The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens to the public in Los Angeles on Tuesday, turning a project developed over many years by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson into a new cultural institution devoted to storytelling through images.
The museum sits in Exposition Park and occupies a 300,000-square-foot building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with Stantec. The institution says more than 100,000 square feet are devoted to galleries, with more than 30 gallery spaces across the complex.
From fine art to comics and cinema
The museum’s central idea is unusually broad: paintings, illustration, comic art, murals, photography and film material are presented as parts of the same long tradition of visual storytelling.
The collection includes works associated with artists such as Frida Kahlo, Norman Rockwell and Robert Colescott, alongside comic and fantasy art and materials from Lucas’ film archive. “Star Wars” is present, but museum officials have emphasized that the institution is designed to reach well beyond a single franchise.
Associated Press previews highlighted the mix of popular culture and fine art, including film objects, works by major painters and material that is often excluded from conventional art-historical categories.
A new public campus in Exposition Park
The building is surrounded by a landscaped campus of roughly 13 acres. The museum also includes a research library, theaters, continuous film programming and a restaurant, with public green space intended to make the site more than a ticketed gallery destination.
The opening follows preview events earlier in September and a formal opening-night celebration on September 19. General public access begins September 22.
Sources: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art official opening announcement (primary); Associated Press; CBS Los Angeles. Image credit: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, archival August 2023 construction view via Wikimedia Commons.
