A Servant to Hollywood? Or to the History and Art of Film?

A “fancy repository” of Hollywood memories? Or a respectable institution of the history and culture of film? In an article in the Los Angeles Times, question surrounding the proposed debut of a major motion-picture museum in Los Angeles , the $300-million Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, has many talking. The Academy’s undertaking comes at a time when there has been much growth and failure in the world of museums and films. While museum exhibitions like LACMA’s Stanley Kubrick and Tim Burton were widely received and attracted a promising number of attendees, there has been little promise in the success of museums devoted solely to the world of film. The British Film Institute, for example, launched the Museum of the Moving Image in 1988 only to dismantle after 11 years, while Los Angeles’ Hollywood Entertainment Museum closed in 2006 after a failing 10-year run. So what sets the Academy Museum apart? How does it aim to succeed? And escape the stigma of an entertainment center?

The Academy Museum, states Mike Boehm, will need “three famous intangibles the wizard bestowed on her sidekicks” in addition to their upcoming acquisition of Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz:

“The brains to deftly balance entertainment with scholarly heft. The courage not to be manipulated by studio executives, actors or directors who might view the nonprofit museum as a tool for boosting box-office returns, gratifying egos or controlling artistic and historical interpretations that are supposed to be up to the curators. And a heart — Hollywood's collective philanthropic heart — that's eager to express itself by giving the museum the money and collection items it needs to thrive.”

The balance of entertainment and scholarly heft will be achieved, according to the Academy Museum, through several concentrated efforts, including the hiring of a chief curator who will not only lead the museum in defining the structure and staffing of the museum departments, but will serve to organize and debut exhibitions in an open and uncensored and diplomatic way. And with a longstanding film library and film archive, there is a strong foundation already in place to serve the museum well in its establishment as an institution of education, scholarship and preservation.

While this seems pretty simple and straightforward, it is far from easy. In order for the Academy to succeed, it must validate itself from its “ability to articulate and shape our understanding of why works of [film] are singularly important, why they deserve our attention and respect.” A museum devoted to film in the very heart of Hollywood raises many concerns that the museum will fall to the hands of the leaders of Hollywood film who may very well become the puppeteers to an institution that should otherwise serve the public with truth and integrity.

It is equally important to deter from becoming simply an entertainment center to one of pleasure. “Museums should be venues of pleasurable experiences, they should be amusing and delightful places where the act of discovery and learning is enjoyable and engaging,…where ideas and images, instruction and pleasure are transmitted to the public.” The fate of the museum, therefore, rests on the public. And the public trust is more vulnerable now than ever. With the challenge of funding, it is critical for the livelihood of the museum to take every precaution and measure possible to ensure that they serve as a museum of the public and for the public, and an institution in service to the history and art of film..

Although the Academy has raised nearly half of its projected $300-million construction fund, concern surrounds the museum’s ability to continue to receive millions each year to fund ongoing operations and new collection acquisitions. It is evident that there are many issues that the Academy Museum faces, but it is only upon its opening that will we truly see whether the Academy has achieved success or failure in their ability to establish from the beginning, “that it is not a servant to Hollywood, … [but] a servant to the history and art of film.”

Lowry, Glenn D. “A Deontological Approach to Art Museums and the Public Trust.”

Boehm, Mike. “The long Yellow Brick Road to Hollywood’s new museum.” The Los Angeles Times. 2 November 2013.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-ca-academy-museum-motion-pictures-20131103,0,2892098,full.story#axzz2klMIyJ8g