George Lucas To Decide Location For His Museum - Los Angeles Or San Francisco?
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Will the force be Los Angeles or San Francisco? George Lucas will decide soon where to build the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
The city of L.A. is offering the creator of the Star Wars franchise seven acres of land, which is currently a parking lot, on Vermont Avenue in Exposition Park for his project.
That site is nestled near the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and west of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Mayor Eric Garcetti released a statement saying: "We would welcome the opportunity to be a permanent home for this incredible collection, which would become part of a museum culture that is unrivaled in the United States."
The mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee, is also vying for the museum to be built on Treasure Island.
He gathered people on Treasure Island Monday to pose for a photo used in a social media campaign to lure the 265,000 square-foot museum to his city.
The wisest choice for the George Lucas Museum, San Francisco is. pic.twitter.com/uheBItlyvs
— Mayor Ed Lee (@mayoredlee) January 9, 2017
Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, who is the Chair of DreamWorks Animation SKG and a regular contributor on financial issues on CBS This Morning, will invest $1 billion into the museum.
The project will cost taxpayers nothing and create more than 1,500 construction jobs and at least 350 permanent jobs, according to the soon-to-be-built museum's website.
The filmmaker said the museum will be the first of its kind that will feature "fine art and popular art from illustration to comics."
"Narrative is one of the oldest and most important impulses in art. It is also the most popular form of art. Tracing the arc of narrative art reveals how culture is created, reinforced, and then compelled to evolve," the filmmaker wrote on his website.
The Lucas board will meet Tuesday to begin its deliberations over the final location of the museum.