Sarasota's cultural cachet

That's why, to many, Sarasota is known as Florida's Cultural Capital.

The region is home to the state art museum, major regional professional theaters, a growing ballet company, an renowned orchestra, prominent opera and lots of circus history.

There are so many choices that you can fill up your schedule and barely have time for visits to the beach or golf course (but why would you want to?)

In Sarasota, the question isn't “What is there to do?” but “Where do I start?”

Ringling Museum

The answer depends on your likes, but a good place to start is the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, which offers a touch of everything.

John Ringling, the circus magnate, built a home on Sarasota Bay and a museum to store his vast art collection, which was turned over to the state upon his death in 1936. The museum features 21 galleries of European, Asian and American art, as well as contemporary paintings and an impressive display of large works by Rubens, built around a multi-tiered courtyard.

The 66-acre campus includes the Ringling mansion, Cà d'Zan, giving visitors a sense of the life the couple enjoyed in Sarasota. The Ringlings' private railcar, The Wisconsin, is now housed in the Circus Gallery, which is filled with a large collection of circus memorabilia, and the still-new Tibbals Learning Center adds to the history with Howard Tibbals' miniature model of a traditional circus big top, which gives you an overview of what circus life was once like.

Asolo Theatre and Sarasota Ballet

The museum's new visitor center is also the home of the Historic Asolo Theatre, which features the interior of an 18th-century theater from Asolo, Italy, brought to Florida in the 1950s and originally used for what became the Asolo Repertory Theatre.

The facility offers a variety of programs from lectures and classic films and chamber concerts.

If theater is your preference, you only have to walk across the parking lot to the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, where the Asolo Repertory Theatre has its home. The company, which began as a summer theater project of Florida State University, celebrated its 50th anniversary season in 2009 and is one of the few theaters in the country to feature a resident acting company performing on a rotating repertory schedule. That means you can see up to four shows in just two or three days. The Asolo presents a mix of classic works by Shakespeare and Shaw with newer plays, world premieres and some large-scale musicals, like the recent pre-Broadway premiere of “A Tale of Two Cities” and an updated version of “Working.”

The center also is home to the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for actor training and the Sarasota Ballet, which has gained new vibrancy and attention in the past year under the artistic leadership of Iain Webb.

Downtown Theatres

In downtown Sarasota, Florida Studio Theatre has long billed itself as Sarasota's Contemporary Theatre, which is the focus of its three-theater campus. It focuses on plays just beginning their lives, premiere productions and some established hits.

In the Goldstein Cabaret, FST presents original musical and comedy revues and weekly performances of its popular Improv Troupe. And across the street in the Gompertz Theatre, it has offers edgier and slightly alternative fare, such as “The Exonerated” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

Downtown is an increasingly active place for the arts. The Golden Apple Dinner Theatre, which specializes in popular musicals, has been entertaining audiences for 38 years and is now the longest, continuously operating Equity dinner theater in the country.

And just north of downtown on Tamiami Trail, you'll find the Players Theatre, the grand daddy of the area's performing arts organizations, which is about to mark its 80th season of plays and musicals performed by friends and neighbors.

Sarasota Opera House

Next door to The Golden Apple, the Sarasota Opera marked its own 50th anniversary season in 2009, even as it continues to grow and expand. The company began by offering touring chamber opera productions and now stages five full operas each season, one in the fall and four in the winter season. The focus is on classic favorites, the works of Verdi and each season includes one rare or overlooked opera.

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

Along the Sarasota Bayfront, you can't miss the city's most distinctive building, the purple-hued and shell-shaped Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, a city-owned venue offering everything from children's shows to symphony concerts, Las Vegas-style musical shows and touring Broadway musicals.

Sarasota Orchestra

Down the hill from Van Wezel, the Florida West Coast Symphony changed things up for its 60th anniversary by shifting its name to the Sarasota Orchestra. In the process, it expanded its traditional masterworks and chamber ensemble programming to include multimedia concerts that have proved popular with young audiences, families and adults who not have developed a taste for a full evening of classical music.

Each winter, the area's circus heritage comes to life with big top performances of Circus Sarasota, which keeps tradition alive with an an international array of performances.

And throughout the region, there is lots more from local orchestras, pops groups, community theaters and art galleries galore. Just try to find a free minute to enjoy it all.