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The Ringling Welcomes Two Artists in Residency This Fall Contact Name: Virgnia Harshman Contact Email: virginia.harshman@ringling.org Contact Phone Number: 941-359-5700 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 center for art and history, situated on 66 magnificent acres on the shores of Sarasota Bay. It is built on the remarkable legacy of circus entrepreneur, collector of art and financier John Ringling and his wife Mable. The Ringling inspires visitors with an acclaimed collection of Old Master paintings, delights them with the story of the American circus as told through the first American circus museum as well as the world’s largest circus model, and transports them to the Roaring Twenties during a tour of the magnificent Ca’ d’Zan mansion. The Ringling is also committed to exhibiting the work of an emerging community of living artists whose work moves beyond traditional practice and features dynamic and engaging contemporary visual and performing arts, including a diverse roster of theater, music, dance and film. . Media Contacts The Ringling: Virginia Harshman Manager, Marketing and Public Relations 941-359-5700 x2803 Virginia.harshman@ringling.org