Getty Is One of 4 Foundations Buying Ebony Archive
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| James Brown in an undated photo by G. Marshall Wilson. Ebony Archive. |
Poet Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation, instigated the purchase. She and the Ford Foundation's Darren Walker assembed the joint bid in a matter of days. Ford put up the most money ($12.5 million). The Ford press release says the group "will donate the archives to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Getty Research Institute, and other leading cultural institutions to ensure the broadest possible access for the general public and use by scholars, researchers, journalists, and other interested parties."
The Ebony archive has over 4 million prints, negatives, and videos chronicling black American life, politics, and culture since 1945.
The auction proceeds will help Chicago-based Johnson Publishing pay back a $13.6 million loan to George Lucas and Mellody Hobson (who are building their own museum in Exposition Park).
(Updated several times.)
Comments
Also, not mentioned, is why George Lucas wasn't able to purchase the archive. Most of the debt is already owed to him anyways and he's already planning his own museum, so you would think he would've been able to arrange something with Ebony's owners.
It also sounds like the Getty was not intending to make a bid until the Mellon and Ford Foundations proposed the collaboration.
George Lucas and Mellody Hobson filed a motion to foreclose on the archive earlier this year. There was a rumor that Hobson might buy it to ensure public access. For all we know, she may have been an underbidder. There were other interested parties.