Spring Hours
Monday - Friday: Open by appointment 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., no drop-ins
Saturday - Sunday: Closed
Holidays: Closed January 15 and May 6, 2024
Location
Ringling College of Art + Design
2nd floor of the Alfred R. Goldstein Library
2700 N. Tamiami Trail
Sarasota, FL 34234
Schedule a viewing appointment
specialcollections@c.ringling.edu
Sign-up for a research consultation
https://calendly.com/goldstein-library
Cheri Marks (she, her) MFA, MSI
Special Collections Curator and Archivist
Cmarks@ringling.edu
941- 359-7583
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Our educational mission is to introduce our publics to diverse voices and ideas that challenge staid constructions of the canon and the master work. The Center routinely juxtaposes the familiar and widely recognized with the lesser known and the underrepresented. Through our work, we hope that the next generation of thinkers and makers will draw inspiration from a nuanced web of references.
Hands-On Object-Based Research
At the Special Collections Center, you can gather ideas for a creative project, engage in scholarly research, or discover something new. Gain hands-on experience utilizing primary sources in our reading room, and explore our unique collections through an active exhibition program and campus events. From social justice activism to international folktales to the latest in fabrication techniques, the material objects at the Center can be a great way to explore questions about conception, production, circulation, readership, and cultural histories.
Collection Types
The collections namely consist of artists’ books and photo-bookworks from the 1960s to the present; illustrated books and periodicals from the 1700s forward; historic and contemporary prints and printed matter from the 1450s forward; specialty archives and collections; and a new institutional archive.
You'll find: broadsides, campus materials, democratic multiples, documentation of time-based and performance projects, engravings, exhibition publications, experimental writing, fine press books, flip books, handmade editions, historic facsimiles, parlor toys, photographs, pop-up books, prints, rare books, zines, and more. See our SC Collection Guide for highlights and more in-depth info.
Open to Everyone
Open to students, staff, faculty, art and design practitioners, and the general public. Our Center functions as a reading room, classroom, print study center, and gallery. To schedule an individual appointment, research consultation, class visit, or group tour please contact our Center staff in advance.
Faculty Resources & Curricular Support
As a teaching resource for faculty, the Center can be utilized for class visits, critique sessions, performances, and extracurricular activities. For class visits, see How to Use the Center for a brief overview. Interested faculty/classes are also invited to collaborate with the Center on Exhibitions and Special Projects.
FORENSIC FACIAL APPROXIMATIONS
EXHIBITION
Curated by Special Collections Curator and Archivist, Cheri Marks with help from Muling Tzai, Special Collections student assistant.
On view April 8 through April 12, 2024*
Ringling College of Art and Design students, faculty, and an alum spent the College’s spring break learning the art of reconstruction as they brought skulls from active and cold cases back to life with clay. Guided by forensic artist Joe Mullins, the class recreated the faces of real victims, through a process called facial approximation. For this workshop, the artists began with 3D-printed skulls of 17 different victims, six from active cases. Many of the skulls came from the Medical Examiner’s Office in Fort Myers, Florida, and one came from the Bronx in New York.
From Monday to Friday 10 am-5 pm on March 4-8, participants built up the busts using a unique set of guidelines—markers that measure the approximate thickness of tissue on each part of the skull, basic rules of anatomy, and lessons on how to read the skull, mixed with a small brief about the victim, when possible: their sex, approximate age, and possible ethnicity.
More information on this workshop can be found here: Ringling News
*Please note the Alfred R. Goldstein Library is currently swipe-access only, accessible with a Ringling College ID. Members of the public can phone the front desk at 941-359-7587 to see the exhibition during library hours.
Photo: Poster of exhibition information with decorative illustrations. Created by Special Collections student assistant Muling Tzai.