Circus Museum and the Tibbals Learning Center, Sarasota

Welcome to the Circus Capital of the World. Everything you want to know about the Ringling Circus is archived here in the Circus Museum. Through an incredibly detailed miniature exhibit, visitors can see what it’s like from the minute the circus arrived in town, how they set up, their day-to-day life of performing, and how they tore everything down. You can even see their tiny living quarters.

Opened in January of 2006, the Circus Museum also houses various wardrobes from circus performers and fun circus memorabilia, props, and wagons. In the hallways, there are posters and newspaper clippings from that era.

Tibbals Learning Center is the newest addition to the Circus Museum, where visitors can enjoy the interactive galleries. Here, they can walk a tightrope, squeeze into a clown car, shoot a foam bullet, and see how it feels to be a ringleader. Plus, on display is an actual train car used to transport the circus troupe.

The Circus Museum doesn’t offer just a history of the Ringling Brothers Circus; guests will also learn about the history of circuses, dating back to 2,000 B.C.

There are 30-minute docent-led tours of the Circus Museum at 12 noon and 1 pm.