Lucas says Chicago museum was wife's idea
George Lucas says it was his wife's idea to choose Chicago as the site for his planned art and movie memorabilia museum.
The Star Wars creator told the Chicago Ideas Week forum that Mellody Hobson, a Chicago native and prominent businesswoman, had enough after four years of what he described as "doodling around" by San Francisco.
"Don't worry. I'll talk to the (Chicago) mayor. I'm sure he'll love it," she told him, according to Lucas, a California native.
And she was right. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has embraced the idea, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is set to be built on the Museum Campus on the city's lakefront.
The filmmaker made the announcement in June that he had picked Chicago.
At the forum this week, he outlined the museum's appearance.
"It's going to be organic architecture, connected to the ground. And it will look like a living thing," he said.
Lucas wants a showcase for his collection of popular art, including illustrations by Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth, as well as works by his visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic and others.
The museum will also feature art linked to film and digital media, as well as a theatre to screen films and host lectures and workshops.
Lucas, who has collected art since he was in college, explained that by "narrative art" he means "art that tells a story".
"Illustrative art and narrative art has been short-shrifted," he said. "Critics weren't dealing with narrative art. They were interested in modern."
The city will provide the land, but Lucas said he would bankroll construction and the endowment to maintain it.
"I pay for the whole thing and the endowment, and everything," Lucas said.
