It’s official! The George Lucas Museum will be built in Los Angeles. The announcement from the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Board of Directors follows:
“After extensive due diligence and deliberation, the Board of Directors of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is pleased to announce plans to build the museum in Exposition Park in Los Angeles. We have been humbled by the overwhelmingly positive support we received from both San Francisco and Los Angeles during our selection process. Settling on a location proved to be an extremely difficult decision precisely because of the desirability of both sites and cities.
The board wishes to extend a special thanks to Mayor Ed Lee and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for their tremendous efforts and engagement. While each location offers many unique and wonderful attributes, South Los Angeles’s Promise Zone best positions the museum to have the greatest impact on the broader community, fulfilling our goal of inspiring, engaging and educating a broad and diverse visitorship. Exposition Park is a magnet for the region and accessible from all parts of the city. As a museum uniquely focused on narrative art, we look forward to becoming part of a dynamic museum community, surrounded by more than 100 elementary and high schools, one of the country’s leading universities as well as three other world-class museums.
Now we turn our attention to finalizing the details and building what we believe will be one of the most imaginative and inclusive art museums in the world—a global destination that all Angelenos and Californians will be proud to call their own.”
Lucas first wanted to build the museum in San Francisco, but he ran into opposition about the location. He then turned to Chicago, but ran into the same problem. Two competing plans then emerged, one for Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay and the other at Exposition Park. Lucas will fund the project, which is expected to cost $1 billion.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will be a gathering place to experience narrative art and the evolution of moving images from illustration to cinema to the digital mediums of the future. The museums seed collection – a gift from founder George Lucas – spans a century-and-a-half and features the images and the mediums that have profoundly shaped our cultural heritage. The foundational collection will continue to grow and evolve as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art acquires more works.
You can learn lots more about the Lucas Museum by clicking here.
