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Rumors have been swirling that the Lakeland Cultural Arts Center in Florida is going under, but the organization's president says those rumors are "greatly exaggerated."
In a statement released Saturday, Jay LaPointe, president of the Lakeland Cultural Arts Center Board of Directors, says the center has "been synonymous with 411 Mosby Ave., and it will continue to be where Lakeland delivers quality community theater productions," the Orlando Sentinel reports.
"Rumors of Lakeland's demise have been greatly exaggerated, and in fact, we look forward to many more years of delivering quality community theater to the region."
LaPointe says rumors that the center is bankrupt were " improperly alluded to in some social media posts," and that "the mistake we made was the model never made sense for [the] Lakeland Cultural Arts Center to have seven full-time staff members and we strayed from our roots of heavy reliance on our incredible community of volunteers."
He says the center's payroll expense of $410,000 last year was more than double its total ticket sales, and payroll expenses were going to come in closer to $500,000 in 2024, so the board had to take "drastic actions."
The center laid off its seven full-time staff members in March, and LaPointe says the
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