Bound by Friendship

Isabel Norton and Carolyn Johnson have always made a good team. The first time they met, Norton, who was new to town, bumped into a barefoot Johnson, who was tracking down her kids in the neighborhood. 

Amused, Norton helped her neighbor with the round-up, and they’ve been friends ever since.

Now, 40 years later, they continue to work together. Their most recent project, however, was a little more ambitious. Under their leadership, Ringling College Association met its $16 million fundraising goal for a new library this month — a year early.

“A project like this takes a long time to cultivate,” says Johnson. “We’ve been building toward this for at least 10 years.”

Norton and Johnson have been involved with Ringling College for most of their friendship. They say they inherited their passion for arts education from their respective parents, who helped build the current campus plaza.

They’ve both been chairwomen of, and currently serve on, the college’s board of trustees. Now, as co-chairs of its fundraising committee, their dedication is being realized in the form of a new 48,000-square-foot library, scheduled to open next August.

But their vision for the library took some convincing. When Norton and Johnson initiated the college’s fundraising efforts in earnest in 2013, some doubted if a new library was even necessary. In a modern education environment, where e-books, digital images and brightly lighted screens are rapidly becoming the norm, some saw a traditional library as outdated.

But the duo was quick to sway any reluctance. When it comes to art, they say, the page is always better than the pixel.

“The colors in art books cannot be well translated to the screen,” says Norton. “A student will normally have 15 to 19 books open on a table or on the floor at a time studying pieces and images.”

Ringling College has also experienced significant growth in recent years. The current library, the Kimbrough Library, is a one-floor space that was built in 1980 to service 400 students. The college now enrolls about 1,400 students, not including faculty, staff and community members who also use the library.

Not only was the library a practical necessity, but according to Norton and Johnson, it was also a communal one.

“There’s no place on campus where a group of students from different disciplines can work collaboratively,” says Johnson. “And most of their work, and the work they’ll do once they graduate, is collaborative.”

Fortunately for the Ringling College community, Norton and Johnson’s fundraising efforts were well received, and the campaign surpassed its goal a year early. The library’s longtime fundraising and advocacy arm, the Ringling College Library Association, raised a large portion of the money through its Town Hall Speakers series. But Norton and Johnson say many of the donations were private, from individuals from in and around Sarasota.

Despite the magnitude of the project, Norton and Johnson viewed the challenge as just another opportunity to make new friends, not only for themselves, but also for the college.

“You’re sharing a story,” says Norton. “You’re sharing the story of the college and the students. We started with a tour of the college, and we’re just educating the public. It’s not really fundraising. It’s friend raising.”