Honey, they shrank the circus
The smallest show on earth finds a home at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota
By Janet Groene
South Florida Parenting
The largest miniature circus in the world chose Florida to be its permanent home. Now kids of all ages can see the smallest show on earth any time of year. New on display at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Arts in Sarasota is a complete circus with eight main tents, 152 circus wagons, 1,500 performers, 700 animals and a 55-car train, all scaled 3/4-inch to the foot. Created by master model builder Howard Tibbals, the new display is part of a massive expansion of the Circus Museum in a complex that also includes the Ringling Museum of Art, Asolo Theater, Ca d'Zan mansion, Mable's Rose Garden and the statuary-filled grounds of what was once the private estate of the Ringling circus family.
The 3,800-square-foot model circus is in the Tibbals Learning Center addition to the Circus Museum, where visitors see full-size circus memorabilia such as posters, props and elaborately carved wagons. If time allows, parents and older children will also enjoy the grounds, a tour of the mansion with its 32 rooms and 15 bathrooms and the 21-gallery art museum. The Ringling Museum's collection of Baroque paintings is among the largest in the world.
Sarasota spreads a plentiful menu for visitors. Topping the list for family appeal are the Mote Aquarium, Sarasota Jungle Gardens, Big Cat Habitat with live lions and tigers, the G.Wiz Hands-on Science Museum, and Pelican Man's Bird Sanctuary, where more than 5,000 sick, hurt and orphaned birds are treated each year. Historic Spanish Point at nearby Osprey is a living history site where Native Americans built burial mounds 4,000 years ago. Still standing are many structures from the pioneer period that began in 1867 when Frank and Lizzie Webb brought their five children to homestead in the area that became Sarasota.
The new circus display is worth a special trip, but Sarasota can also provide a family vacation for a week or two. Stay on a barrier island (Longboat Key or Siesta Key) or look for budget accommodations on the mainland, where summer is low season. Dine on fresh Gulf seafood, collect seashells, fish, snorkel, paddle through mangrove forests, golf, shop famous St. Armand's Circle and picnic along the Myakka River. Sarasota provides a three-ring circus of a trip.
Janet Groene, author of Open Road Caribbean Guide and many other travel books, lives in Florida.