When you ask a couple of thousand people to suggest, or at least react to, potential labels for a great new museum, it turns out that Romeo’s question isn’t quite the key one. What’s not in a name is the greater concern.
“Hollywood,” for example. Although support for the museum being located in Hollywood is near universal, many cautioned against including that word in the facility’s name for fear that it would imply a certain provinciality; that it might suggest a museum with no interest in foreign, regional or independent films. Others worried about including words that might make the museum sound too elitist (“cinema,” e.g.,) or too frivolous (“flicks”), or that might quickly date it (“film”). Some cautioned against unfurling the entire name of the Academy. Some feared a name susceptible to a regrettable acronym (“Academy Motion Picture Museum” – slushies, anyone?).
Whether those and other landmines were real or imagined, the Museum Committee has now sifted through more than 200 proposed names for the facility, and has opted for one that will shield both Academy members and visitors from anything approaching surprise.
ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES
There it is. The public may one day bestow a zippier, more affectionate nickname (“the movie museum”?) on the facility, but for now, the mere arrival at a formal designation certainly has us AMMPed.
