SARASOTA – An anticipated slowdown in the number of visitors forces The Ringling museum to furlough 31 staff members for the next few months.
According to our partners at the Herald-Tribune Executive Director Steven High is reporting The Ringling lost about $2.5 million during the two months it shut down.
The museum closed its doors to visitors in mid-March at the end of the usually strong tourist season. The museum reopened with limited capacity on May 27th.
High says attendance is doing better than expected but it still needs to reduce costs. He says making cuts on operating costs for the buildings in order to remain open can’t simply be done.
With more than 500,000 square feet of buildings that are both temperature and humidity-controlled the cost of operating the museum is pretty significant.
While they say they’re not in a crisis, they have to look long-term.