For the first time since 1981, the Big Apple Circus will not pitch its single-ring tent behind Lincoln Center for its holiday-season run this year.

On Tuesday, the circus, a beloved, bohemian, New York City institution for more than 35 years, announced that it was ending its public performances.

Last month, Big Apple started an emergency fund-raising drive, saying its finances were in so much trouble it would have to shut down if it did not raise $2 million fairly quickly. Its administrators went beseechingly to big donors who had come to the aid of the circus in the past while hoping that a moneyed newcomer might come along and write a single big check. A crowdfunding campaign was begun as well. But ultimately the circus fell far short of its goal, raising only $900,000.