Where the museum meets the midway

In Sarasota, Fla., the Ringling Museum's 30,600-square-foot Tibbals Learning Center featuring Howard Tibbals' magnificent miniature replica of the Ringling Circus and 5,700 circus posters is set to open with great fanfare on Jan. 14.

The master model builder and philanthropist donated $6.5 million to build and support the $16 million center, which presents circus history through interactive displays and revolving exhibitions.

"The Howard Bros. Circus not only shows what one can do with a lifetime passion," says John Wetenhall, executive director of the FSU-John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, "but shows how much one man with a huge heart can give back to the community that he loves — the American circus!"

The Ringling is the largest and most well-off of a handful of niche museums that dazzle contemporary audiences with artifacts from the golden age of the amusement industry. Yet all are in need of angel philanthropists and public funding just to make ends meet.

As Aaron Beebe, curator of the Coney Island Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y., points out, "Most museums are lucky if they can run on maybe 25% earned income. That's partly because you don't sell tickets for people to come and watch your curator."

In December, the state-owned Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis., which is famed for its splendid collection of antique circus wagons, had $500 in its checking account, almost $300,000 in debt and a $22,000-a-month payroll. The crisis began in 2003, when Great Circus Parade Inc., a Milwaukee nonprofit that had raised the funds for a parade for 18 years as well as for the museum, bowed out because of changing giving patterns. Circus World suddenly found itself without $750,000 a year.

How much money is needed to make it through to the spring and summer season, when a Chinese circus organized by jar balancing virtuoso Gui Ming Meng is expected to draw crowds? "We need about $250,000 to get us to May. We're beating the bushes for donors," says Renee Boldt, chair of the museum's board. She has been running the show since the director and more than 20 staffers were let go.

The Wisconsin State Historical Society has stepped in with managerial support. "Our efforts include the search for public funds (for operating costs), and those conversations will continue until we find public funds, but it's not an easy road because there are many demands on state money," executive director Ellsworth H. Brown says. In the meantime, the state is chipping in nearly $100,000 to rehabilitate the Hippodrome building, which will host this summer's circus and save the cost of renting a big top.

Meanwhile, in Gibsonton, Fla., the International Independent Showmen's Foundation's museum board is ramping up its fundraising efforts in hopes of getting the club's 14,400-square-foot Showmen's Museum building finished. "If somebody wants to donate some big money, we'll dedicate one room to them or put their name on the front," museum corporation president Ivan Arnold says.

The Feb. 7-11 IISF trade show and extravaganza will host its first "jamboree" (a fundraising auction of donated items and services) and truck raffle to support the museum. Visitors will be able to see a fraction of the museum's trove of midway memorabilia. The bulk of the collection, including rare rides and games, is stored in 10 semi trailers.

While many showmen have generously donated equipment, the club needs more angel philanthropists like carnival historian Joe McKennon (who contributed $50,000 in stock) to meet its fundraising goals. "It would probably take about $1 million to get the electric and everything inside completed," says Arnold.

The Ringling Museum's stellar success is all the more remarkable because in the '90s, years of underfunding and deferred maintenance led to the closing of historic buildings, staff layoffs and program reductions. The turnaround began in 2000, when the state transferred the complex to Florida State University, which provided new leadership and access to matching funds for private contributions designated for new construction or endowment.

As of October, the Ringling Museum's five-year capital campaign has raised $31.4 million toward its goal of $50 million in endowment, and the state legislature has given $42.9 million for further expansion. The museum anticipates a 14% increase in attendance in first-half 2006, thanks to the Tibbals opening.

For the first time in 20 summers, there will be no Great Circus Parade in Wisconsin. But for the second straight summer, the Wisconsin State Fair has contracted Circus World to produce a circus and has found sponsors to help offset costs. Boldt says the crisis is forcing the museum to reimagine itself. "We've really refocused on the core strength and parts of our mission that we think are most important and make us unique," she says.

Among the highlights of Circus World's upcoming season are an interactive children's circus, concerts performed on antique circus instruments and guided tours of the museum's wagon collection and the buildings of historic Ringling Ville, including the elephant house, the camel house and the ring barn. "It has the potential to be a cultural tourism destination," Brown says of the Ringling Circus' original winter quarters, which is a National Historic Landmark.

The Coney Island Museum (annual attendance 4,200; admission fee 99 cents) found an angel two years ago when Beebe became its volunteer curator. "It's going well," says Beebe, whose background in grants management and archival conservation helped him win foundation support for a canopy to draw attention to the museum's entrance.

His latest success is a $150,000, two-year grant from the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation to pay staff salaries, including his own. "People want to fund new and exciting programs," Beebe says. "Once you've proved yourself, then they say, 'OK, we like what you do and maybe we can start giving you money to do this or that.' "

James Taylor, whose collection of sideshow attractions was formerly on display at Baltimore's American Dime Museum, is looking forward to the spring opening of a "show bar" in Washington, where his collection will be an integral part of the décor. Among the hundreds of objects on rotating display will be a Feejee mermaid and a taxidermied "world's only living unicorn" purchased from Ward Hall and Chris Christ.

"The idea of having the weirdest Smithsonian in the world where you can have a drink — that's my idea of heaven," says Taylor, who publishes the sideshow journal Shocked & Amazed! "We're talking about having tables that would actually be display cases. In the evening, you'll be able to see novelty and variety performers."

Tentatively called the Palace of Wonders, the establishment is owned by Joe Englert, a D.C. nightclub mogul who is developing an entertainment strip along H Street. Taylor will lease the collection to Englert. He says this suits him fine after a labor-intensive four years at the American Dime Museum, which was a critical success but a financial drain.

In Sarasota, Tibbals has finished setting up the 7,000 miniature folding chairs and seating the circus patrons in preparation for his show's premiere. Although the Howard Bros. Circus has "too many pieces to count," he continues to build pieces and add features to his model, the latest a ticket wagon for the midway, from his workshop in the new educational center. o