New Museum

Los Angeles boasts world-class museums dedicated to art, cars and even tar pits. It may soon have an equally prominent showplace for the city's signature industry — motion pictures. In partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says it intends to open a sprawling movie museum in as soon as three years. The long-delayed project would be housed in an abandoned Miracle Mile department store near LACMA, the Petersen Automotive Museum and the George C. Page Museum.

Thanks to a recent $1-million grant from the National Sciences Foundation, Cal State Fullerton's small Anthropology Museum will move into new digs, more than tripling its size to 1,800 square feet. The grant will be used by the anthropology department to convert part of one floor of the school's McCarthy Hall into a research and teaching facility that will include the new museum, which is expected to open in fall, 1997. The move will enable exhibition of permanent collections.

Actor Charlton Heston joined government officials in the opening of a new museum--a nearly century-old barn used by Cecil B. DeMille to make Hollywood's first feature-length film. The "DeMille Barn" was built on Vine Street in 1888 to store supplies and wagons for the tiny farm community that later became Hollywood. The barn was rented by DeMille in 1913 to film "The Squaw Man." It has been moved to Highland Avenue across from the Hollywood Bowl and will be open Saturdays and Sundays.

A large house donated to the city will become Azusa's new museum of local history. The house, at 575 E. Foothill Blvd., is owned by the McKee family and is occupied by a university fraternity from Cal Poly Pomona. City Administrator Lloyd Wood said the building will be moved to City Park at an estimated cost of $19,000 to $38,000. The city also will spend $6,100 to build a new foundation for the house, Wood said.

At last someone in the mainstream press has written on the work of Hans Haacke ("Digging Dirt in the World of Museums," by Kristine McKenna, July 23). He is an inspiration and a hero to many artists, including me. When I lived in New York, I used to walk to the New Museum just to be reminded that after all the trend and trash, there was still Haacke. I hope that he nails the Jesse Helms, Orrin Hatches and Dick Armeys of this world before they are granted their wish to shut down any artist or agency that believes that censorship is repugnant.

Eight San Diego Historical Society staff members will be laid off temporarily in a step to keep operating costs within budget while funds for a new museum are being sought, the society's executive director said Thursday. Richard Esparza said four full-time and four part-time personnel will be let go over the next three weeks in across-the-board cuts in most of the society's eight departments.

For advocates of the repatriation of marble sculptures removed from the Parthenon in the early 19th century and long housed at the British Museum in London, the new Acropolis Museum is proof -- at last -- that Greece has a safe place to display the hotly contested artworks. For Athenians who live and work near the Acropolis, the looming modern structure at the southeastern base of the hill is a mixed blessing. The $200-million, 226,000-square-foot museum has transformed the area of Makrygianni, boosting property values while dwarfing other buildings in the neighborhood.