Les and Marcia's Bohemian Life: John and Mable Ringling Museum

This trip is way back from Feb. While in Z-Hills we fell into a lazy vacation mood and just let the days happen. It was a great time and we met and made friends with so many fun folks. However, we had such an interesting time at the Ringling Museum I just had to tell you about it. My niece Laura gave us a tip to see the Ringling Museumin Sarasota. It sounded like a nice little afternoon visit. No not really – This is easily a two if not a three day visit. This stop was so much more then we thought it would be. The museum is on John and Mable Ringlings estate (yep – the circus folks). Complete with Ponds, Bridges, sculptures, Banyan Trees (gifts from Edison), a rose garden, Secret gardens, and their crazy over the top Gothic, Medieval, Mediterranean, etc Bay side mansion. There are two Circus museums: The Tibbals, This building has odds and ends about circus history but the real reason to go here is the “miniature train”. The construction of this train started in 1956 by Howard Tibbals (I don’t know who he is but he loves the circus, trains and must have a bunch of money). This train exhibit is set up to show the circus coming to, setting up, performing in and leaving town. You can observe the display from two levels. Tibbals even paid to have the building built so he would have a place to display his train set. The next is the “Original. It is full of posters, circus art work and hands on fun stuff. You can tight rope walk, ride in a clown car and watch how a clown puts on his face. You can see the original Ringling train car, Human cannon ball cannon and several rolling animal cages and the calliope. There are many paths throughout the grounds. It is very easy to wander into places that seem to have been abandoned and are guarded only by an aged, camouflaged garden gnome. The house is huge and wonderfully gaudy. Now that we have been filled with circus fun and frivolities it is time to go to the art museum. Don’t start yawning, I felt the same way –but we are here right? We paid for it right? First you are met by several docents that are very willing to help you get started on your art tour. The gallery opens to a huge courtyard overlooking Sarasotabay. Everything is over seen by a statue of David. Inside and to the right are paintings by Ruben (also my favorite sandwich). The deal with these 15^th century paintings is that they measure 20 x 30 feet. Their age, size and existence is amazing to me. Seeing these two rooms of monster sized paintings hooked us for the rest of the self guided tour. We took two days for our visit. You can stop at the Sarasota visitors’ center and save $2.00 on admission for the entire grounds. Also every Monday the art museum is free. This is a very easy place to visit and go back to. What a fun view into the lifestyle, interests and mind of a Circus mogul.

Tibbles Miniature Cicus