George Lucas has chosen Chicago to house his art museum, the Chicago Tribune reports today. There’s only a vote from the board before it becomes 100% official – and they’ll also change the name from the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
Lucas was originally aiming the museum for San Francisco, but turned to his part-time home of Chicago after the Presidio Trust rejected the original proposal. Chicago is the hometown of George’s wife Mellody Hobson, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel lobbied heavily. The new museum will be built on what’s now a parking lot between football stadium Soldier Field and convention center McCormick Place, and nearby many of the city’s other museums. It will likely open in 2018.
This was a huge loss for San Francisco, and the Bay Area. I am selfishly very sad about this…but Chicago will be a great and appreciative place to host the museum! Chicago also birthed many artists’ careers from the Golden Age of Illustration, so it’s very fitting.
SF kind of shot themselves in the foot with that one, I think. Or at least opened a nice big gap for Chicago to come in with a platter.
Will never visit.
More like Killjoy, amiright?
Woo! I adore visiting Chicago, and this will be one more reason to go there. I hope there will be a shuttle system between the Lucas museum and Field/Shedd. The far side of Soldier Field is a bit of a hike, IIRC.