The animation museum project will bring in $2.5 million from California –

Is there a National Museum of Animation on the horizon?

On Tuesday, State Senator Anthony Portantino (D – La Cañada Flintridge) announced that he helped secure $2.5 million in the California state budget for 2022-23 to begin efforts to develop a virtual animation museum and physicist.

There is still a long way to go before the project is implemented. They will continue to raise more funds with studios and groups, including the International Society for Animated Film (ASIFA-Hollywood), the non-profit organization that produces the Annie Awards for animation, which has been separately developing its own plans for the museum to celebrate them. . . an art form.

An initial idea is to potentially locate a space in the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena area, which has long been a hub of animation. Burbank has been home to Walt Disney Animation Studios since 1940, Dreamworks Animation has called Glendale home since its inception in 1994, and among the most recent additions is Netflix Animation’s new Burbank facility.

This effort is led as founder and president by Eddie Newquist, a creative executive who has worked on exhibitions and promotional tours including Harry Potter: The Exhibition, Avatar: Discover Pandora and Game of Thrones Studio Tour. A small advisory board includes Hollywood producer and former DreamWorks Animation executive Chris DeFaria (Gravity, Player One Ready); Oscar winner Chris Buck directed the Disney film frozen with jennifer lee; and former Disney executive and Iwerks Entertainment co-founder Stan Kinsey.

According to Newquist, the idea for the museum came about four or five years ago, during his career at a local school, where he performed with Portantino, Buck and DeFaria. “It just came out of a conversation that, with so much animation history in and around Southern California, it’s tragic that there isn’t a place to celebrate it,” says Newquist.

The group pledged to support Newquist’s idea, he says, and a few years later, Portantino called to let him know that a fiscal year budget surplus allowed for more investment in arts and preservation. “This is the year to do it,” Portantino, whose district includes Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena, told Newquist. Subsequently, Portantino submitted a formal request for funding for the project approved in the state budget.

Newquist’s first plans are for gallery shows and exhibitions, as well as events in a physical location, while the virtual component may arrive out of state. The idea is to explore the history and emerging technologies of animation, but also to offer an educational component to students. “The aim is to celebrate it as an industry, but also to open people’s eyes and of course to inspire young people to see animation as a great visualization tool, whether it’s getting into science or making video games. Do you want to get into robotics? says Newquist. “We want to make sure it looks very, very broad in every way. I know it’s a difficult task right now, but now is our chance to aim high and dream big.”

If the museum merges, it will join two new high-profile Los Angeles-based museums that study the art of entertainment and, to a lesser extent, the art of animation. The $484 million Academy Museum opened in fall 2021 with an animation gallery and a retrospective of Japanese animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Luke’s Museum of Narrative Art, which THR Priced at $1.5 billion, it will launch in 2023 for animation under the banner of “narrative arts” alongside comics, photography, paintings and other art forms.

The idea of ​​building an animation museum is not new.

Industry veteran Frank Gladstone, who is now executive director of ASIFA-Hollywood, says that more than a decade ago, people in the animation community came up with the idea of ​​creating an animation museum in the Burbank area. He says the project failed when they couldn’t get the funds to open the museum, which had an architecture studio and was supposed to include a screening room and a library.

Recently, ASIFA took the initiative. Originally, their plan was to open a small museum at the organization’s Burbank headquarters, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the project was put on hold when ASIFA gave up on renting the space. Now, project planning has resumed, reports Gladstone.

“We had to take a two-year break. [But] This is an initiative that we will never give up. This is part of our agenda and something we’ve wanted to do for years,” she says. THR, He added that ASIFA already has a large collection of archival material, including films, concept art, storyboards, notes and production cells.

He reports that much of the theatrical animated material in the ASIFA collection is now archived by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which the Academy has confirmed.

Gladstone admits that he and the ASIFA board were surprised by Tuesday’s announcement of government funding for the animation museum because “we have not been contacted.”

“We appreciate talking to them,” he says. (For his part, Newquist says he hasn’t had a chance to schedule face-to-face meetings yet, but ASIFA is “absolutely on our radar.”)

Meanwhile, Newquist has expressed interest in reaching out to the animation community (studios, individuals and organizations, including ASIFA) and partnering with a few organizations on the project.

Newquist acknowledges that this year’s $2.5 million state budget is just the beginning and more fundraising plans are needed. An initial $2.5 million in the state budget will be used to hire staff to help with fundraising, as well as hire executive management and complete a “top-down opportunity review” for the project, he said. Portantino adds that he thinks the idea will be “frozen” from then on: “It was important for the State to make an early move and send a message that we want to do this”, he says.

“Now I think we can raise money,” says Gladstone optimistically, recalling a failed attempt in the past to build an animation museum. “Animation is so widespread and so many people are working on it. [this field]. You deserve something important. “