Save artifacts from centuries ago.
It manages acres of well-maintained grounds and rose gardens.
Protects precious art from the destruction of a powerful storm.
Over a quarter century at Florida State University, he staffed, operated and managed the finances of an arts facility known as Ringling, including the John and Mable Ringling Museum, the Circus Museum, the Asologator and the historic Kaedozan Mansion along 66 acres of Bayfront in Sarasota.
However, at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request, these duties could be handed over to New College College, a small public liberal arts college that relies on millions of dollars to state support.
FSU is currently putting a huge amount of resources into ringling maintenance, from donating more than $50 million to employing more than 200 staff to run the museum.
Managing a museum requires the expertise to hire and retain curators, secure millions of donations and protect artwork. In addition to the museum, Ringling is particularly unique in that its staff maintains a museum specialising in the history of the circus, and is tasked with preserving John Ringling’s historic mansion.
So DeSantis’ proposal to hand over Ringling to New College has many museum supporters questioning how liberal arts schools can take over the responsibility for managing complex operations.
FSU and Ringling are “closely connected,” said Nancy Parrish, who chaired the John & Mable Ringling Museum Foundation from 2018 to 2020.
“FSU provides a lot of support for facilities, maintenance and architecture,” said Leon Erin, who sits on Ringling’s board of directors. “They have a big staff and they can function as intelligent landlords for Ringling.”
A spokesperson for Ringling and FSU declined to comment, while a representative from the new university did not return a request for comment.
Large business: What you need to do with a ring ring
Museum announcements rished to the nation at his will after Ringling’s death in 1936. The Museum and Kai Da Zan worked to continue to operate the property and skeleton staff after the property was transferred to the state in 1946.
In 1948, Arthur Everett Austin Jr., the museum’s first director, opened the Circus Museum. In 1952 he oversaw the establishment of the historic Asoro Theatre, which housed the restored interior of the original Asoro Theatre, built within the castle of Asoro in Italy in the late 18th century.
When FSU took over the Ringling in 2000, the museum had enough resources to support Asolo Theatre and Kaidanzan in the multi-million-dollar renovations. Under FSU’s stewardship, Ringling oversaw the expansion of the Circus Museum, creating a centre of Asian Arts and a gallery of contemporary art in 2016.
“They’re doing this,” said Brett Ashley Crawford, professor of art management at Carnegie Mellon University.
Documents held by the FSU Foundation and other direct support organizations are exempt from Florida’s Public Records Act, and FSU has rejected Suncoast Searchlight’s request for a museum’s operating budget.
However, publicly available records, including FSU payroll records and annual financial reports by both FSU and Ringling, indicate that institutions are intertwined today.
As of March 13th, Ringling had 229 FSU employees, according to FSU pay records. Workers Staff Museum Library, Clean Building provides security for property, maintains the museum grounds, curates collections and creates educational programs.
Given the location of Sarasota Bay, Ringling staff prepare for strong winds and floods during the hurricane poses a unique threat to Ringling, reducing the impact on the museum’s collection.
Before Hurricane Irma in September 2017, workers segregated and crossed the artwork to protect it from the storm. During Hurricane Helen, the basement of Ka da Zan was flooded in September, and the following month, in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Ringling dealt with roof damage to the Circus Museum.
Only labor costs for operating Ringling exceed $9 million a year, FSU pay records show. That work is supported by a museum’s contribution of over $50 million, invested by the FSU Foundation. According to Ringling’s 2023-24 Annual Report, two of the museum’s top three donors (each giving over $1 million) were the FSU and the FSU Foundation.
In comparison, New College is struggling to manage its own business and relies on tens of millions of dollars in funding from the state legislature. According to the New College website, the school’s art department is staffed by one professor. According to the latest tax returns, the university’s full amount (a donation of approximately $50 million) is comparable to that of Ringling.
Is it a certification at risk? What happens when New College takes over?
The official response to the proposed relocation of Ringling away from FSU has focused primarily on logistical and financial issues, but the politics of the proposal looms heavily.
After Desantis reshaping the New College board of trustees and cramming political allies into the board, the school’s new leadership soon sought to eradicate programming that contradicts right-wing ideology.
President Donald Trump sweeps the John F. Kennedy Center, the National Cultural Center in Washington, DC, and pushes New College to take over the ringling, national politics echo has also introduced questions about the direction of the Kennedy Center.
“Art can be used as a tool for propagandists, and is used as a tool for propaganda at various moments in history,” Crawford pointed out Joseph Stalin’s Soviet art as an example. “What’s unique in the modern world is the business structure that is theoretically designed to make it difficult to do that.”
Rules governing nonprofits limit nonprofit organizations’ financial or other personal conflicts of interest from sitting on their boards.
New College’s strong ideological position also raises questions about its ability to effectively manage museums that certify their ability to maintain a certain degree of independence. To ensure accreditation by the United States’ Alliance of Museums, the largest association of museums in the United States, museums must conduct research according to academic standards, while maintaining a clear separation of roles between the various stakeholders of the institution.
Museums where the board directs what curators can and cannot do, could risk losing accreditation.
“They need to be independent,” Crawford said.
The story was originally published by Suncoast Searchlight, a non-profit newsroom that provides investigative journalism to Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. For more information, please visit suncoastsearchlight.org.
