Sarasota attractions switch to online presence

There's no shortage of places to visit in Sarasota,  from botanical gardens and art museums to aquariums and jungle gardens.

But this week, with such staples as Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, The Ringling Museum and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens closed, the visiting is taking a new approach in many cases. Virtual visits are in some cases replacing literal day trips. 

Mote wants to ensure students who are at home are still able to access the aquarium, whether it be from its online Sea Trek program or shifting its shark feeding demonstrations to an online format.

“We're getting ready to kind of really ramp up and come up with a schedule of when people at home can tune in and learn from our Marine Science educators virtually. (That way) they can still get to see stuff going on at the aquarium and see the research going on,” said Stephannie Kettle, a Mote spokeswoman. 

On Wednesday, Kettle said the aquarium hosted a Facebook Live broadcast of a shark feeding in lieu of the live demonstrations typically done every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The aquarium plans to host the online event every Wednesday. The aquarium is planning to host virtual storytelling around the aquarium with marine science related books.

Tracy Fanara, Mote environmental health program manager, will host online science experiments that will be simple enough for children to do at home, Kettle said, adding otter and manatee livestreams can be found at mote.org. 

For art lovers, the majority of the Ringling Museum art collection can be found on its website, according to spokesperson Virginia Harshman. The museum is working to adapt its gallery conversations program to an online medium by using Zoom or Youtube.

Harshman said that depending on how long The Ringling remains closed, the museum is considering hosting virtual openings for upcoming exhibitions such as the Being Seen, which showcases The Ringling’s photography collection.

For children, the museum’s education program department can provide elementary school teachers with access to its teacher resources portal, which has lesson plans and projects teachers can adapt for their students. 

Harshman suggested parents and their children take virtual tours of museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Vatican Museum or The National Gallery of Art.

“You could do an online museum tour and then do a corresponding art project at home based upon some of the things that you've seen in the museum,” she said. “It's just a really kind of a great time for parents to get creative with their kids.”

Selby Gardens originally hoped to remain open but ultimately made the decision to close on March 17, CEO Jennifer Rominiecki said. 

The senior team is working to create digital content to keep people engaged in Selby Gardens’ core mission aspects of horticulture, botanical research and education, Rominiecki said. 

Information about the work Selby does can be found on the gardens website, selby.org, where people are able to read literature on the gardens latest exhibit “Salvador Dali: Gardens of the Mind.”

“We're all in this together, and we'll get through it together,” she said.