Academy museum finds home at L.A. County Museum of Art

The motion picture academy has confirmed an agreement with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to locate a new museum in a former department store owned by LACMA.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors voted to approve the plan to locate the museum in the old May Company department store building at LACMA, at its meeting on Tuesday night.

The Academy did not include details in its release about the museum, or the new and unique cultural center that will result in the alliance between AMPAS and LACMA. It simply said that the two institutions had agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding to work in good faith in establishing the Academy's movie museum in the historic May Company building.

The memorandum, it said, would pave the way for a contract between the Academy and the museum to develop fundraising, design and renovation plans.

It is appropriate and long overdue for the city that is home to the motion picture industry to recognize this art form with a museum of its own, said LACMA's Board of Trustees co-chair and longtime Warner Bros. executive Terry Semel in a news release.

The LACMA Board is delighted to be facilitating this important cultural event, which has special resonance for me, having spent most of my life dedicated to the great art of movies.

Added AMPAS president Tom Sherak, The new museum will be a world-class destination that is a tangible representation of the Academy's mission. And the idea of our museum being part of a larger cultural center for the arts, in this city that we love, was incredibly compelling to the Academy Board.