News | July 23, 2013

The Academy Announces Three $5 Million Gifts to New Museum

News | July 23, 2013

By Laura Schreffler

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is $15 million closer to meeting its $300 million capital campaign goal.

Producer Gale Anne Hurd, philanthropist Gerald Schwartz and his wife, Heather Reisman, and the family of exhibitor Ted Mann have gifted the Academy with $5 million apiece towards its new museum.

The Academy Museum will take over the old May Company building on Wilshire Blvd. and Fairfax Ave; the 290,000 square-foot space is being designed by Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali.

Schwartz’s gift will buy the museum a mezzanine and lobby space, while Academy board of governors member Hurd’s contribution will result in the demonstration space The Hurd Stage for moviemaking classes. Finally, the Mann family’s gift will go towards a private third floor theater to be called The Ted Mann Theater; it will house retrospectives and screening series.

The campaign, which is co-chaired by Tom Hanks and Annette Bening, will hopefully reach its goal by 2017, when the museum is slated to open.

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