On Mondays, visitors are welcome to the Museum of Art, Bayfront Gardens, and Glass Pavilion for free. Paid entry to the Circus Museum and Ca’ d’Zan is still required. It’s about an hour and a half from our place, so we figured it would be a lovely afternoon out. We waited in line to give our zip code and number in our party before going upstairs for coffee.

Caleb with coffee by Ca’ d’Zan

The Rose Garden was completed in 1913 and includes varieties that date back to 1793, even though none of the hundreds of original roses planted survive. Today, we are only met by the courting couples sculptures that were acquired in Europe and line the crushed-shell paths. Mabel’s secret garden is informal and charming, and able to provide for the lifecycle of a butterfly. I would describe the area as verdant with pops of maroon and dirty lemon against the gray bricks and marble statues.

Clockwise: Libbi Ponce, Joo Yeon Woo, Michael Vasquez, and William Pachner

John and Mable were around between 1866 and 1936, making it to the ages of 70 and 54, respectively. They chose an excellent location for their winter home, completed in 1926 after two years of construction on 56 rooms within 36,000 square feet. It’s a stunning piece of architecture from the outside, and I can appreciate leaving the interior a mystery until a later date. The reflecting pool is in a bit of disrepair, but new blue tiles are coming soon, so I’m sure that will only improve its appeal.

We are able to walk around to the back side of the mansion, Ca’ d’Zan, and take in the Sarasota Bay and wonder what types of sea vessels were parked before the elegant staircase that is currently blocked off. I’m glad that I have pictures to help with the description, or I’d be staring at Long Boat Key too, but I’d be thinking of adjectives for the blue glass, brown stone, and painted inlays that set this place apart from anything I’ve seen in Florida.

We watch a Great Blue Heron keep an eye on us for a while, and though he can grow to over five feet, he will only weigh about five pounds. I love animals in their natural environment, or making do with what they have left, and appreciate when they let me see how they survive for a bit. I think about how different species catch fish – strolling the shore, diving in, waiting patiently, and working together.

stoneware

Japanese sword guards

We enter the Museum of Art via the Searing Wing. There is a painting by Jake Fernandez, who uses interlocking, wooden bas-relief panels to portray his landscapes, which appear to shift. Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse are more focused on water and social change, so their art is a large-scale map of the waters of Florida. These artists are part of the Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration that celebrates recent artwork from the Tamba Bay region.

Mickalene Thomas prefers to focus on the feminist movement with her rhinestone portrait from 2009 paired with a soundtrack from 1957 based on a speech given in 1851, encapsulating an idea of womanhood and how perception of women’s rights has changed over the generations. Jake Troyli takes on the issue of commodification of Black and Brown bodies, exploring masculinity and identity. His oil on canvas shows a brown, headless, and naked body with an older man in a suit clinging in despair. We explored the tiered courtyard before making our way through the Dwarf Garden.