As the largest individual donors in Ringling College’s 80-year history, Dr. Richard and Barbara Basch’s transformational gift shines a brilliant light on our community.

Dr. Richard and Barbara Basch recently made an impressive, two-part pledge to the Ringling College of Art and Design and its newest division — the Sarasota Museum of Art/SMOA — consisting of a monetary commitment and their entire 250+ piece glass collection, a combined gift valued at over $5.5 million.

The Baschs’ generous gift will come from Richard’s estate and is designated to provide capital for the renovation of Sarasota High School, future home of the Visual Arts Education Center, which will house the Sarasota Museum of Art.

“It’s a fantastic plan,” Barbara said. “The idea was just perfect for us, for the college, and for the museum, because they will continue adult education there, they will have demonstrations at studios there, and there will be a very beautiful auditorium where lectures will take place. We also hope that there will be a permanent gallery for the glass where they’ll be able to rotate the collection between the museum and the college.”

Originally from Boston, the couple married in 1964 and moved to Sarasota in 1979. Richard, now retired, enjoyed a successful career as a prominent radiologist and Barbara ran a retail shop in Sarasota that featured hats and handbags. In the late 1980s they began collecting first ceramics, then glass.

That’s when they encountered the work of world-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, who Barbara said is one of the pioneers in studio glass in this country.

“We had an epiphany when we went up to Tampa and attended a Chihuly exhibit,” she remembered. “Each piece has its own cycle of personality, as the light hits it and fades, and then comes back. You don’t just look at a piece of glass, you look into it. There’s depth to it, great dimension, and of course color. Nothing shows color like glass. It got us. We were hooked. So we started investigating first American artists, then later artists from all over the world.”

After nearly 20 years of collecting glass art objects, the Baschs turned to Ringling College as an ideal environment to house this modern medium.

“We were just so bowled over by that place, and what Larry Thompson is doing there as president, that we got very involved,” Barbara said. “His mind is so far reaching. He’s always thinking five years ahead, ten years ahead. There’s a plan that he has in his head for the college, and it came naturally that we suggested that maybe they would want our collection some day.”

Richard added that he and his wife would like to see glass artists and collectors recognize Sarasota as a destination for their passion for glass art.

“As SMOA will do for contemporary and modern art, we feel that notable glass art collections, accessible to the public, can help complete Sarasota’s cultural mosaic while providing beneficial economic impact for the area,” he said.

Barbara said Ringling College is the perfect place for the couple to deed their collection due to its growing reputation in the world of art and scholarship.

“When we first moved to Sarasota it was just a small school where students went to study interior design and painting, and they still do that beautifully,” Barbara said. “But now they have gone into the whole technological future of art and design. Now they’re into digital film, digital art, animation. A graduate having studied animation there can really find a job without a problem. Pixar and Disney are now coming to the college to recruit. So it’s really exciting to see how it’s grown.”

Barbara added that Ringling College does not currently have a glass art department, but she envisions one in the not-too-distant future.

“Meanwhile, January 7, 2012 opens our third exhibit there from our collection,” she said. “The exhibit will run to almost the end of March. This time it’s only going to feature American artists, because 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the studio glass movement in the U.S.”

The Basches shrug off any acknowledgements of or praise for their generosity. They prefer to focus instead on the glass, how Ringling College will preserve it, the exhibit, and what it means to simply be a part of the creation and perpetuation of this unique and beautiful art.

“We’ve met so many marvelous people while doing this adventure and we hope people will come out to see the exhibit,” Barbara said. “There will be well over 40 pieces, so it will be a lot of pieces of glass for people to look at and experience.”

For more information about the exhibit, contact Mark Ormond, curator of exhibitions at Ringling College galleries at 941-309-1000 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It  will be the best way you could ever say “thank you” to Richard and Barbara for the marvelous gift they have bestowed to the Sarasota community.