Is a national Animation Museum on the horizon?
On Tuesday, state senator Anthony Portantino (D – La Cañada Flintridge) announced that he has helped secure $2.5 million in California’s 2022-23 state budget to kick-start an effort to create a virtual and physical animation museum.
There is still a long way to go before the project can become a reality. More fundraising will follow, along with reaching out to studios and groups including the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood), the nonprofit that produces the Annie Awards for animation — which had separately developed its own plans for a museum to house her. to celebrate existence. art form.
A first idea is to possibly find a space in the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena area, which has long been a center for animation. Burbank has been the home of Walt Disney Animation Studios since 1940, Dreamworks Animation has called Glendale its home since its launch in 1994, and one of the most recent additions is a new Netflix Animation facility in Burbank.
As Founder and Chairman Eddie Newquist leads this effort, a creative executive who has collaborated on exhibitions and promotional tours including Harry Potter: The Exhibition, Avatar: Discover Pandora and the Game of Thrones Studio Tour. A small advisory board includes Hollywood producer and former DreamWorks Animation head Chris DeFaria (Gravity, Ready Player One† Academy Award winner Chris Buck, who directed Disney’s Frozen with Jennifer Lee† and former Disney director and co-founder of Iwerks Entertainment, Stan Kinsey.
According to Newquist, the idea for the museum first took shape during a career day at a local high school four or five years ago, where it was featured alongside Portantino, Buck and DeFaria. “It just came up in conversation, the fact that given the history of animation in and around Southern California, it’s kind of tragic that there’s no place to celebrate that,” Newquist says.
The group pledged to support Newquist’s idea, he says, and several years later, Portantino called him to inform him that the fiscal year budget surplus allowed for more investment in the arts and conservation. “This is the year to do it,” Portantino — whose district includes Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena — told Newquist. Portantino then made an official request to the state budget to include funding for the approved project.
Newquist’s early plans are to host exhibitions and exhibitions in galleries and events in a physical location, while a virtual component could reach those out of state. The idea is to explore the history of animation and its evolving technology, as well as provide students with an educational component. “The aim is to celebrate this as an industry, but also to open people’s eyes and certainly inspire young people to see animation as a really great visualization tool, whether you want to get into science, or you want to get started.” with video game production, whether you want to get into robotics,” says Newquist. “We want to make sure this looks really, really broad. And I know that’s a tall order right now, but now’s our chance to aim high and have big dreams.”
Coming together, the museum will join two new high-profile LA museums exploring the arts of entertainment and, to a lesser extent, animation. The Academy Museum $484 million opened in the fall of 2021 with an animation gallery and a retrospective on Japanese animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Artwhich THR Coming with a $1.5 billion price tag, will feature animation under its “narrative art” banner, in addition to comic book art, photography, paintings and other art forms when it opens in 2023.
The idea of building an animation museum is not new.
More than a decade ago, individuals from the animation community came up with the idea of creating an animation museum in the Burbank area, according to industry vet Frank Gladstone, who is today the executive director of ASIFA-Hollywood. He says that project fell through when they were unable to raise funding to launch the museum, which would have an architecture firm on board and would include a movie theater and library.
More recently, ASIFA took the initiative. Initially, their plan was to open a small museum at the organization’s then headquarters, Burbank, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the project was shelved when ASIFA gave up the lease for its space. Now the project planning has started again, Gladstone reports.
“We had to stop it for a few years. [But] This is an initiative that we have never given up. It’s part of our agenda and something we’ve wanted to do for years,” he says THR, adding that ASIFA already owns a large collection of archival material, including films, concept art, storyboards, notes and production cells.
He reports that much of the theatrical animation material in ASIFA’s collection is currently archived by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which the Academy has confirmed.
Gladstone admits, and he and the ASIFA board were taken aback by Tuesday’s announcement of state funding for an animation museum, because they “hadn’t contacted us.”
“We would love to talk to them,” he says. (For his part, Newquist says he hasn’t had a chance to schedule in-person meetings yet, but ASIFA is “definitely on our radar”.)
Meanwhile, Newquist expressed an interest in reaching out to the animation community – studios, individuals and organizations, including ASIFA – and partnering with a number of organizations on the project.
Newquist acknowledges that the $2.5 million earmarked in this year’s state budget is just the beginning and more fundraising plans are needed. The first $2.5 million from the state budget will go toward hiring staff to help with fundraising, recruiting executive management and completing a “top-down assessment of capabilities” for the project, he says. Portantino adds that he believes the idea will “snowball” from this point on: “It was important for the state to act early and send the message that we want to do this,” he says.
“Now I think the money can be raised,” says an optimistic Gladstone, remembering the failed previous attempt to establish an animation museum. “Animation is so widespread and so many people work in it [this field]† It deserves something important.”