Ringling School of Art
 |
|
| Type |
Private Art School |
|---|---|
| Established | March 31, 1931 by Ludd M. Spivey as a branch of Southern College |
| Founder | Ludd M. Spivey as part of Southern College (1856) |
| Endowment | US$21.9 million |
| President | Larry R. Thompson |
|
Academic staff
|
160 |
| Undergraduates | 1,430 |
| Location |
Sarasota, Florida, USA 27°21′38″N 82°32′53″W / 27.3606697°N 82.5480817°WCoordinates: 27°21′38″N 82°32′53″W / 27.3606697°N 82.5480817°W |
| Nickname | Ringling Armadillos |
| Mascot | Remy the Armadillo |
| Website | www.ringling.edu |
Ringling College of Art and Design is a private four-year accredited college located in Sarasota, Florida that was founded by Ludd M. Spivey as an art school in 1931 as a remote branch of Southern College, founded in Orlando in 1856.
The art school separated from Southern College and became an independent nonprofit institution in 1933 and has changed names several times. It qualified for full accreditation as a degree-granting institution by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools on December 11, 1979. Upon joining as a member, accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Art was granted in 1984. The campus includes the Longboat Key Center for the Arts.
The concept of founding the college originated from Dr. Ludd M. Spivey, then president of Southern College, which was founded in 1856 in Lakeland, Florida, and is now called Florida Southern College. Spivey sought financial support for this concept from the Sarasota circus magnate, John Ringling. At that time, Spivey learned that Ringling was not interested in giving to Southern College and he was more interested in establishing his own art school at the museum founded with his first wife, Mable. The museum was constructed on their estate in the form of an Italian villa to house a vast collection of seventeenth century sculpture and paintings collected on their travels and at auctions. Most importantly, Ringling nearly was bankrupt. If Ringling could have, he would have opened his own art school that was drawn on his original plans for the museum, but not built because of a lack of funds.
Ringling's first wife died in June 1929, a few months before the crash of the stock market. Ringling's health began to fail as well. A year later, in 1930, he married Emily Haag Buck in Jersey City, New Jersey, a wealthy woman who turned out to have little interest in Florida. This marriage ended in divorce shortly before the death of John Ringling in 1936. He died just before losing his museum and residence to bankruptcy. His will left his residential property, including his home and the museum, to the state, otherwise they would have been sold for debts along with his other holdings. In retrospect, failure to involve Ringling in founding the school became a stroke of luck for its survival: if Ringling had founded the art school as requested, it would have been subjected to the same fate. After a ten-year struggle, his nephew was able to keep that deteriorating estate parcel intact and retained by the state.
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Wikipedia