Geffen Donation Moves Academy Museum a Step Closer to Reality

Music mogul and film producer David Geffen has agreed to donate $25 million to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' campaign to build a museum, and a theater in the facility will be named after him, the Academy announced Monday.

The donation from the David Geffen Foundation was the largest single
gift to date in the Academy's $300 million fundraising effort for the Academy
Museum of Motion Pictures. A "premiere-sized'' theater in the planned museum will be named The David Geffen Theater in recognition of the donation.

"David's support of this project is transformative,'' according to Walt
Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger, chairman of the Academy Museum Campaign. "It takes a large and diverse group of supporters to build a project on the scale of the Academy Museum. David joins an esteemed group of individuals, companies and foundations who are leading the charge.''

According to the Academy, the fundraising campaign—for which actress Annette Bening and actor-producer Tom Hanks are serving as co-chairs—is more than halfway into its $300 million drive. 

Geffen called the project "an exciting opportunity to be part of the creation of an iconic architectural space and cultural institution that will combine the best of the old and the new and provide a permanent public home for the Academy's rich tradition of honoring the shining stars of the cinematic arts.''

The Academy hopes to build the museum next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the Wilshire May Co. building at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. It is planned to open in 2017, with nearly 300,000 square-feet of galleries, exhibition spaces, theaters and screening rooms.