This morning, Florida State University president John Thrasher, Ringling Museum executive director Steven High, and the chair of The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art Foundation Michael Urette spoke at a morning ceremony to mark the groundbreaking of a new glass art pavilion at the Sarasota, Florida, art museum. Named in honor of donors Nancy and Philip Kotler and Margot and Warren Coville, the 5,500-square-foot addition will open in the fall of next year as an exhibition area to display objects from the museum's growing collection of American and European Studio Glass. The primary donors were present for the ceremony and reportedly used special ceremonial shovels to move sand in a symbolic launch of the construction project.
In addition to its role as a dedicated exhibition area, the Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion will also serve as the formal entrance to the museum's theater. The project is designed by the architecture firm of Lewis + Whitlock which employed glass to open up the museum to views from outside, and to let additional natural light into the building.
The offical state art museum of Florida, the Ringling is affiliated with Florida State University. It ranks as one of the largest university arts centers in the nation.