Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/105484
Sarasota News Leader January 25, 2013 name to the Ringling School of Art, it was that group of artists who came as instructors in the '30s who gave impetus to the town as a destination for people to come and paint and study art." Page 95 ed by the association that they helped build. The popularity of non-representational art shifted everything." Dean added, "The [Ringling] school started in 1931. [John] Ringling was going broke. Many teachers worked for a year-and-a-half with no pay. But we survived. The school was the first in Florida to take G.I. Bill students. When I started in 1985, we had 380 students, 28 faculty. We now have 150 faculty and 1,500 students and are a world-class institution." "At the end of World War II, [it was] the G.I. bill that flooded those studios [at Ringling] with the young artists, that nucleus of young men and women who came in the post-war years that lifted the Sarasota Art Association into prominence," Hartman continued. "For many years there were no private galleries to show work. But slowly that changed, and Kipling mentioned that by the time she came at one time there were as many as 14 private to Sarasota, in the 1980s, a number of galleries schools, many of them quite small, giving pri- had sprung up. vate instruction." "My impression is that the galleries are not Hartman noted, "By the 1950s, there were 80 flourishing," she said. "What is it like now in working artists in Sarasota with their own the gallery scene and artists making a living working studios. So in the 1940s and 1950s, here now?" she asked the panel. there was a blossoming of artists and galleries. This itself gave impetus to the legend of Hartman responded that the downturn in the Sarasota as an artists' colony," said Hartman. economy brought on by the Great Recession had been hard on galleries and artists. He "And Sarasota had it all," added Connor. noted, "There has been a devaluation of the She and other members of the panel discussed worthiness of the visual arts. The demographthe scenery, the light, the beaches, the fishing ics of a small town make it very difficult for and the warm weather as factors that drew young artists. I would say that the quality of and kept many artists in this community — art I'm framing is not the same as that from 35 years ago." and gave them ample subject matter. Connor continued, "In the late 1960s, the Sarasota Art Association was the venue for local artists to show their work and to sell their work, so in the late '60s, when non-representational art came in, most of the people — the local artists — that were trained or worked at Ringling were painting landscape and still life and portraiture in these shows. They weren't being picked anymore; the non-representational art was. So they weren't being promot- Dean added, "When I started writing for The Longboat Observer, there were eight or 10 viable galleries that did monthly shows, but they have just dissipated over the years. It seemed much more viable then. There are a number of reasons it is difficult in Sarasota. There is too much light here [causing artwork to suffer degradation], and many of the people [moving here] already collected art and if anything are getting rid of it now."