Treasure Trove

Arts Groups Pick Some of Their Favorite Items from Their Collections

All of them serve as reminders of the breadth our arts groups have to offer.

By Kay Kipling December 1, 2020

Sarasota Ballet: Valses nobles et sentimentales

This Sir Frederick Ashton work, originally choreographed in 1947 for The Royal Ballet, was designed by Sophie Fedorovitch. (Dancers pictured are Ricardo Graziano and Danielle Brown.) It was first performed by The Sarasota Ballet in 2012, and again for the company’s sold-out performances at the Joyce Theater in New York in 2016. The sets and costumes were purchased by The Sarasota Ballet and are currently in its warehouses.

The Ringling: Binky & Tony Forever, 2009, by Deana Lawson

According to curator Christopher Jones, Lawson’s photographs often appear as candid intimate moments taken from everyday life. But in reality, they are artfully staged tableaux in which the artist invokes the nuances and textures of Black life and memory in America. A recurring subject: the representation of intimacy and desire, particularly from a Black female subjectivity.

Sarasota School of Architecture: Cocoon House; designed 1948 by Paul Rudolph and Ralph Twitchell

Also known as the Healy Guesthouse, this Sarasota School home on Siesta Key’s Bayou Louise remains a standout for its design, aimed to welcome both Florida breezes and the view. With its curved roof structure of steel straps and insulation board, it is a regular subject of study at architectural schools.

Sarasota Architectural Foundation: The Umbrella House, designed 1953 by Paul Rudolph

This innovative Lido Shores dwelling is also often called the Hiss Residence after Philip Hiss, who hired Rudolph to build it as a spec house for the then-fledgling neighborhood. Its distinctive original umbrella of wood was lost to a hurricane in 1966, but meticulously restored in 2015, and it’s the winner of several prestigious awards.

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall: Shows and Stars

Since our bayfront hall opened in 1970, it’s welcomed thousands of productions and performers. While a stage performance may be ephemeral, a souvenir can recapture the moment when Cats prowled in that Andrew Lloyd Webber hit, when blues alegend B.B. King brought his famous guitar, Lucille, to town, when master cellist Yo-Yo Ma thrilled audiences, when Billy Ray Cyrus revealed his “Achy Breaky Heart,” or when another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Evita, roused a range of emotions. Posters can be glimpsed throughout the hall; the photos hang in the Founders Lounge.

The Ringling Museum: Tibbals Circus Collection

Before media flooded into our lives through illuminated screens, posters were one of the most successful means of advertising. Circuses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries covered drab, familiar walls and fences with brilliantly colored images of men and women performing feats of daring and skill in advance of circus day. The more than 8,000 posters in The Ringling’s Circus collections range from letterpress bills printed in the early 19th century to full-color, offset prints of the 21st.

Sarasota Opera: Nabucco

These extravagant costumes, designed by Russian-born Nicola Benois and built by world-renowned opera costume company Malabar in 1981, were renovated by the opera’s costume shop for its 2019 production. They have made their way around the opera world, starting with their debut at the Greater Miami Opera (now Florida Grand Opera), when they were worn by such vocal luminaries as Sherrill Milnes.

Selby Gardens: Denbrobium spectabile (Orchidaceae)

Called the “horned” flower, the particular plant at right boasts a color and form unique for the species, which typically has more yellow, wavy flowers with a red-veined lip. Native to New Guinea, Bougainville, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, these grow on trees in swampy, lowland forests, mountain forests, coconut tree plantations or on Casuarina trees.

Selby Gardens: Stanhopea ecornuta (Orchidaceae)

Some priceless collection items are living, like the paired white flowers above, collected at Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Stann Creek, Belize. It bloomed for Selby in late November of 2018, when this picture was taken; its flowers are extremely fragrant, if short-lived.

Asolo Rep: Josephine

Remember when Deborah Cox starred as the legendary Josephine Baker in this world premiere musical in May 2016? You can’t possibly forget the banana skirt costume she wore performing Baker’s famous danse sauvage, which made Baker an international sensation. Eduardo Sigangco deserves credit for this design, but Baker and Cox earned their due as well.

Asolo Rep: Shakespeare in Love

Costume designer Susan Mickey pulled out all the stops for the attire in this stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning movie, back in January 2018—especially for the elaborate ensemble worn by actress Peggy Roeder as Queen Elizabeth I. She wasn’t onstage for very long, but it was a highlight of the production. No way this one isn’t safely preserved in the Asolo’s storage space.

There’s much more to our area arts scene than you can see at any given moment. There’s history at work in the shows and exhibits that enrich our lives—memories of rousing theater, opera or ballet productions featuring spectacular sets or costumes that are now tucked quietly away inside a warehouse awaiting a reprise performance, or a unique and fragrant flower that blooms rarely and must be glimpsed in a photo otherwise.

Sometimes the objects might be on permanent display, like the iconic structures of the Sarasota School of Architecture, or part of a rotating exhibit, like a painting at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, frequently exchanged to refresh the wall and the eye. Sometimes there’s a souvenir that captures a long-ago moment—an autographed photo of a superstar left as a memento of a triumphant performance at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, for example. All of these items serve as reminders of the breadth our arts groups have to offer, whether temporarily hidden or openly visible.

Sarasota Architectural Foundation, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota Opera, Asolo Repertory Theatre, The Ringling, The Sarasota Ballet, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

Show Comments