The Ringling Museum in Sarasota opened for the first time since March. Here’s what it was like.

SARASOTA — Entering the Visitor’s Pavilion at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was a different experience on Wednesday, when the museum opened to the public for the first time since March.

A replica bust of Michelangelo’s famous David statue wearing a cloth face mask greeted visitors, who took selfies with it. Inside, large glass shields reminiscent of bank teller booths protected masked staff at the admissions desk.

Families and groups trickled in, holding up their phones to show staff their e-tickets. Those who hadn’t purchased tickets queued up in the lines that were marked with labels six feet apart on the floor. All visitors entered through the pavilion, so the museum could keep track of how many entered.

The Sarasota art museum is among the first museums in the Tampa Bay area to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts opened on Monday, Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry also opened Wednesday, and the Tampa Museum of Art will open June 1.

Ringling executive director Steven High said he was excited to reopen, and that the museum has been planning on how to keep it safe since they closed in March.

“It’s in the best shape it’s ever been in,” he said.

Hand sanitizer stations were found throughout the museum, as well as screens that asked people to keep their distance and asked them to wear a mask. Masks aren’t required for visitors, but encouraged.

There weren’t six-foot distancing labels on the floors of the galleries in the art museum. But between its 21 galleries, 20,000-square-foot Searing Wing and the Center for Asian Art, visitors found they had the rooms mostly to themselves.

It might have felt especially quiet because the museum is not holding docent-led tours right now. Instead, they have created audio tours in some of the galleries.

Families kept their distance in the Circus Museum Tibbals Learning Center, as they gazed at the world’s largest model circus, the Howard Bros. Circus Model, built more than 50 years ago by master model maker and philanthropist Howard Tibbals.

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In the other Circus Museum building, an attendant welcomed guests from behind a glass partition, while another wiped down the railing of the display of John and Mable Ringling’s personal train car.

Other guests had only come to roam the picturesque waterfront grounds, full of gardens and statues. Even though the playground is closed, families strolled around outside. Teens posed for selfies, two with graduation caps. No one grouped up.

Fredrick Randle of St. Petersburg and Keongela Norton of Sarasota were celebrating their one-year dating anniversary at the museum Wednesday. Randall discovered that it was opening while searching online for things to do. They said their favorite part was the Ca’d’ Zan, John and Mable Ringling’s mansion, of which only the first floor is open.

“We were surprised how much they had open just on a small scale,” Randle said. “When they open it all back up, I’d definitely like to check it out.”

Many guests who were from out of town on vacation also discovered the museum’s reopening by searching for things to do. When a planned cruise to Greece got canceled, Orlando residents Todd Lerma, Trent Coen and Martin Shipton moved their trip to Siesta Key. Shipton loves museums, so he said they made it a point to come to the Ringling on the last day of their trip.

Mother and daughter Liv Gagne and Gianna Mena are visiting Gagne’s mother, an art enthusiast in Englewood, from Massachusetts. Gagne said that when her mother told her the museum was opening, she decided to make it their first venture out so she could show her daughter the art collection.

“It’s a good educational experience and we were thrilled that it was opening up,” Gagne said. “It’s nice to take the kids out; they can only take being inside for so long. It’s so nice to just get outside and enjoy the gardens. This is such a beautiful place, but it also gives you an educational perspective of art and architecture.”

If you go

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art: Admission is $15 for adults and seniors through June 30, $15 active duty military, $10 Florida teachers, $5 college students and children 6-17, free for children 5 and younger and select college students. Admission to the art museum is free on Mondays. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. 5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota. (941) 359-5700. ringling.org.