Report: Don't Expect a Free Lucas
The Art Newspaper surveys the state of free admission at Los Angeles museums. The article ends on this note: "Word on the street is that the billionaire filmmaker George Lucas is planning on charging admission when the museum opens in 2025."
Not mentioned is the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, though it's likely a factor in Lucas' thinking. AMMP bucked the free admission trend with a $25 ticket price. Its first-year attendance of 700,000 visitors was spun as a surprise success—20 percent more than a "pandemic-adjusted goal" (whatever that means). There is a cohort of price-elastic fanboys/girls who will pay what it takes to attend a movie museum. Museum boards tend to read that as money that shouldn't be left on the table.
The Academy Museum is free to those 17 and under, a policy initiated by a grant from Lucas' foundation. I'd be surprised if Lucas' own museum doesn't announce a similar carve-out.
Both the Academy Museum and the Lucas have made efforts to diversify their collections and programming. The Lucas talks up the opportunity to welcome its South L.A. neighbors. But in a world where money rules, inclusivity begins at the admission desk.
Comments
As with the AMPAS museum, the Lucas will appeal to more populist tastes, while LACMA will have less square footage. Okay, the second part of that sentence is smartass.
The alternative would be a reservation system akin to that of the Getty Museum. But that costs money to maintain and would be harder to enforce given the more public location of the Lucas Museum.
In turn, aren't you the "Save-the-LACMA-mob" leftist?