The Ringling Welcomes Two Artists in Residency This Fall

Sarasota, Florida- The John & Mable Ringling museum of Art is pleased to welcome two Artists in Residence as part of the Art of Performance program.  John Sims, a Sarasota based artist and writer and Liony Garcia, a dancer and choreographer from Miami will be working on-site at The Ringling this fall. Besides in-studio creative development of new projects, both artists will engage with the public through artist’s talks, with dates to be released later in 2020. 

Dr. Elizabeth Doud, Currie-Kohlman Curator of Performance said, “The Ringling is not only a center for the presentation of live performance, but also an incubator of new creative projects by living artists of all disciplines. The Art of Performance hosts artists-in-residence in the Perret Performance Studio in which choreographers, composers, circus artists, theater makers and other practitioners can test ideas, experiment with new artistic language and invest in the performance of tomorrow. We know that working artists need space and time to work, and that institutional support for creative endeavors feeds the ecology of the cultural landscape. As a public museum committed to access, inspiration and innovative ideas, we make space and time available to individual artists and projects annually.” 

John Sims, a Detroit native is a conceptual artist, writer and social justice activist, who creates art and curatorial projects spanning the areas of installation, performance, text, music, film and large-scale activism, informed by mathematics, design, the politics of white supremacy, sacred symbols/anniversaries, and poetic/political text. For 20 years, he has been working on the forefront of contemporary mathematical art and leading the national pushback on Confederate iconography.  During his residency at The Ringling, he will work on various projects related to the Covid-19 pandemic, policing, Confederate symbolism and his other ongoing performance initiatives, which will be discussed in a semi-live and virtual artist talk. 

His work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC News, USA Today, NPR, The Guardian, ThinkProgress, Al Jazeera, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Sculpture, Science News, Nature and Scientific American. He has written for CNN, Al Jazeera, The HuffPost, Guernica Magazine, The Rumpus and TheGrio. 

Liony Garcia is a dancer and choreographer based in Miami, Florida.  He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New World School of the Arts. As a performer, he has worked with BodyTraffic (Los Angeles) performing choreographic works by Guy Weizman and Roni Haver (NL) and Barack Marshall.  Liony is currently a dancer in Brigid Baker’s WholeProject. He has worked with director Celia Rowlson-Hall on her latest short film entitled Swamp Lake. He has recently worked with filmmaker, Claudio Marco Tulli on his film installation, Blasting Pixels.  As a solo performer, Liony has performed at Mana Contemporary, International Noise Music Conference and most recently at Bas Fisher Invitational, along with modular furniture designer Deon Rubi.

Garcia’s choreographic works have been commissioned by Miami Light Project, The Dranoff 2 Piano Foundation, Thomas Armour Youth Ballet and Toronto’s Outreach and Exchange Strategy. Liony is a two-time recipient of the Miami-Dade Dance Miami Choreographers’ Program and is a current resident artist at Miami Light Project and Sixth Street Dance Studio. 

 The Ringling is a preeminent center for the arts, history and learning that is dedicated to bringing the past and contemporary culture to life through extraordinary visitor experiences. From its inception, The Ringling has joined the diverse visual traditions and theatrical spectacle of yesterday with the genre-defying global practitioners of today. 

About The Ringling 
A place of exploration, discovery and respite, The Ringling’s campus in Sarasota, Florida – which includes the Museum of Art, the Circus Museum, an historic mansion, an 18th-century theater and bayfront gardens – is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As the State Art Museum of Florida and part of Florida State University, The Ringling fulfills an important educational mission. The Ringling offers formal and informal programs of study serving as a major resource for students, scholars, and lifelong learners of every age within the region, across the country and around the world.