In Sarasota, the subtropics meet the South. Pressed up against the edge of the Gulf of Mexico in southwest Florida, this city, long home to carnies and cowmen, is best understood as a study in contrast. Now the new Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College, which opened last month, aims to spotlight the city’s cultural depth and diversity.

A cadre of residents forged the idea for a modern art museum more than 15 years ago, because, while there was a wealth of arts organizations in town, few venues dedicated to contemporary art existed. Their conversations led to a $22 million fund-raising effort to reanimate the former site of Sarasota High School as a kunsthalle — a non-collecting art institution showing only temporary exhibits.

Residents, staff and donors hope the nonprofit museum will provide a cross section of modern and contemporary art as complex as this town.

Some of the first Americans in the region were of the Uzita tribe, who died or disappeared after Spanish explorers arrived in the 16th century. At the end of the 19th century, Sarasota took shape through agriculture and fishing along the Gulf. Later, writers like John D. MacDonald, Joy Williams and Stephen King would call Sarasota home, as well as architects like Paul Rudolph and Victor Lundy.