The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Thursday the selection of a design firm to assist in the planning and development of its proposed museum of the moving picture.

"Before we move too far along on the physical design of our museum, we first must have a firm grip on our concept of the museum," said academy president Sid Ganis in a statement.

He said the kind of exhibitions and activities at the museum should ensure that visitors would want to visit not just once, but many times.

According to Ganis, the Bethseda, Maryland-based Gallagher & Associates will begin work immediately.

"We don't want to build a beautiful box and then decide what to put in it," Ganis said. "We're providing a place where visitors will be exposed to a variety of enjoyable and informative experiences."

Ganis said the academy would seek an architect to design the museum's structures once Patrick Gallagher, head of the firm, and his designers help determine what those experiences would be.

The academy is working to acquire land for the museum, proposed next to its existing Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood, and hopes to break ground in early 2009.

"The Academy's museum experience must be a distinctive one, and this will require a high degree of integration among stories, artifacts and theater to make the reality fulfilling and enriching," Gallagher was quoted by the academy statement as saying.

According to him, visitors who arrive at the museum with great curiosity and anticipation would leave with a new understanding of the unique movie industry and art, an understanding of how movies have affected the American culture in the past and how they will continue to influence new generations of filmgoers.

Gallagher & Associates' past projects include the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., the American Cemetery Visitor Center in Normandy, France, and the Jamestown Settlement Museum in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Editor: Donald