Sarasota is an arts-crazy place, a Florida Gulf Coast city justifiably proud of its cultural riches. Though small by South Florida's sprawling standards, the city is home to a ballet company, an orchestra, an opera company, a film festival, several fine professional theaters -- and, situated on 66 beautifully maintained acres alongside Sarasota Bay, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

It is, say the creative people who live and work there, America's best-kept arts secret.

But, adds the Ringling's Dwight Currie, ``There's only so long you can say that. You want to share the secret.''

From Oct. 7-11, the museum and its artistic collaborator, New York's Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), will be doing the equivalent of shouting that secret from the rooftops with the inaugural Ringling International Arts Festival.

For four days after its opening night gala and concert, the festival will present an array of mostly young, boundary-pushing artists and companies from around the world, in addition to two exhibitions at the Ringling, a number of free performances and panels, and an Asian Fun Fest for families. Thanks to a multiyear $1.5 million grant from the state of Florida, ticket prices begin at $10 and top out at $30 for the performances, all of which run about an hour.

``We decided the performances shouldn't be too long or too expensive, says Stanford Makishi, BAC's executive director. ``We want to leave the audiences wanting more.''

Already, he can envision the scene.

``Sarasota's cultural campus is so beautiful,'' Makishi says. ``I can see crowds milling about, eating, going from show to show.''

ECLECTIC LINEUP

Those shows reflect multiple disciplines and a mostly cutting-edge aesthetic. Four of the pieces were commissioned by the festival, again thanks to that Florida grant.

Included in the festival's eclectic lineup are the first Florida performance of the avant-garde theater company Elevator Repair Service, which is presenting its adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises; the American premiere of Love is my sin, renowned director Peter Brook's exploration of William Shakespeare's sonnets; Eight, an acclaimed collection of monologues by young British playwright Ella Hickson; new dance pieces by Israeli choreographer Deganit Shemy and Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton; Flamenco y Poesía from Spain's Compañía María Pagés; two programs of chamber music and deconstructionist cabaret artist Meow Meow.

The festival's performance offerings were curated by folks at the BAC, including dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov, who will be attending the festival and is, Makishi says, ``as excited as everybody else.''

``The programming is very forward-looking, yet it's so accessible,'' says Currie, the Ringling's associate director for museum programs.

Some of the artists headed to Sarasota have a connection to the BAC through previous residencies there. Others have performed at festivals or in New York and have been ``admired from afar by the BAC artistic staff,'' Makishi says, laughing.

The timing of the festival is deliberate. Sarasota's arts scene is still largely seasonal, beginning in late fall and running through the spring. The intention is to kick off the season with a festival that can draw international attention to Sarasota without competing with the city's homegrown arts groups, while hoping that the ``secret'' of the community's artistic focus will help draw audiences back to local productions.

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