Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

A rendering of the planned museum and surrounding area by MAD Architects
Established	2014
Location	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Type	Art Museum
Founder	George Lucas
Director	Don Bacigalupi Judy Kim, Dep. Dir.
Website	www.lucasmuseum.org

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is a museum project originally planned to be located in Chicago near Burnham Harbor and was slated to have been completed in 2019-2020. Endowed and built by film creator and director, George Lucas, it will hold paintings, photography, illustration, cinematic art and digital art.

History

To be known as the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum, it was originally planned for San Francisco, on Crissy Field. This version of the museum would have held Lucas’ art collection, which is estimated to be worth approximately $1 billion. After four years of negotiation with The Presidio Trust over the land in San Francisco, Lucas announced instead that Chicago would host the museum, due in part to interest from the city's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, and the promise of land on the shore of Lake Michigan. The museum would lease the land from the Chicago Park District for $1 a year. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti also made a bid to host the project, offering Lucas land near the University of Southern California. Youngstown Mayor, John McNally, has also proposed to Lucas to locate the museum in Youngstown, Ohio offering donated land in the city's downtown.

The first president of the Museum is Don Bacigalupi, former president of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. In 2015, the State of Illinois approved potential land use for the museum and the Chicago City Council approved zoning.

On May 3 2016, a statement released by Melody Hobson, wife of George Lucas, stated that the couple was seeking other cities to host the museum after a protracted confrontation with Friends of the Parks.

Design

MAD architects, headed by Ma Yansong, is responsible for the building’s design, while VOA Associates will oversee construction. Studio Gang Architects, already involved in the rehabilitation of Northerly Island, will design the landscape.

The design was met with some criticism upon release. Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune called the structure "needlessly massive" and called for a "dose of restraint" to preserve the lakefront. In Crain's Chicago Business, Greg Hinz derided it as "[yelling] and [carrying] on, in its own way defacing the city's lakefront as much as any teenager with a can of spray paint...".

Revised plans were released in September 2015, which scaled back on the size of the project but otherwise kept the basic design.

Collections

The museum will house works by artists such as Howard Chandler Christy, N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, and Norman Rockwell.

Controversy

As the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum, the institution faced obstacles in San Francisco. After the formal announcement of the museum's location on Chicago's lake shore, the project has faced similar opposition. In an editorial, the Chicago Tribune condemned the size of the structure, referring to it as "a monument to its patron rather than a modest addition to a democratic public space". The Chicago plan called for a museum building roughly four times the size of the one planned for San Francisco, though now that size was later scaled back. The Tribune also expressed worries about the cost of maintenance, to be absorbed by taxpayers, and the damage to the preservation of the lake front.

Friends of the Parks, a Chicago-area preservation organization, opposed the plan, citing a ban on development on the land set aside for Lucas. It filed a federal suit to block the development, arguing that granting the museum a 99-year lease "effectively surrenders control" of prime lakefront property to a museum that is "not for the benefit of the public" but would "promote private and/or commercial interests". In March 2015, U.S. District Judge John Darrah ruled the land intended for the museum is held in public trust. Thus, the Illinois General Assembly is the only body with the power to allow construction to proceed, under certain limitations. The state subsequently approved a law designed to enable such projects, while the Chicago Park District approved a long-term lease and litigation on that lease is going forward.

Criticism also has been leveled against Friends of the Parks for its opposition. In May 2016, Bill Kurtis wrote an op-ed in support of the Lucas Museum which appeared in the Chicago Tribune.

External links

• Official website