The Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida has been graduating students for over 85 years. The private college offers two degrees in Arts and Fine Arts to a student population of over 1,500, with a faculty-student ratio of 1 to 10. Drive or walk by the building on North Tamiami Trail, but it wasn’t always at this location.
The college began in 1931 in buildings near the Ringling Art Museum on the Ringling estate in the city. John and Mable Ringling’s vision for the arts included having a school to teach courses in the field. Originally it was called The School of Fine and Applied Art of the John and Ringling Art Museum. It was affiliated with what is now Florida Southern College in Lakeland. Imagine the concern two years later when student enrolment dropped from 75 to 14 because of the Depression.
The Ringlings were determined to have an art school and offered scholarships to anyone who could afford to pay $250. Applications increased and in the same year the school dropped its Southern College affiliation and took the name Ringling School of Art. The solitary subject at the institution became art design.
The school eventually changed its name again to the Ringling College of Art and Design. Stand in front of the current school that was built in 2009. In addition to classrooms, the modern building has gallery spaces, a 200-seat auditorium and a café lounge area.
Plan to visit nearby Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park with a bust of the civil rights leader. Tables and grills make the park ideal for a picnic. In the other direction from Ringling College of Art and Design is Indian Beach Park on Sarasota Bay. The one-acre (0.4-hectare) park is popular for its boating and to watch the sun dip under the horizon.
