July 22, 2013–The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has announced gifts of $5 million each from three different donors for the ambitious Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
The donors are producer and academy governor Gale Anne Hurd; CEO of Onex Gerald Schwartz and his wife Heather Reisman; and the Simms/Mann Family Foundation, which is made up of Victoria Mann Simms, who is the daughter of film exhibitor Ted Mann, her husband Ron Simms and their family.
Their donations will go toward the design and construction of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The proposed building will be 300,000 square feet of galleries, exhibition spaces, theaters, screening rooms and other spaces relevant to the Academy. The museum capital campaign, chaired by Bob Iger and co-chaired by Annette Bening and Tom Hanks, launched in 2012 and has already secured more than half of their $300 million goal. The museum was designed by architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali.
The Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman money will go to the mezzanine lobby and gallery space, and the Simms/Mann Family Foundation money will go to the Ted Mann Theater on the third floor.
The most recent donations follow recent gifts from Brett Ratner, who donated $1 million to the campaign, and the David Geffen Foundation, which donated $25 million.
The museum is set to open next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2017.
