<p>From the St. Pete Times ( <a href="http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/28/Floridian/A_vision_rebuilt.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/28/Floridian/A_vision_rebuilt.shtml</a> )
~~~~
A sweeping $76-million expansion and renovation of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota will be celebrated Saturday with the opening of the Arthur F. and Ulla R. Searing Wing. The new wing is the final component of a five-year master plan that has transformed the museum from a decaying facility to the 16th largest in the United States.</p>
<p>In all, more than 150,000 square feet have been added to the campus, which includes the art museum, circus museum and Ca d'Zan, the Ringlings' mansion, which has been restored, along with the historic Asolo Theater. Entirely new are the Visitors Pavilion, the Education and Conservation Complex, the Tibbals Learning Center and Miniature Circus and the Searing Wing, a 30,000-square-foot gallery for special exhibitions attached to the art museum.</p>
<p>Two major shows - 70 paintings by American masters lent by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and jewels dating from 3,000 B.C. to the early 20th century from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore - will launch the Searing Wing.</p>
<p>Every major museum in west-central Florida is in some state of expansion; the Ringling is the first to be completed and by far the most ambitious.</p>
<p>John Wetenhall, the Ringling's executive director, calls it "one of the most extraordinary transformations of any museum in North America. It is a story of riches to ruin. And back again."</p>
<p>The Ringling's overhaul represents a philosophical shift for the museum and an acknowledgement by the state of Florida, which owned the museum for decades before transferring oversight to Florida State University in 2000, that without change, the museum might not survive.</p>
<p>The drama of its rebirth - full of political intrigue and financial maneuvering - is a story its founder, circus impresario John Ringling, would have loved.
~~~~
One example is a series of small exhibitions the Ringling will organize and loan to museums that lack its resources. A show of Joseph Albers prints from the Ringling is at the Tampa Museum of Art.</p>
<p>The Ringling will partner with FSU to produce two-day education seminars on art, dance, history, literature, drama and music, using FSU professors, Ringling experts and the museum's resources. Tech-savvy gallery enhancements will include podcasts for the museum's permanent collection.
~~~~</p>
<p>Website for the Museum: <a href="http://www.ringling.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ringling.org/</a></p>