FLORIDA BUDGET CUTS MAY THREATEN RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART

Tiffany Lankes reports for the Sarasota Herald Tribune that proposed budget cuts at Florida State University could threaten the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, potentially forcing the museum to close its doors until the economy gets better. The museum and neighboring FSU Center for the Performing Arts, which includes the Asolo, are among roughly two dozen programs included on an early list of potential cuts. FSU administrators, who announced the forty-five million dollars in cuts this week, noted that the list is an early draft and nothing is definite.

The FSU Board of Trustees wrote in a letter announcing the cuts that they need to look at programs that do not directly serve students, including Ringling. Temporarily closing the two facilities would save the university about eight million dollars, about 17 percent of its anticipated shortfall. A spokeswoman for Ringling said the museum is not jumping to any conclusions about the cuts or the possibility that the museum could close.

The proposed cuts come as Florida’s legislature muddles through one of the largest budget crises in state history. The state has yet to set a budget for its eleven-school university system, but early proposals suggest a cut at FSU in the range of thirty-four million to seventy-seven million dollars. The university’s board of trustees’ first list of proposed cuts chops forty-five million dollars, and it could slash even more if the revenue shortfall is greater.