Dear fellow LRMA supporter,

As you may know, our museum has gone through exciting, and necessary, changes this past year. We know change can cause uncertainty, but we are here to explain what these changes mean looking forward, and to assure you our team is here to make sure the museum we love will be here for the benefit of generations to come.

The biggest change, that many of you are aware of, is LRMA is no longer a stand-alone art museum. We are now a department of St. Petersburg College (SPC), and this is great news! While donations are always welcomed, LRMA has increased its accessibility by offering free admission with the support of the college – which will allow us to better serve our surrounding community. As we strengthen our relationship with SPC humanities, we plan to offer more programming, events, and exhibits that will further uplift the creative talent that is present on our campuses, something we have always wanted to do.

Being that we are now a department of the SPC we have heard, and are listening to, concern about our accreditation standards. Please know that LRMA continues to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).

Looking to the future, LRMA is using this opportunity to build upon the foundation laid over the past two decades to re-envision its future to thrive for years to come. While we embrace much of this change, the goal in the heart of our museum stays the same; we are here to serve you, our community, and to meet your needs even more than in the past. We are honored to continue to be a cultural hub of north Pinellas County and the greater Tampa Bay area through the installation of art, facilitation of dialog, and providing a space that inspires. We are also honored to become closer to the college that has provided us space to grow over the past 20 years and are excited to see how we can help each other evolve in the coming years.

The bottom line is our museum is growing more than ever as we come into our 20th year. Growth is exciting but will be challenging, so we ask for your support as we navigate these challenges and re-envision our museum’s place as a world-class academic art institution located in beautiful Tarpon Springs.

As a last note, we thank everyone who has been a part of the museum’s growth up until this point. We recognize your importance in the foundation of our work and respect what you have done to get us to this point. We look forward to your input in the coming months as LRMA finds its place within the SPC’s ecosystem.

Sincerely,

Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art