Ringling International Arts Festival Blog in Sarasota, FL. Theater, Dance, Music and Visual Arts

When the folks at The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art notified us last year that they were teaming up with the Baryshnikov Arts Center to create the Ringling International Art Festival (RIAF) – the marketing wheels started turning in my head, and haven’t stopped moving since. It is with great excitement and anticipation that I welcome the RIAF to Sarasota & Her Islands this fall! 

Not only will the hundreds of artists coming to our great destination October 7 – 11, 2009, enrich the lives of both locals and visitors alike, but the awareness this first class festival will bring to our region is priceless. It is great that the State of Florida is investing in the festival – it really shows their commitment to cultural tourism!

The Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau (SCVB) is proud to be a part of the marketing plan that the extraordinary Ringling staff has pulled together, and my staff and I look forward to reaching out to our visitors (in both conventional and unconventional ways) that are located all around the world to let them know about the distinctive festival that awaits them this October, in our very special destination.

On a personal note – fair warning now that I am taking Oct 7-11 off from work as vacation days as there is no way that I am going to miss any of the performances! We are talking about some of the world’s most exciting artists who will be here in our backyard. I’ve always had to go to New York or Chicago for this kind of experience. This is simply amazing!

Virginia Haley
President
Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau

The Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau, is the sales and marketing organization contracted by the Sarasota County Tourist Development Council (TDC) to champion the growth of business and leisure tourism in Sarasota County. The tourism industry is a leading economic engine for the county, with 4 million visitors generating a $2 billion economic impact and nearly 17,000 local jobs last year.

What do you get when you combine one of the country’s leading Art Museums with a radical NYC performance space nobly focused on providing precious resources for the creation of new work to the most vital artists in the field? What happens when the traditional meets the radically new? What occurs in the community that gets to witness it all up close for the first time? Is there a word for that experience anywhere? RIAF! Maybe we’ve created not only a new event for Sarasota, but a new word to describe it to the world. For there is little doubt the world will be watching. I know for certain that in my own circle of artists and producers working in an international context, the word is out and heads are turning, and that’s neither easy nor common. The forces at play here have combined to create an event that is all too rare in the US, so much so that we can’t help but feel privileged to be a part of it. The Sarasota community will witness a rarity for these turbulent times or any time: the birth of a major new arts festival that brings a sampling of the world’s greatest artists under one umbrella.  One can envision other cities in the US with major arts initiatives and high hopes for bringing such a level of quality to their communities wondering how we got this lucky. Well, there are many people to thank for that and credit will be granted in good time – the important thing is that it’s happening, and as a result this October will be an incredibly exciting time for Sarasota, and everywhere else.

I’ll never forget my first visit to the Ringling Museum. Mine followed previous visits by the heads of the Baryshnikov Arts Center, including the man himself, but as someone with a major soft spot for the Circus Arts and the evolution of that tradition and its ever-growing vitality in the performance scene, I felt I had finally found its mecca – the ideal fusion of a unique and vital facet of American history seen in a unique context and its continued relevance to the arts community worldwide. Why had I not been there before?!

In a situation like this, we are lucky to have the voices of the past guiding the vision and execution of this premiere event, and when these artists descend on the Sarasota community in October, the feeling of being present at something larger than what we could have ever imagined it to be will give us that feeling that ONLY a Festival can offer. That feeling of the now being unsurpassed in quality; and that funny feeling that happens when the person who you just bumped into while reaching for a chip happens to be someone who profoundly influenced the way you  see the world at some point; and that in the end your community played a major role in the shaping and developing of a work that will soon reach tens of thousands  of people worldwide and impact many, many more.

And it all begins with the wave of a baton from no less of a master that Robert Spano on October 7. It will be one to remember.

Thomas O. Kriegsmann

Thomas O. Kriegsmann is a producer and curator who founded ArKtype in 2006 toward the long-term development, production and touring of new internationally based performance work on a variety of scales. His acclaimed work as producer has been seen across Europe, South Africa, East Asia, North and South America and Australia. Kriegsmann is Festival Director for the Ringling International Arts Festival. More info at Arktype.