Ringling expands Sarasota Museum of Art campus

The former Sarasota High School building on U.S. 41 has been a source of mystery in the years since Ringling College of Art and Design announced plans to create a modern art museum in the building.

Ringling College signed a 99-year lease with the Sarasota County School District in 2007 and began preliminary construction on the Sarasota Museum of Art in 2015. The exterior of the building was re-mortared and the interior gutted. But then, construction stopped.

Since then, the building has remained empty, and few detailed plans have been articulated regarding the future of SMOA.

That could be because the plans are still evolving. Ringling’s original lease only included the former high school and the land between the building and U.S. 41, but soon, the agreement will also include an additional building behind the school, referred to as “Building 42.”

According to Deputy Superintendent Scott Lempe, Building 42 is no longer included in the district’s long-term plans for the high school, and Ringling College expressed interest in expanding the future museum into the space.

Discussions between the two parties began last year and are still ongoing. The building is still being used for instruction until the end of this school year.

The additional 15,000 square feet will allow Ringling to move some instructional space — originally intended to occupy two-thirds of the old high school — out of the main building, allowing for more gallery space.

Ringling has also acquired the building north of the former high school previously owned by Vision Works. In October and November, SMOA will host exhibitions in the Vision Works space, now dubbed as The Works.

The combination of the three buildings will also allow for an on-site restaurant and space for adult learning courses and museum storage.

“With this added kind of space, it allows us to look at it as an entire complex, like a campus,” Ringling President Larry Thompson said. “It can actually be master planned, and we can have it not just be one thing sticking in those grounds, but instead an entire holistic integrated whole.”

Although both parties expect to conclude negotiations soon, not all of the questions surrounding the museum have been cleared up. Thompson said the project is in its final design stages, and it is still unclear when construction will begin.

“We’re still talking about certain areas and issues that have to change,” Thompson said. “But it should be fairly soon.”