Visitors enter the Tibbals Learning Center at The Ringling to see The Greatest Show on Earth® Gallery, a new addition. Photo by Diane Egner
The new exhibit explores 50 years of Feld Entertainment’s transformation of the circus experience. Photo by Diane Egner
Curator Jennifer Lemmer Posey explains how the exhibit uses a mixture of multimedia, hands-on and three-dimensional presentations. Photo by Diane Egner
Tibbals Learning Center showcases the elaborate nature of the circus experience through the years. Photo by Diane Egner
Howard Tibbals’s workshop displays the tools and intimate details of models he carved to scale of circus performers and performances. Photo by Diane Egner
Howard Tibbals’ models line the walls of the Circus Museum creating a glass-enclosed parade. Photo by Diane Egner
Elaborate and glitzy costumes on display reflect the circus ambiance and entertainment over time. Photo by Diane Egner
Video and modern technology combine to bring the circus of old into the modern era. Photo by Diane Egner
Another favorite stop at The Ringling is Cà d’Zan, 1920s-era winter retreat for John Ringling and his wife Mable Burton Ringling. Photo by Diane Egner
Sunset on The Ringling’s waterfront property inspires awe and wonder. Photo by Diane Egner
The latest addition to the Circus Museum at The Ringling in Sarasota celebrates the emergence of the modern circus experience that began with Irvin Feld’s purchase of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® circus in 1967.
The Greatest Show On Earth® Gallery takes visitors through the entire transformation from back of the house to front and center stage under the big top as the circus adapts to the modern era.
Get a preview by scrolling through the images published in this photo story.
Read more, including information on when, where and how to visit, on
The Ringling’s website.
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Read more articles by Diane Egner.
Diane Egner is a community leader and award-winning journalist with more than four decades of experience reporting and writing about the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. She serves on the boards of the University of South Florida Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications Advisory Council, The Institute for Research in Art (Graphicstudio, the Contemporary Art Museum, and USF’s Public Art Program) Community Advisory Council, Sing Out and Read, and StageWorks Theatre Advisory Council. She also is a member of Leadership Florida and the Athena Society. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, she won the top statewide award for editorial writing from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors while at The Tampa Tribune and received special recognition by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists for creative work as Content Director at WUSF Public Media. Past accomplishments and community service include leadership positions with Tampa Tiger Bay Club, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP), Alpha House of Tampa Bay, Awesome Tampa Bay, Florida Kinship Center, AIA Tampa Bay, Powerstories, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Diane and her husband, Sandy Rief, live in Tampa.