Is Sarasota the Tourist Trap?: aka, Yes But In A Good Way
If you’ve ever been to Sarasota you’ve probably been to the
Ringling Museum. If you haven’t been to the Ringling Museum, GO. It’s expensive
but totes worth it. If you haven’t been
to Sarasota, what are you waiting for?
So I work at the Ringling, right? I’m one of the assistants
in the archives. Basically my job is to receive, clean, and index new artifacts
that come through, mainly the paper ones.
Anyway, I was at the Ringling museum last night for Ringling
Underground (which is basically a hipster get together the first Thursday of
every month but the Summer ones), where they have like live bands and limited
access to the grounds, when I heard some college kids (probably art students,
let’s be real) saying the Ringling/Sarasota was a tourist trap.
And to that I say YOU ARE WRONG! But also right.
I mean, sure, a lot of old people come
to Sarasota for vacation, and sure its got a lot of places meant for… well, for
tourists. BUT IT’S SO MUCH MORE!
Just look at the history
here, not even the circus stuff! I mean, I found some works in the archives
(best place in the word, btw) that talk about the original Spanish settlers and
the origins of the town. It was all about the conquistadors and how they
treated the natives (spoiler alert: not good), and in one a settler mentioned
some stuff about this piece of text the conquistadors (mainly the Ponce de Leon) were looking for that
apparently had directions to the Fountain of Youth. IN SARASOTA. Why were the
Spanish so obsessed with the Fountain of Youth anyway?
Oh also, fun fact time! Did you know Sarasota was originally
called Zarasota, which means “Radiance of Sota”, named by (you guessed it) a
Spanish conquistador named Hernado de
Soto. Not cocky at all.
Honestly, Florida and Sarasota is kinda weird, which is part
of the reason I moved here. Something about the place was calling me.
All of these old works, old buildings, old paintings, old
statues, old books kept in temperature controlled rooms, these are what the
conquistadors were looking for! It’s us, its our history, its their
immortality! One day someone’s going to look at some creepy baby statues and
are going to be seeing us, or at
least what’s left of us. Our art, our journals, our lives.
And if that’s not cool to you then idk what to tell you.
If you want, follow for more rants!
Love,
Serena
Serena
6 comments:
Nerd. Why are you even up this early? Also, sounds like you’ve figured out your thesis.
people suck. also, LOOK AT THAT KITTY!
@WitchyKait you would notice that, lol.
@Callie jerk
@Callie WAIT OH MY GOD U RIGHT
@Serena ;)
Post a Comment