The Appleton Eminent Scholar in the Arts

The substantial Appleton Endowment has allowed FSU to expand university programs at the Appleton Museum. The premier endowment program is the Appleton Eminent Scholar in the Arts. The chair has invited to Florida world-renowned arts historians -- Oleg Grabar, Phyllis Bober, Marcel Roethlisberger, Robert Farris Thompson, Bogomila Welsh, Jerry Ackerman, Carol Duncan, and Fred Licht.

Appleton chair holders have delivered lectures in Tallahassee, Ocala, and other communities across the state and conducted symposia for graduate students and the public. They have counseled museum staff, offered curatorial guidance and provided museum expertise for FSU museums and students. Clearly, the distinguished holders of the Appleton Chair have benefited the FSU museums and through expanded service could carry on the scholarly tradition at the Ringling Museum begun by peerless guest curators and scholars such as Creighton Gilbert, Rudolf Wittkower, Erwin Panofsky, Julius Held, and Richard Krautheimer.

It is expected that the Appleton Eminent Scholar will deliver lectures and conduct symposia at the Ringling Museum. Since the Chair is related to a museum, past scholars have been selected in part for their knowledge of the museum world. For fall 2000 we will welcome Neil Stratford, Keeper Emeritus of Medieval and Later Antiquities of the British Museum. Stratford, with a quarter century of experience at the British Museum, can bring a wealth of expertise to the Ringling. We propose that he be the first lecturer in the "Ringling University Series," a program designed to present illustrated lectures, gallery talks, performances, workshops and seminars with notable scholars, artists and world figures.

The Appleton Endowment supports many other museum-associated academic programs. Among these are student scholarships and fellowships, interdisciplinary arts programs and exhibitions, art and art history lecture series, and museum career activities. Graduate students receiving Appleton scholarships have studied museum collections and presented their research to both Tallahassee and Ocala audiences. The Appleton Curatorial Fellowship program sends a university student to the Appleton Museum each semester to research collections and learn about museum operations. FSU faculty, student and alumni artists have participated in one-person and group exhibitions at the Appleton Museum.

The "FSU at the Appleton" series has brought FSU dance, music, art, curators and scholars from a variety of university disciplines to a wider audience. The university plans to establish a similar series in Sarasota and will seek local support for such a venture. "The Ringling/FSU University Series" will include illustrated lectures, gallery talks, performances, workshops and seminars with notable scholars and artists.

The Ringling/FSU University Series will be designed to serve four distinct audiences: K-12 school children; special needs children and adults, families, and the general public. Contributions by the Dance Repertory Theatre will be discussed later, but this extraordinary activity integrates dance and music with art in a format that involves the audience in dance production.

Ensembles from the FSU School of Music will present historical and contemporary concerts. For fall 2000, we will invite the Trio Con Brio to be the premier performers. Professors from the Departments of Art and Art History will be invited to deliver talks to Ringling audiences. Robert Neuman, author of "Robert de Cotte and the Perfection of Architecture in Eighteenth-Century France," would be an excellent choice to speak about Baroque architecture and painting. Professor of Art Roald Nasgaard and Appleton Museum Director Jeffrey Spalding are considering a seminar and workshop entitled, "On the Cutting Edge." This three-day event would not only elucidate the sometimes complicated messages of contemporary art, but would allow participants to learn current artistic techniques.

Private Fundraising and Gifts of Art

The Appleton Endowment, of course, was the result of private fundraising efforts on the part of the University, the FSU Foundation, and the School of Visual Arts and Dance. This endowment is now in excess of $9 million.

Related Links: School of Music School of Visual Arts

The Ringling Museum conducts a program of private fundraising and this effort would have to be sustained and, indeed, intensified to ensure the future of the museum. The university and its academic units enjoy the benefits from established Foundation mechanisms, prospect research, annual giving campaigns, matching funds programs, and the like, which will also support efforts to increase resources for the Ringling Museum. Since December 1997 when the University completed a successful capital campaign raising over $300 million (of which the School of Visual Arts and Dance was credited with $34.3 million), the School has continued its fundraising efforts, producing more than $l0.4 million through 1999.

Since l994, the endowment of FSU has increased from $50 million to more than $269 million and with the expectation that, by July 1, 2000, it will exceed $300 million. The university has built a large and highly professional fund-raising staff. This staff is expected to expand further and a full-time fundraiser for the Sarasota area has been put into the budget. That person’s responsibilities will include coordination with individuals knowledgeable about Ringling’s fund-raising efforts.

Since the Appleton Museum has had new leadership, it has had considerable success in soliciting gifts of art and the strategy for this will be reviewed with the Ringling staff.

Museum Studies at Florida State University: An Interdisciplinary Program with an International Presence

Both FSU art museums and their staffs are involved with FSU's Museum Studies program. The FSU museums are real life laboratories for students who want museum careers, offering excellent training advantages to complement opportunities at other museums here and abroad. Adding the Ringling Museum to the program would further enhance this training potential, allowing students to intern and learn in a recognized national museum in Florida.

Prominent features of FSU's Museum Studies are the program's widespread support from across campus and across the state and the program's international presence through collaboration with the British Museum and other London-based institutions. Nine departments from four schools and colleges have come together under the auspices of museum studies. The interdisciplinary mix of faculty and students has promoted a strong campus-wide interest in museums. Statewide, nationwide and global connections have spawned a network of museum contacts.

Courses in Museum Studies are offered as part of the curriculum at FSU’s international program in London. The program is the only one of its kind to offer videoconferences with the British Museum. There is a strong opportunity for the Ringling Museum’s participation as part of an educational program with museums abroad. Future goals of the Museum Studies program include technical training, undergraduate courses, continuing education for mid-career and advanced professionals, and greater use of new technologies for distance learning. FSU Museum Studies already involves many Florida museums and the Ringling Museum will now provide a significant resource on which to further build the program.

Museum Education through Distance Learning

Florida State University has a well-designed approach to distance and distributed learning and this partnership with the Ringling Museum offers the potential for an online master’s program in museum management. In addition, the collections at Ringling could form the basis of online course work for students at all levels, including K-12. Supplemental funds will be sought to finance this opportunity for distance learning.

FSU offers three upper-division undergraduate programs entirely on line for students to receive their baccalaureate degree in computer science, information studies and software engineering. A new program in social science will begin in the fall with other undergraduate programs under development. This "2+2" program is offered in cooperation with l8 community colleges in Florida and is an example of FSU’s success in collaborating with other institutions in a common mission. At the graduate level, FSU offers three master’s degrees online: open and distance learning; information studies; and criminal justice. Mechanical engineering is slated to begin in the fall and several other master’s programs, including the MBA (in Risk Management and Insurance), and Science Education and Math are under consideration.

Sarasota, the home of the Ringling, is also a community in which FSU’s new medical school is seeking a partnership with health care facilities offering training for medical students. The medical school will be designed to offer significant telemedicine course work and a network for the electronic transmission of medical information. The sophisticated technologies that emerge from this partnership could benefit distance learning efforts delivered by FSU and the Ringling.

Artists and Curators

FSU’s preeminent practicing artists and curators have long exhibited and curated in museums and galleries throughout the region. This activity will spread to the Ringling Museum as university artists curate exhibitions, conduct workshops, and offer high level instruction for the Ringling audience. FSU curators along with Ringling curators might well consider instituting new programs, such as an exhibition program intended to highlight gifted artists from the state of Florida.