James Comisar’s “Museum of Television”: The Three Year, $35 Million, 50,000 sq ft Project Finds A Home In Phoenix, AZ

The Phoenix Business Journal published a front page story this week announcing a project under development by pop culture pioneering archivist James Comisar to create a public “Museum of Television” to feature material from The Comisar Collection.  The article talks about a 50,000 square foot museum being developed in downtown Phoenix in about three years, with a projected cost of approximately $35 million dollars.

James Comisar, who I interviewed two years ago, shared some additional thoughts with me:

In addition to being home to the most beloved and important ephemera from 60 years of television, one of our museum’s core objectives will be to mentor and serve students attending Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, who will benefit from our museum’s educational center that examines the ways TV has reflected societal change and at times has been the agent of revolution. Our community outreach will also connect students with artisans and others who will demystify what it takes to succeed in numerous areas of the industry; and for younger students our preview center will impart a respect for artistic works, as well as provide social history programming at a time when it is skimmed over in public schools in the wake of massive budget cuts.

The full article in the Phoenix Business Journal can be read in PDF from the MuseumOfTV.org site by clicking the link below:

Obviously huge news for our art market, Mr. Comisar and his vast collection could provide a television-oriented counterpart to the Hollywood History Museum concurrently under development by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

You can learn more about James Comisar and The Comisar Collection at www.TVtour.org.

You can learn more about the “Museum of Television” at www.MuseumOfTV.org:

Jason DeBord