Bedford Gallery and curated by Carrie Lederer, former Bedford Gallery curator.

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Juneteenth resources and events within our community

awalters — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Every year on June 19, we observe Juneteenth—also known as “Freedom Day,” “Liberation Day,” or “Emancipation Day”—a commemoration of the true, full emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.

The origin of this day traces back to June 19, 1865, when the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas, bringing word that the Civil War had ended and that all enslaved people were now free. Although President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years earlier, on January 1, 1863, enforcement of that order had been delayed in Confederate-controlled areas like Texas.

When the news finally reached the people of Texas, the newly freed communities marked the day with celebration, and it became known simply as “Juneteenth.”

In honor of Juneteenth, both �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design and Sarasota Art Museum will be closed, but there are plenty of ways to celebrate around town.

Installation view of Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press at Sarasota Art Museum. Photo: Ryan Gamma

Sarasota Art Museum exhibitions

The Museum will be closed on Juneteenth, but it has several exhibitions that highlight the history, present, and futures of African Americans.

Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press

Featuring works by 17 artists, this nationally traveling exhibition celebrates African American artists who are reshaping the contemporary art world, including Martin Puryear, Kerry James Marshall, and the Gee’s Bend Quilters. With 46 fine art prints, a selection of Gee’s Bend Quilts, four mixed media sculptures, and a large-scale basketball pyramid installation, this exhibition showcases a diverse array of artworks by both high-profile and underrepresented visual artists. Drawing from themes of history, identity, and spirituality, the artists included in this exhibition share complex stories of the African American experience through the artworks only they could create.

Chris Friday: Where We Never Grow Old

Multidisciplinary artist Chris Friday invites visitors into imagined sanctuaries in her first solo museum exhibition. Best known for her large-scale, yet intimate, figurative chalk drawings, Friday explores the literal and metaphorical safe havens we create. Taking inspiration from themes of nostalgia, family, culture, and spirituality, Friday creates an alternate reality through her art—a world untouched by the hardships and injustices of real life. Tender depictions of Black figures resting peacefully and ceramics representing everyday items that conjure comfort for the artist make up this world, portrayed in a larger-than-life scale. Gold-embellishments adorn Friday’s ceramics, a meaningful reference to the age-old tradition of bronzing precious childhood keepsakes.

Chris Friday: May We Never Grow Old at Sarasota Art Museum. Photo: Ryan Gamma

How to Celebrate Juneteenth in Sarasota and Manatee County

The Historic Leonard Reid House will host Community Care: Textiles Workshop tonight, Tuesday, June 17, from 6-7:15 pm. Dominique Goden will give a workshop on how to protect and preserve treasured family textiles. Participants should bring a small family heirloom, like napkins, ties, or handkerchiefs. The event is free to attend, but .

Mayors’ Feed the Hungry Program Juneteenth Food Drive Giveaway will take place on Saturday, June 21, at the Mount Raymond Baptist Church, 2410 Fourth Ave. E., Palmetto, . The free public event will include a food drive giveaway and a free lunch cookout from 10 am-2 pm.

Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe’s third annual Juneteenth Arts Festival, will take place on Sunday, June 22, featuring live performances, art, short films by local filmmakers and students from the �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design, the screening of Soul Crooners – The Documentary, which discusses the history of the group and was filmed as the troupe was getting ready to perform at the 2024 International Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem North Carolina.

This free event will be held on the WBTT campus (1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota) from 11 am-7 pm.

Books from the Alfred R Goldstein collection.

Art and resources at the Library

The Alfred R. Goldstein Library has physical and digital resources on Juneteenth and anti-racism for visitors to explore. Their summer hours are Monday-Friday 8:30 am-4:30 pm, and closed on the weekends. Explore their LibGuides online or visit and check out their curated collection in person. Students, faculty, and staff can check out up to 40 books at a time.

On the second floor of Goldstein, visitors can explore the Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center’s collection of works on paper and art books that share the history of radical Black activism, from Kara Walker’s pop-up book, Freedom, a Fable, to Brooklyn-based Char Jeré’s The periodic table of Black revolutionaries. Students, faculty, and staff can schedule a visit to explore the collection by using the signup form online and selecting a 45-minute appointment.

Header image: Installation view of Gees Bend Quilts and prints from Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press at Sarasota Art Museum. Photo by Ryan Gamma.

Contact:
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941-309-4008

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Chris Friday featured on WUSF podcast in talk about food depictions in her SAM exhibit

awalters — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Miami-based multimedia artist Chris Friday spoke to WUSF’s The Zest Podcast host Dalia Colon about her sculptural works in her solo show at Sarasota Art Museum, Where We Never Grow Old. The two discuss Friday’s relationship to and philosophy around food as a safe haven for African Americans, and her journey as an artist. The exhibit features gold leaf-covered ceramic sculptures of soul food favorites installed in an altar-like display on the wall.

You can listen to the episode or wherever you listen to podcasts. See the at the Sarasota Art Museum now.

Image: Chris Friday. Mother/Midas as liminal space, 2025. Chalk on black archival paper, approx. 24 x 24 in.; and “The only thing deviled round here is eggs,” “Fry that into a dome, slice it, take a spatula, smush fry it,” “That lil ole scoop?” series, High on the hog, and more, 2025. Hand-built kiln-fired ceramic, glaze solid gold luster. Installation view of Chris Friday: Where We Never Grow Old at Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 2025. Photo: Ryan Gamma.

Contact:
Office of Marketing and Communications
communications@ringling.edu
941-309-4008

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Sarasota Art Museum hosts solo exhibitions of artist educators, including Fine Arts’ Joe Fig

Office of Marketing and Communications — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 10:00:00 +0000

In the last month, Sarasota Art Museum of �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design opened solo exhibitions by three artist-educators, including Ringling’s own Fine Arts and Visual Studies Department Head Joe Fig.

Fig’s exhibition, opened on November 17 and depicts scenes from the 2023 Rijksmuseum exhibition of Johannes Vermeer paintings in Amsterdam. Fig’s small paintings feature museum-goers taking a close look at the famous paintings—intimate scenes portrayed on an intimate scale. Fig’s paintings range from seven to 14 inches in height, mirroring the scale of the paintings he depicts—Vermeer’s paintings ranged from seven to 20 inches on average.

The works expand on his decade-long Contemplation series, in which he captures his subjects: a focus that shifts from the artworks themselves, their viewers, and the gallery or museum space that hosts the whole scene. The works explore how people engage with or contemplate artworks in public spaces.

The works in Contemplating Vermeer bring the viewer’s attention to the social and cultural world around art. They simultaneously highlight the unfixed nature of works as they continue to create relationships throughout their existence and make the viewer distinctly aware of the jarring differences between the eras in which Vermeer and Fig are painting. In Vermeer: Girl with a Red Hat and Girl with a Flute / Rijksmuseum, a woman with black sunglasses on top of her head that look much like Wayfarers—an iconic symbol of contemporary culture—is a dramatic contrast to Vermeer’s Girl with a Red Hat, c. 1669. The large brim of the hat is thick with the fluff of feathers and screams “historic artifact”.

The works are as much art objects as they are learning opportunities and opportunities for self-reflection. They encourage close looking by making the viewer self-aware of their behavior as museum-goers and invoking curiosity as we watch others perform it.

Contemplating Vermeer has been reviewed in , , and was interviewed for the podcast.

Tammy Nguyen, Revolutions of the Same and the Other, at Sarasota Art Museum.

Also on view are Tammy Nguyen: Timaeus and the Nations and Claire Ashley: Chromatic Blush.

Both Nguyen and Ashley are teaching artists. Ashley teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Nguyen is an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University.

Nguyen’s exhibit offers lessons in history and mythology, nation-making, and national identity. as she layers historical documents with haikus, symbols, mythologies, and maritime law, to name just a few of the narratives that are cosmically aligned in the show. In Revolutions of the Same and the Other Nguyen combines 46 “flags of convenience” into 23 woven tapestries, inventing new dual national relationships and accompanying anthems that combine the anthems for each of those nations. The lesson in geopolitics is imbued with humor and wit, and even a little sarcasm.

Installation view of Claire Ashley: Chromatic Blush at Sarasota Art Museum.

Ashley, too, uses humor in her lessons on deconstructing the field of painting, by literally inflating the canvas. Her comically large sculptural paintings overfill the large galleries they inhabit. The slumpy, lumpy inflatables look like rogue parade floats that have gone on to live exciting lives and maybe even joined a very aesthetic cult. Humor, empathy, and play become the foundations for an embodied visitor experience for these works—the term viewing experience seems to miss the mark.

�Ļ�Ӱ�� students, faculty, and staff receive free admission to Sarasota Art Museum. Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer is on view until April 13, 2025. Tammy Nguyen: Timaeus and the Nations and Claire Ashley: Chromatic Blush are on view until January 19, 2025.

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2SLGBTQIA+ Pride spans campus and calendar

Office of Marketing and Communications — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:42:33 +0000

Throughout the year, �Ļ�Ӱ�� of Art and Design celebrates its 2SLGBTQIA+ community with programs and initiatives—from the History of Pride in October to the Second Chance Prom in April. As the campus sits silent and empty of all its students during the nationally-recognized Pride Month in June, here is a look back at some of the highlights from the last school year, and a glimpse at what’s to come in the 2024-25 academic year.

�Ļ�Ӱ�� dedicates the month of October to pride activities, so students are on campus to participate. October was established as LGBTQ+ History Month to commemorate the history of LGBTQ+ people and their rights, especially in academia, and create an opportunity to celebrate Pride during the academic year. The month also coincides with National Coming Out Day on October 11. In 2023, �Ļ�Ӱ��’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion programmed a series of events and educational opportunities, in addition to the year-round educational opportunities of their Lunch and Learn series.

The goal of these programs is to offer safe and brave spaces for queer and trans communities—communities that are too often the targets of violence and oppression. In higher ed, these students are sometimes met with concerning levels of discrimination, harassment, lack of visibility, and limited access to support services. Ringling students working with the CDI and members of the Student Government Association, with help from the campus’ Peterson Counseling Center and Community Engaged Learning department, have organized many events and programs to create opportunities for 2SLGBTQIA+ visibility, connection, and support—where students can find their people and find themselves.

Campus initiatives create a climate of care and visibility

On National Coming Out Day, the College hosted Planned Parenthood at the Peterson Counseling Center, in a relaxed and fun event where students could ask questions about sexual health and gender-affirming care while playing with puppies and making buttons.

CDI also threw a Queer Dialogue event in Scott Plaza, inviting students to share their stories while making s’mores around a campfire. Later that month, they hosted a lunchtime talk on gender and sexuality led by Ringling faculty Dr. Iva Petkova, coordinator and educator for the Gender and Sexuality minor.

To end the 2023-324 academic year, students cut loose at the Second Chance Prom, a redo and reimagining of the culminating event of high school. In the week leading up to the prom, CDI and Student Life transformed the College’s Queer Closet into a Prom Boutique, full of donated classic and alternative prom clothing and accessories, available to all students. Queer Closet is open throughout the school year and stocked with donated clothing as a free resource to match students’ gender identities and ultimately create an affirming experience for all genders and bodies. The under-the-sea-themed prom was sponsored by Project Pride and featured DJ Branna Lee, who started out as a drag DJ. CDI also hosted a Pride Block Party on campus in April.

Student Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Diversity and Inclusion Zeta Bengoechea described the evening, “All students felt welcomed and had a memorable evening. The decorations, music, and overall atmosphere were perfectly orchestrated to fit this year’s theme, Under the Sea. A large screen played marine life videos, there were mocktails with sea-inspired decorations, and jellyfish hanging from the ceiling. There was also a photo booth with props, and many students wore outfits from the Queer Closet Prom Boutique, which was fantastic. It was wonderful to see everyone having such a great time!”

Next year, the CDI is coordinating with local Drag Queens for an event on October 24 in the Diane Roskamp Exhibition Hall. Plans are also underway for an Out and Proud Showcase on October 9, from 3:30-5 pm on the first floor of the Alfred R. Goldstein Library, during Out at Ringling Week. The showcase aims to provide a platform for 2SLGBTQIA+ students to exhibit art that celebrates their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Collaborating with visiting artist

Belgian artist Lieven De Boeck collaborated with Ringling students over the fall semester, creating costumes for a queer parade, What’s Going on?, celebrating queer identity and visibility. The group performed the parade at Sarasota Art Museum, before traveling to Miami to perform at Untitled Art Fair during Art Basel week.

��2��ҵ��ղϱ��+ history highlighted in Liberal Arts courses

�Ļ�Ӱ��’s Liberal Arts Program offers several courses on LGBTQ+ history and culture each year. In Fall 2022, they offered LGBTQ+ Identities in Film & Literature: Queer Comics, which explored the cultural significance of queer comics as a form of activism from the late 1950s to the present day. Last fall they offered LGBTQ+ Activism, exploring moments of personal and group activism, advocacy, and change-making, with special attention to how legal, medical, popular culture, and other discourses supported or stymied progress, and how race, socioeconomic class, age, religion, and other axes of identity inflect LGBTQ+ identities and activism. Also this fall, Liberal Arts will offer the special topics course Mighty Real: The Histories and Controversies of Drag and an art history seminar, the History of Queer Animation.

�Ļ�Ӱ�� is a diverse community comprised of beliefs and backgrounds from every corner of the world, with students hailing from nearly 60 countries and almost every U.S. state. The institution celebrates academic freedoms and personal identities and expressions. And you are welcome here.

Photos: Cecilia Marty ’26, Photography and Imaging

Second Chance Prom memories

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