The forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Artwork in Los Angeles has laid off 15 full-time workers, representing 14 p.c of its full-time workers. A further seven part-time workers additionally had their roles eradicated, in line with the Los Angeles Occasions, which first reported the information.
In a press release despatched to ARTnews, the Lucas Museum stated the full-time cuts largely affected its Studying & Engagement and Museum Providers groups. Regardless of cuts to its training groups, the museum stated, “Schooling stays a central pillar of the Lucas Museum. One of many primary causes Los Angeles’s Exposition Park was chosen as the placement for the museum was its proximity to different museums, USC, and greater than 400 faculties in a five-mile radius. … Academic program plans are nonetheless in growth, and we look ahead to sharing extra nearer to opening.”
The Lucas Museum, based by ARTnews Prime 200 collectors George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, has been within the works for over a decade. Previous to the choice to open the museum in Los Angeles in 2016, Lucas and Hobson had thought-about websites in San Francisco and Chicago. Estimated to value $1 billion, the museum has confronted a number of delays because of supply-chain points, which noticed it delayed first to 2025 after which to 2026. It was initially scheduled to open in 2023.
In February, the Lucas Museum introduced a management transition that noticed Sandra Jackson-Dumont, its then director and CEO, step down after 5 years. Her final day on the museum was April 1. As a part of the transition, her function was cut up in two, with Lucas main the inventive route of the establishment and Jim Gianopulos, a former chairman and CEO of twentieth Century Fox and Paramount Photos, serving as an interim CEO, whereas it searches for a everlasting CEO.
Included within the cuts, in line with the LA Occasions and confirmed by the Lucas Museum to ARTnews, are Regan Professional, deputy director of public applications and social impression, and Bernardo Rondeau, curator of movie applications.
Previous to becoming a member of the Lucas in 2021, Professional had been the deputy director for training and public engagement on the Seattle Artwork Museum, the place Jackson-Dumont had beforehand been director.
Rondeau joined the museum in 2023 after serving for greater than eight years as founding director of movie applications for the Academy Museum of Movement Photos. On LinkedIn, he stated he was attending the Cannes Movie Pageant when he was knowledgeable. “I’m deeply grateful for the time I’ve spent there and for the various gifted folks I’ve had the privilege to work with,” his publish reads.
“Because the Lucas Museum progresses as an establishment from planning to implementing to opening, we now have evaluated our present organizational construction and decided that adjustments had been wanted,” the museum’s assertion reads. “It’s a tremendously tough choice to reorganize roles and to eradicate workers, however the restructure will permit the museum’s groups to work extra effectively to deliver the museum to life for the general public. The museum will even proceed hiring new roles in strategic operational areas in anticipation of the 2026 opening.”
