WASHINGTON – It’s time for Star Wars director George Lucas to bring his museum to San Francisco, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said.
“We’d like it to be home,” said Pelosi, a San Francisco resident.
I asked Pelosi about the Lucas Museum on Wednesday, as every sign pointed to filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, on the verge of yanking his $743 million privately-funded museum of narrative arts from Chicago.
Lucas, a resident of Marin County, just across the bay from San Francisco and Hobson, a Chicagoan, pulled the project from Chicago on Friday and will now seek a West Coast home.
Lucas turned to Chicago after San Francisco rejected locating his museum on historic Presidio property. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday that Lucas and his staff are talking to San Francisco about Treasure Island, in the bay and cited other reports that Los Angeles is in the running, with a site near the University of Southern California.
“Of course I want to bring it to San Francisco. It isn’t a question of bringing it to San Francisco. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to Star Wars. That’s where it was conceived, it was conceived, designed, manufactured and marketed from, and so it belongs in San Francisco. So, yes, I’m very supportive of it coming, staying home, yes,” Pelosi said.
I asked Pelosi if she was working on landing the museum
“It’s on a path, and it will have to work its way through. I don’t really want to say we’re friends. I talk to them, not necessarily about this, because this is a process. I was very, very disappointed when they were not received at the Presidio. I think it was a mistake not to welcome him there, but the board made its decision.
“But . . . I’m talking about the Star Wars characters, I’m talking about Darth Vader, and it would be such a fabulous thing because young people would be able to see.
“I mean, if you go visit George in his office now in San Francisco, it’s such a phenomenal experience because they’re all there, all the characters of Star Wars. They’re right there. And for children to be able to see and have access and learn. George has been a real champion on education. He’s been an innovator and entrepreneur in terms of thinking with fresh eyes about education, and that is part of his mission.
“So Chicago would have been lucky to have him, we would be lucky to have him, but we think the natural place for them to be is home.”
