Sarah Cartwright Chief Curator at The Ringling Museum She’s the Chief Curator and Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections at The Ringling having joined the museum in 2013. She’s the first person to hold the title of chief curator at the museum in more than a decade, responsible for the museum’s collections of European and American paintings, sculpture and works on paper from Antiquity to 1900 CE. 16 WEST COAST WOMAN <strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2024</strong>
Complimentary Seminars Presented by Amanda E. Stiff MBA, Financial Advisor Money Savvy Women Thursday, April 4 “Must Have” Docs for Life Well-Planned Thursday, April 18 Revive Your Retirement Savings LIMITED SEATING 5:30 – 7 pm • 1800 Second St. Suite 895, Sarasota RSVP 941-914-1560 ast year, she was promoted to Chief Curator and Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections at The Ringling. According to the Ringling, Sarah’s promotion makes her the first person to hold the title of chief curator at the museum in more than a decade. She’ll still be the Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections, a position she has held since 2017. And, she’ll also continue to be responsible for the museum’s collections of European and American paintings, sculpture and works on paper from Antiquity to 1900 CE. According to a Ringling press release, “During her tenure as Searing Curator of Collections, Cartwright has expanded The Ringling’s European collection and has completed two parts of a multi-year project to reinstall all 21 permanent collection galleries of the Museum of Art.” A curator curates, but what does that actually mean? The Latin root, cura, means “to take care” and that’s the simple heart of it, though it gets much more layered from there. Best to ask the expert. To curate is “to care for the collection. It’s conservation, research and interpretation,” she explains. Being part of FSU (Florida State University), research, Sarah explains, is a big part of her job. Every day there are requests from scholars or member of the public who have questions. And there’s also writing for scholarly publications and journals. In curating an exhibition, it’s research that “underpins” an exhibit. And as for curating an exhibition, it’s about “how to tell your story through the artwork.” And the job also means “ensuring [artworks’] longevity” while also “making sure as many people as possible have access - not just the public.” Which means researchers, but can also mean lending artwork to other museums for their exhibits. Interestingly, when art objects are loaned out from The Ringling and sent to other museums, Sarah travels with the artwork to oversee the process. Part of her research has been the letters that John Ringling wrote. Though there aren’t many, they suggest a person who, she has found, “educated himself. He was building a museum and was thinking what he wanted to acquire.” She and other curators “are often shocked at how monumental and expansive Ringling’s letters are. His letters reveal as well that he knew what he wanted and no one told him what to do.”Ringling exhibitions are often scheduled three to four years out. Sometimes the museum has traveling exhibitions on display and sometimes an exhibit will be produced by The Ringling. There are seven curators at The Ringling, four of whom report to Sarah and, she emphasizes, planning exhibitions is a group decision involving not just herself and other curators, but also the museum’s executive director and the collections staff and “has to be a joint process.” Professionally, she “cut her teeth” in Italy back in 2002 while at NYU and working on Villa La Pietra, a renaissance villa in the hills outside Florence that was bequeathed to the university. Sarah did a complete reinstall (which also means a deinstall was done first) of the large collection. “It took a lot of management skills, dealing with the government, artists, an advisory committee, architects - lots of stakeholders,” she explains. And you’re doing it all in a foreign country in a different language. Sarah’s background also includes working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 2010, Sarah came back to Sarasota and taught art history at Ringling College. She arrived at The Ringling in 2013 as a postdoctoral curatorial research fellow. She then took on the role of Grants Administrator in The Ringling’s Development department, raising more than $1.5 million in three years in support of exhibitions, conservation, and general operations. She brought a wealth of experience to The Ringling. “I understood budgets, fundraising, cultivating members and donors —the big picture.” In 2017, when The Ringling started an international search for the Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections, she applied for the position and was selected. So a curator is first and foremost well-educated. Sarah has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. But a career as a curator has to start somewhere. Maybe it goes back to when Sarah’s mother frequently took her to The Ringling. Though she has studied and worked in New York and Italy, Sarah is totally local. She grew up in Fort Myers, moved to Sarasota, and attended Pine View School where she took advanced placement art history that involved studying at The Ringling. She says she was “so lucky to have grown up here. Every kid should be able to have these opportunities.” Studying art is learning “what it is to be human and it makes a difference in people’s lives.” STORY and IMAGE: Louise Bruderle Longevity Medicine Hormone Therapy Second Opinions AccessAdvisorsLLC.com 941 914-1560 Astiff@AccessAdvisorsLLC.com Securities are offered through Level Four Financial, LLC a registered broker dealer and member of FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services are offered through Level Four Advisory Services, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisor. Level Four Financial, LLC, Level Four Advisory Services, LLC and Access Advisors, LLC are independent entities. Neither Level Four Financial, LLC, Level Four Advisory Services, LLC nor Access Advisors, LLC offer tax or legal advice. BEST MEDICINE, Inc. CAROL L. ROBERTS, M.D. 2106 Bispham Road • Sarasota, FL 34231 Phone: 941.404.8030 • www.bestmedicine.us <strong>APRIL</strong> <strong>2024</strong> WEST COAST WOMAN 17