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Youngstown taking long-shot bid to woo Lucas to build museum here
YOUNGSTOWN
City officials are hoping the Force is with them as they make a long-shot effort to persuade legendary filmmaker George Lucas to build his “narrative art museum” downtown.
Lucas – who created the “Star Wars” and Indiana Jones movie franchises – has spent the last three years trying to build the museum in San Francisco and then Chicago without success. The art collection owned by Lucas and his wife, Melody Hobson, is valued at $1 billion.
The Lucas Museum will celebrate the power of visual storytelling in a setting focused on narrative painting, illustration, photography, film, animation and digital art, according to its website.
Though Lucas is looking to bring the museum proposal back to San Francisco, Youngstown is offering space downtown for the project.
“We’re trying to get his attention,” said Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st, whose ward includes downtown. “They’re looking for a place to go, and we feel we have the ideal spot.”
The proposed location would be near the Covelli Centre where a proposed riverfront park and amphitheater is to be built next year, Oliver said. The land for the museum would be donated, he said.
“It’s a long shot, but you shoot for the moon,” Oliver said. “If [Lucas] comes here to survey the area and considers Youngstown, that alone would bring a lot of attention to the city,” Oliver said.
Perhaps Lucas would agree to lend some of his art collection to the Butler Institute of American Art, Oliver said.
“That would boost visitors to Youngstown by the thousands,” he said.
Attempts Thursday by The Vindicator to reach officials with the Lucas Museum project were unsuccessful.
Oliver said he was contacted by Eric Planey, a former Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber official who is now a banker in New York City, about asking Lucas to locate the museum to Youngstown.
“It would be a huge benefit to the city and would be a great addition to the area,” Planey said. “It is a long shot, but sometimes long shots are worth taking, particularly when it requires a minimal amount of city resources.”
Mayor John A. McNally sent a letter to Lucas and his wife touting Youngstown for the museum.
“It’s that ‘why not’ mentality that drives success, rebirth and new ideas,” McNally wrote. “It’s that same mentality that we in Youngstown have been operating on in our efforts of revitalization and transformation. It’s that same mentality that drives us to reach out to you.”
In his letter, McNally points out that the city shares a “strong relationship with Lucas’ native Northern California region” as the owners of the San Francisco 49ers “call Youngstown home.”
Planey and Oliver added that Lucas won a student scholarship from Warner Bros. to work on a film, and the moviemaking brothers grew up in Youngstown.
Not mentioned, but another Lucas tie to the region is Leigh Brackett. A prolific science-fiction author and film screenwriter who lived in Kinsman, Brackett wrote the first draft of Lucas’ “The Empire Strikes Back.” Brackett also was the sister-in-law of well-known Vindicator columnist Esther Hamilton.