Potential takeover of Ringling Museum
FOX 13’s Jennifer Kveglis stories on a grassroots effort to cease New Faculty of Florida from taking up Sarasota’s Ringling Museum from FSU.
SARASOTA, Fla. – A grassroots effort is working to cease the switch of the administration of the Ringling Museum in Sarasota from FSU to New Faculty of Florida.
The Ringling Museum in Sarasota.
In response to Governor Ron DeSantis’s 2025-2026 fiscal yr price range proposal, by Aug. 1, Florida’s smallest public college, with almost 800 college students, could be set to take over the Ringling Museum.
Nancy Parrish was a board member for the museum for 9 years. She known as the Ringling the crown jewel of the humanities neighborhood in Tampa Bay.
What they’re saying:
“It features a lovely 66-acre campus grounds which have unbelievable gardens. It has the artwork museum, John and Mable Ringling’s historic dwelling, the Ca D’zan; it has the circus museum,” mentioned Parrish.
For 25 years, FSU has managed the museum. Parrish mentioned that by their partnership, the museum has turn out to be one of many high six museums within the nation for customer expertise, attracting greater than 400,000 guests yearly.
“The FSU-Ringling partnership is a case research in institutional cooperation resulting in this cost-efficient, operational excellence,” mentioned Parrish.
Parrish mentioned that a number of weeks in the past, she realized in regards to the administration switch proposal.
“The entire sudden, right here comes New Faculty, who’s in its personal transition. It has precarious monetary instability,” Parrish mentioned. “They will reward the museum and its collections and grounds to New Faculty?”
Dig deeper:
Parrish believes New Faculty doesn’t have the infrastructure to look after the museum.
Nancy Parrish at The Ringling Museum in Sarasota.
“FSU and the Ringling are so inextricably linked. The infrastructure, the IT, safety, the human assets, developments, ticket gross sales,” Parrish mentioned. “Now they suggest that New Faculty goes to deal with all of these issues? That is absurd.”
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Parrish mentioned the proposal is probably going based mostly on monetary curiosity.
“New Faculty wants to seek out its personal resolution out of its financially unstable state of affairs. The museum shouldn’t be penalized,” Parrish defined.
Large image view:
Parrish, different former board members, trustees and donors have come collectively to kind the Residents to Defend The Ringling group to demand transparency from legislators.
“What’s up with this? It is a backroom deal; it disrespects the Gulf Coast neighborhood tremendously,” Parrish mentioned.
FOX 13 contacted DeSantis’s workplace and The Ringling Museum to substantiate whether or not the proposal is transferring ahead. Neither has responded.
The Supply: FOX 13’s Jennifer Kveglis collected the data on this story.
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