Artist Sol Schwartz gives $31,000 to new Ringling College library

The Ringling College of Art and Design announced earlier this month that they had reached and surpassed its $16 million fundraising campaign for its brand new library. Scheduled to be open for the first day of classes in August 2016, construction is already underway on the corner of Old Bradenton Road and Dr. Martin Luther King Way on Ringling College's purposed "library of the future."

Though the building has been paid for, there is still the matter of supplying Ringling College students, faculty, local artists and the community with state of the art technology to conduct research and create numerous and diverse art projects.

Sketch artist and illustrator Sol Schwartz, who resides in Sarasota and Lenox, Mass., has been drawing and preserving the portraits of artists, musicians, actors, dancers and conductors in the Massachusetts Berkshires for the last two decades. Schwartz in conjunction with The Community Foundation of Sarasota County has donated a $31,000 gift that will go toward several pieces of modern, high-tech equipment that future sketch artists and illustration students will use for years to come. 

"We are delighted to support the new Ringling College library with this gift directed by Mr. Schwartz," says Roxie Jerde, president and CEO of The Community Foundation of Sarasota County.  “Knowing this gift will expand and enhance learning opportunities is very gratifying."

Said learning equipment will include a WideTek48 Wide Format Scanner, a BookEye4 High-Resolution Book Scanner and a Wacom 27QHD Creative Pen Display.