The Ringling in Sarasota breaks ground on new glass pavilion

SARASOTA -- It was the introduction not just of a new building, but of a new area of focus for Sarasota's John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

On Wednesday morning, about 100 people gathered outside the John M. McKay Visitors Pavilion at the Ringling for a groundbreaking ceremony. In fall 2017, if everything stays on schedule, the Ringling will unveil its new Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion, a gallery devoted to studio glass art.

On hand for the groundbreaking, besides Ringling officials, were John Thrasher, president of Florida State University, and Nancy and Philip Kotler and Margot and Warren Coville, the two couples whose donations are making the new pavilion possible.

"The Ringling will become an internationally known center for the study of studio art glass," Thrasher said in remarks before the Kotlers and the Covilles ceremonially dug into a container of sand to symbolize the beginning of construction and the medium to which the new building will be devoted.

Steven High, executive director of The Ringling, said the building design evolved from an original concept that would have featured glass exterior walls.

"At the outset, I wanted it to be all glass," High said. "And the original idea was to house all of our glass in this pavilion. But we decided that wouldn't be the best way to serve the art and our visitors, so we turned it into a gallery."

Officials moved away from the idea of an all-glass structure to control the light in order to best show off the glass sculptures. The building will now feature glass walls behind rigid aluminum baffles directing the light. The baffles let light in, and the light will change as the sun moves across the sky.

The two-story pavilion will connect to the east side of the visitors pavilion. The entrance to the Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion will be adjacent to the entrance to the visitors building.

Besides exhibiting works of studio glass -- an art form that developed in the 1960s in Toledo, Ohio, which has spawned such well-known artists as Dale Chihuly -- the Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion will offer much-needed amenities for the Historic Asolo Theater.

That theater now has no rehearsal area, which was sometimes a problem during the Ringling International Arts Festival and other events that brought several performance groups into the theater at the same time.

"It's been limiting," said Dwight Currie, Ringling curator of performance.

The new building will have a rehearsal area exactly the same size as the stage in the Historic Asolo Theater. The rehearsal space could be used for out-of-town companies to develop and premiere new work in Sarasota.

"It can be less expensive for these groups to come to Sarasota for two weeks than to rent rehearsal space in New York," Currie said. "This will allow them to be more engaged with the community."

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 11:52 PM with the headline "The Ringling in Sarasota breaks ground on new glass pavilion ."