Supporters Rally Around George Lucas' San Francisco Museum Proposal

While the decision of what museum will ultimately be added to the Presidio won’t be made until the fall, it hasn’t stopped media outlets from recently highlighting San Anselmo resident George Lucas’ proposal for the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum in San Francisco.

A recent post on Mashable includes a video about the museum that Lucas had a hand in editing. See the video, which was also presented at a June 17 public meeting on the project, above.

“The museum we’re tying to build here is one that you could take the whole family to,” Lucas said in the video.

The museum proposal was also revisited in a July 29 NBC Bay Area report.

Lucas has said he wants to open a San Francisco art museum to inspire the young. The museum would showcase many of the $1 billion artwork collection Lucas has acquired and celebrate digital design and animation. The museum’s displays will include fashion, cinematic design, computer animation and popular art of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

The filmmaker and Star Wars creator has continued to garner support for his vision, which is one of the three finalists selected for a Presidio project that would take over the Crissy Field space currently occupied by Sports Basement. The sporting goods store will be relocated in the area, according to Sports Basement and Presidio officials.

In June, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced he supports Lucas’ museum proposal along with several other local arts and education leaders. 

The Presidio Trust received 16 proposals for the former commissary site at Crissy Field. In May, officials narrowed down the selection to three: the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy’s Presidio Exchange and a “Bridge/Sustainability Institute” proposal for a cultural education center. You can view the proposals and submit comments for the three final projects here on the Presidio website. Many commenters on the site appear to be voicing support for Lucas’ project.

Lucas will fund the construction of the 95,000-square-foot space and help with the development of programs and educational curriculum.

Lucas, who recently unveiled statues in a San Anselmo park he donated to the community and explained to a large crowd that Star Wars and Indiana Jones were created in Marin, said it’s significant to have a museum in San Francisco because it’s “the home of” digital art, including the companies Pixar, Dreamworks and Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic.

Marin resident Richard Rubin recently wrote a guest op-ed in the Marin Independent Journal voicing his support for the San Francisco museum. 

“Let's hope San Francisco does not do what Marin did and send him packing,” he wrote.

Lucas garnered national attention in 2012 for his decision to pull the plug on his plans for Grady Ranch and, more recently, when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney for $4.05 billion.

He donated all the cash from the Lucasfilm-Disney deal to his foundation Edutopia, which is based in San Rafael and supports education programs.

Lucas married Mellody Hobson last month in Marin and had a second star-studded wedding reception in Chicago.

In December 2012, Patch readers nominated Lucas to be the 2012 San Anselmo – Fairfax Patch Person of the Year because of all the local contributions he's made to the community.