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by Janina Birtolo

Teaching the NextGeneration of Artists

Fairy tales come true at Sarasota’s Ringling College of Art and Design

During the past severalyears, animated films—once targeted only to chil-dren—have become a pop-

ular mainstay of the movie industry.Such films as Ratatouille and the trio ofShrek offerings have appealed just asmuch to adults—if not more so. Andother films—Spiderman, Lord of theRings, Star Wars—have used so muchcomputer animation that the modern artform has become a vital component ofmoviemaking.

But what should make SouthwestFloridians take pride in all this is thatchances are the artists who created thesefilms and exciting effects very likely gottheir training in Sarasota.

That’s where the Ringling College ofArt and Design has been teaching the nextgeneration of artists for more than seven-ty-five years. As times—and art needs—have changed, so has the Ringling. Today,it’s considered one of the premier artschools in the world. In 2006,BusinessWeek put Ringling in its top sixty.3D World magazine has rated the school#1 in computer animation in all of NorthAmerica for two years in a row and, last

year, ranked it as the #4college in the world.

“To have a magazinelike 3D World from theUnited Kingdom sayour animation programis number one in NorthAmerica is really some-thing,” notes LarryThompson, presidentof Ringling. “It’s some-thing we believed, and itjust confirmed ourbelief, but it was cer-tainly a real pleasure to have it confirmedby such an impartial source.”

Jim McCampbell, head of Ringling’scomputer animation department, addsthat the 3D World awards are reflective ofmore than the magazine’s editors.“Apparently, the voting that took placewas not just done by the magazine,” heexplains. “They polled industry profes-sionals to find out what they considered tobe the top animation schools, so it wasdefinitely a very big honor to be selected.”

The interest of industry is confirmedby the more than fifty companies thatannually send recruiters to Ringling.

Firms as diverse as LucasFilms andCNN, the CIA and Target Corporation,and Hallmark Cards and ESPN regular-ly hire Ringling graduates.

“We’ve had students that have gone toNASA,” McCampbell reports. “We’vehad students that have gone to do acci-dent reconstruction type of animationsfor law firms…medical visualization…to

(top) Ringling College’s ComputerAnimation Trustee Scholar GuillermoCareaga ’06 and his thesis animation,“Sugar Rush.” (bottom) The 41-acrecampus offers Digital Film majors amultitude of sites to shoot.

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work at Ford and General Motors,designing and visualizing cars.”

While the computer animation depart-ment may have grabbed recent headlines,the truth is it’s just one of many thingsRingling does well. The approximatelytwelve-hundred students who attendannually can also choose majors in digitalfilm, fine arts, game art and design,graphic and interactive communication,interior design, illustration, and photogra-phy and digital imaging. Starting in thefall of 2008 or 2009, additional majors inadvertising design, the business of art anddesign, broadcast design and motiongraphics, painting, printmaking, andsculpture will also be offered.

Some of the challenges students facein their classes are both intriguing andimaginative. Wood sculpture students,for example, are charged with designing

(above) The Ringling College Design Center is an on-campus internshipprogram. (below) Jace Gostisha ’06 makes extra money by creating miniaturesculptures of historic circus people and activities.

a boat that can cross the Whitaker Bayoubehind the fine arts building. The catch?They have to do so using only one sheetof 4’ x 8’ x ¼-inch plywood, two 2 x 4’s,one pound of fasteners, and one roll ofduct tape. Despite the limited and regi-mented materials, the resulting array ofdesigns is incredible.

Seniors majoring in computer anima-tion are required to create two-minutefilms that tell complete stories and areentertaining. The films are compiled intoannual highlight DVDs—which areworth a trip to Ringling’s VermanKimbrough Memorial Library to watch.The library, open to the public, alsohouses many of the handmade artists’books that fine art students are requiredto create. Like the films, they areenchantingly diverse.

Exhibitions of students’ work are regu-larly presented in the Crossley Gallery, runand managed by the students themselves.The annual Best of Ringling student exhi-bition, however, is housed in the on-cam-pus Selby Gallery, known as Sarasota’spremier gallery for contemporary art.Throughout the year, the Selby also hostsshows of works by nationally and interna-tionally known artists, illustrators, photog-raphers, and designers—many of whomare on the faculty at Ringling.

The college was originally founded bycircus impresario and real estate magnateJohn Ringling in 1931. He saw it as a nat-ural extension of his art museum and hadhoped to include the school on the samegrounds. Financial hard times, however,prompted him to buy an old hotel three

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miles away. In its first year, the Ringlingwelcomed seventy-five students.

“The first sixty years, RinglingCollege was much more of an informalmom and pop kind of school,”Thompson notes. “Always with goodinstruction, but it was a lot of sort of

painting on the beach, not necessarily asophisticated college.”

In the last two decades, though,Ringling has come into its own, reachinga level of sophistication and excellence itsfounder probably couldn’t have imag-ined. This is the place where the artists of

(top) The Game Art & Designstudios where students can reviewand test video games. (middle)A first-year student works on alarge format painting. (bottom)The College’s printmaking studio.

tomorrow are—today.“What Ringling College is all about is

destroying that old myth of the starvingartist,” Thompson says with satisfaction.“Because the artists are not starving anylonger. Because our economy haschanged so much and art and design havebecome critical to so many industries, ourstudents are employed. And they are verygainfully employed—in things they arevery passionate about and love.”

Earning a living as an artist may soundlike something of a fairy tale, but at theRingling College of Art and Design, it’sone that’s continually coming true. And ifsomeone ever makes a film of that story,you can bet Ringling graduates will becreating the animation and special effects!

From May 9–30, the Selby Gallery atRingling College of Art will host two exhibi-tions: Teachers, Too, which features worksby the continuing studies faculty, and PastPresent: The Art of Frank Colson, whichdisplays ceramic work by the notedSarasota artist. For more information aboutthe exhibits or about Ringling College of Artand Design, visit www.ringling.edu.n

Janina Birtolo is an award-winning free-lance writer and television producer with afondness for the environment and the arts.She also writes and performs one-womanshows based on historical characters.

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Ringling College’s Selby Gallery brings thework of nationally and internationally

known artists, illustrators, photographers,sculptors, and designers to Sarasota.

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