Dear Friends of The Ringling,

On March 18, The Ringling celebrated the opening of Reclaiming Home: Contemporary Seminole Art with free admission to all venues for our visitors. Over 2,000 people attended that day to help us commemorate this milestone, the museum’s first exhibition of contemporary Seminole art. Curated by Ola Wlusek, the Keith D. Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art, this was the culmination of over three years of work that brought together over 100 works by twelve different artists. Joining us for the celebration were the exhibiting artists and Seminole leaders, including Mitchell Cypress, president/vice chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida; Shaa-nutch Billie, Big Cypress council woman; and Gordon Wareham, director of the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, the official museum of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. 

Many of you may be familiar with our painting The Flight into Egypt by Juan de Pareja, the only signed work by the artist in the United States. Pareja was enslaved in Velázquez’s studio for over two decades before becoming an independent artist. His famous portrait by Velázquez was acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1970. After four centuries, our painting was finally reunited with the portrait in The Met’s exhibition Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter, which will continue through mid-July.

Several new exciting exhibitions that will be opening over the summer months. Lorna Bieber: Natural World showcases Bieber’s dense and beautiful images. Of an enormous scale, these images of nature and structure are constructed from image fragments woven together and then photographed. From the Chambers: Honoring John Sims is a small exhibition highlighting the final works of John Sims, the conceptual artist, writer, poet, and mathematician who died suddenly in December. The exhibition consists of a sculpture and video by Sims created in response to the demolition of John Chamberlain’s studio last year. The Ringling’s Chamberlain sculpture, Added Pleasure, will also be included in the exhibition.

I hope to see you around The Ringling this summer, enjoying all the museum has to offer. 

Steven High
Executive Director