OK, I once attended school near the Ringling clown college in Sarasota. Once a fellow walked into the physics lab and said he was looking for the clown college. Without missing a beat, the prof shot back, “You’ve come to the right place.”
So I’m still trying to figure out what the community is in a snit about. Sarasota is a tourist town. People come from the north, spend their money, and leave. Old people retire and die there. And I can’t for the life of me figure out what they have against a few clown showpieces. The Ringlings were good to Sarasota; Sarasota should be good back.
To raise money and celebrate their 25th anniversary, Hospice of Southwest Florida wants to place up to 70 large fiberglass clowns – painted by artists and sponsored by businesses – around town.
The concept has ample precedent, from Chicago’s cows to Miami Beach’s flamingos to Washington D.C.’s donkeys and elephants, and beyond. Gainesville got into the act as well with Gator Trails statues. For hospice directors, clowns unquestionably captured Sarasota’s spirit and history, and the city commission easily embraced the plan.
But the dissenting artists say the mass-produced figurines are overly commercial and hackneyed. Sarasota’s plan is made worse, they believe, because the figures in question would be clowns, which they say would cheapen a city that bills itself as the “cultural coast.”
Plus, they noted, there are children and adults who harbor coulrophobia – a serious fear of clowns.
There’s got to be more to this story. Anyone from down that way? I’d love to hear your take.
It’s got to be a pretty lame excuse. Santa Fe is one of the biggest art markets in the country. We have a large artists’ colony of every type. Yet, when we had a similar fundraiser a few years back — they did horses — it was a terrific success.
The only occasional small problem was with vandalism from a few gangbanger idiots. A fair piece of change was raised and some interesting takes on what a horse could look like resulted.
“overly commercial and hackneyed” for Florida?! God, they must be the most overly commercial and hackneyed objects ever created. I’m imagining an Onion article derived from this story: “Area man creates object so overly commercial and hackneyed that even Floridian consumers reject it in horror.”
I didn’t like chicago’s clowns. Now my town has taken to new cheesy fiberglass figurines every year. This year they had fiberglass fairies sitting on fiberglass benches. I can see why sarasota is frightened.
Well, I don’t know about clowns, but they did dolphins in Victoria BC a while back. They were hidiously ugly all over the place. Art is in the eye of the beholder, and there’s a reason it’s kept in galleries. The only good part was when they were actioned off for charity, although why someone would want one is beyond me.
It only sounds like a good idea.
Main Entry: coulrophobia
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: an extreme fear of clowns
Etymology: Greek kolon or kolobathristes
Source: Webster’s New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)
Copyright © 2003-2005 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
It’s even possible to be afraid of clowns.
I’m not making a statement about the silliness of the furor, Seattle did the same with pigs a few years ago. Of course the main complaints I heard were that they took up sidewalk space and were basically advertisments for hte business’ who “sponsored” the artists.
Having a president who clowns around with smart bombs will indeed induce coulrophobia.
Las Vegas had a Cow Parade (fiberglass cattle painted by various artists) a few years ago as a fundraiser. Some cattle were tacky, some were wonderful, and some were wonderfully tacky. A lot of money was raised when the cattle were auctioned, and a good time was has by all. Even the tourists.
Sarasota needs to loosen up a bit.
Why hate clowns? Two words – coulrophobia!
About 10 years ago, Seattle did pigs to support the Pike Place Market.
Fear of Clowns???
Gee, I’m not so sure that that might not be something serious.
Every year I help out Santa. Because he is too busy getting everything together for Christmas Eve, I volunteer to sit in for him at a couple of events. My wife claims I do a good imitation of old Saint Nick and I have fooled my daughter for the past five years. (My daughter turned six this summer, I don’t know how much longer I can keep her believing in the Big Guy.) Every year several kids will refuse to sit on my lap, apparently suffering from severe clausophobia. Sometimes, if I hold the Ho Ho Hos and be quiet, They will sit with me long enough for Dad or Mom to take a picture. Often they need to be bribed with candy or just have the comfort of Mom sitting there too.
Now what can be better then sitting on Santa’s lap? Yet there are those that will scream hysterically, refusing to come a step closer to me. If there are so many with clauseophobia (fear of Santa Claus) would it not also make sense that there would be those with coulrophobia (fear of Clowns). Do we really need more screaming 2 and 3 yr olds on Main Street ??? Do we really need some mass murderer, 20 years in the future, claiming to have been so traumatized as a child seeing all those Clowns that he had to take up genocide as a hobby ???
My suggestion !!! Everybody crawl under a rock. Don’t ever come out. If you get hungry, just eat dirt. That way nothing will ever hurt you. Never.
I have to admit to a fear of clowns myself. But not the circus type with a big red nose. My Bozophobia is a fear of “action committee clowns” fighting over fiberglass clown installations. Being in the room with this debate must be true “Twilight Zone” moment.
Having lived in Sarasota, I know clowns are certainly part of the local color. But so are tourist, snowbirds, beach bums and bluehairs. Fiberglass versions of each of these should be included in the project for diversity. I remember being held up at a traffic light there for about ten minutes once, waiting for a large group of seniors citizens to cross a street from their retirement condo to a restaurant. Several of them were “walker enabled”, and by the time the “point man” walker had crossed, two or three more were blocking the intersection. This wasn’t a bad thing, as a matter of fact it was sort of nice. Nobody blew their car horns, they just waited. Of course a lot of the waiting drivers were also elderly and used the delay to catch a quick nap. That was 25 years ago, today the same scene might morph into a clip from Grand Theft Auto.
So my vote is for a fiberglass squadron of bluehairs making their way to an early buffet, fiberglass fat guys in white socks and sandals and the fiberglass clowns. You just can’t have too much fiberglass in a city…especially during a hurricane. And if they do get blown up into the living room of a 34th floor oceanfront condo, we can all chip in and help out via our tax dollars that go to FEMA.
I think this pretty much solves the problem.
Sarasota is also the home of the infamous Katherine Harris. You remember her, right? She was the Florida head of elections that gave Bush his first election victory from the chad. She’s now a Representative and would-be Senator.
Methinks that painted Katherine Harris figurines would be better. Although it would be hard to paint them more gaudy than the original. And, it could be likened to substituting one clown for another.
“Can’t sleep, clowns will eat me”
i.m from ringling, oklahoma, a sleepy little town in southern oklahoma.my understanding is that the Ringling Circus originally was here in oklahoma, and went to Florida to winter.it’s a small joke in the area that “Ringling”(mudcreek) is well known for it’s “clowns”,we are proud of it’s heritage, and there’s a big sign coming into town about the circus and it’s clowns.