The opening of The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art draws ever nearer, and as it does the director of the museum Sandra Jackson-Dumont looks at what museums can offer people and how they can remain relevant in the 21st century.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art—years in the making in Los Angeles—looks to change how a museum can be a part of society, and what its role might be. “Museums are now sitting on the doorstep of relevance, and they’re trying to figure out how they remain relevant,” said Sandra Jackson-Dumont, who joined the Lucas Museum as director at the beginning of 2020. “I don’t think anyone can assume relevance. The museum of the 21st century, for me, is one that sits in the world, is of world, and is engaged in the world—not one that sits as a box and says it collects the world.”
Conceived by collector couple George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the Lucas is one of the most hotly anticipated museums opening anywhere in the world and—at 300,000 square feet (with 100,000 square feet of dedicated exhibition space) plus 11 acres of grounds—one of the largest. Because of the pandemic, the Lucas has not officially announced an opening date. But Jackson-Dumont made a bold statement about the museum’s direction in July when she named six women (five being people of color) as her first key hires to senior leadership positions.
“We’re up against a long history of institutional practice and a long history of people not feeling like they can be in institutions,” said Amanda Hunt, the museum’s director of public programs and creative practice. “That’s something I’ve always hoped to break open. We are building something anew; we are part of that long arc and dialogue—but how can we do that differently?”
We’ll be sure to bring all the latest news from the final months as the opening of the museum draws closer.
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