After meeting for nearly three hours with a group of angry movie fans and professionals on Tuesday, Michael Govan, the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, said he was accelerating plans to replace the film program that is on the chopping block with a more expansive one -- but only if the museum can raise as much as $10 million in the next year.
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LACMA aims to expand film program
Setting a goal of raising up to $10 million, director Michael Govan announces plans for a more robust cinematic endeavor. Some film activists worry about the broad financial scope of the project.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, September 03, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 63 words Type of Material: Correction
LACMA film plans: An article in Wednesday's Calendar about the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's hopes of maintaining its film screening program quoted Michael Govan, the museum's director, as saying he was looking to raise $5 million to $10 million in endowments to fund an expanded film program. In fact, Govan said he was seeking to raise $5 million to $6 million.
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In an interview, Govan laid out for the first time a set of proposed budget figures for what he sees as a revamped film department at LACMA. He said that he would like to increase the program's annual budget to $500,000 from its current level of about $350,000. He also said he was looking to raise between $5 million and $10 million in endowments for the re-imagined film program.
Whether his vision will ever materialize depends on the museum's ability to rally a group of patrons in a relatively short amount of time. Govan said he met at length with Martin Scorsese in New York on Friday to discuss the fate of the screening series, and also to talk money.
The filmmaker had written an open letter to Govan that was published in The Times on Aug. 13 protesting the museum's decision to end its 40-year-old weekend film program. During the meeting, which took place at Scorsese's home, Govan said the Oscar-winning director offered to help the museum find potential donors in the movie industry.
Even so, the economy and the meager state of fundraising in the art world could mean the donor-savvy Govan will run into difficulty in his quest for dollars. "If I say 'no problem,' that's a lose-lose proposition for all of us," he said. "But I will say that I'm working hard. We're making film a priority of focus for us. I'm going to cautiously predict success."
Govan met Tuesday morning with members of Save Film at LACMA, an informal coalition of movie buffs that has organized an online campaign and petition to rescue the film program.
During the meeting, dubbed the "popcorn summit," that was described by participants as cordial but somewhat tense, Govan broadly spelled out the museum's goal of endowing the screening series in the same manner as other curatorial departments.
Among LACMA's long-term plans for the re-envisioned program are the creation of curatorial positions for different genres of film and the strengthening of ties with the museum's other departments.
