Lucas Museum Lays Off 14% of Staff to Make 2026 Opening: ‘Changes Were Needed'

Yahoo

21-05-2025

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art — the still-under-construction project from George Lucas and wife Mellody Hobson — has laid off 15 full-time employees, or 14% of its staff, in effort to open as scheduled in 2026, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.
Two people familiar with museum operations who spoke to the Times anonymously, described the layoff announcement last Thursday as 'shocking and chaotic.' They were given until 2 p.m. to leave the premises and told their personal belongings would be sent to them later by courier. Seven part-time, on-call positions were also cut.
Among those whose positions were eliminated was Bernardo Rondeau, who had been hired as curator of film programs and had previously been the founding director of film programs at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
He posted about the news from the Cannes Film Festival, writing on LinkedIn: 'As of today, my role as Curator, Film Programs at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has been made redundant, effective immediately. I'm deeply grateful for the time I've spent there and for the many talented people I've had the privilege to work with.' He noted he'll be at the French film fest through May 22.
'As the Lucas Museum progresses as an institution from planning to implementing to opening, we have evaluated our current organizational structure and determined that changes were needed,' the Lucas Museum shared in a statement to TheWrap. 'As a result of these decisions, last week, the museum eliminated 15 full-time roles and 7 part-time on-call roles (mostly from within the Learning & Engagement and Museum Services teams) and provided severance packages to all. It is a tremendously difficult decision to reorganize roles and to eliminate staff, but the restructure will allow the museum's teams to work more efficiently to bring the museum to life for the public. The museum will also continue hiring new roles in strategic operational areas in anticipation of the 2026 opening.'
The statement continued: 'Education remains a central pillar of the Lucas Museum. One of the main reasons Los Angeles's Exposition Park was chosen as the location for the museum was its proximity to other museums, USC, and more than 400 schools in a five-mile radius. The importance of education for the museum can be seen by the educational spaces baked into the museum's design from the beginning, including 10 large classroom spaces, a vast library, and two state-of-the-art theaters. Educational program plans are still in development, and we look forward to sharing more closer to opening.'
The museum first broke ground in Exposition Park in 2018. Supply-chain issues during the pandemic moved the originally planned opening from 2023 to 2025. In December, the opening date was moved once again to 2026.
The layoffs come after the April departure of the museum's director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont, who had spearheaded the project for five years. According to the Times, Lucas 'did not seem engaged' in the education and public programming that Jackson-Dumont had planned.
When her exit was announced in February, the museum released a statement saying that her role would be split into two positions, with Lucas responsible for content direction and Jim Gianopulos, former chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures, stepping in as the interim CEO, in addition to an ongoing role as 'Special Advisor to the founders.'
The museum, which is part of an 11-acre campus. was designed by architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects. The main 300,000-square-foot building will feature galleries, two state-of-the-art theaters, as well as spaces for learning and engagement, dining, retail and events.
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