The long‑awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened its doors Tuesday in Exposition Park, bringing a five‑story, 300,000‑square‑foot cultural destination to the heart of Los Angeles. Founded by filmmaker George Lucas and business executive Mellody Hobson, the museum celebrates visual storytelling across cultures, centuries and media.
What visitors will see
More than 100,000 square feet of exhibition space across 30 galleries showcase the museum’s inaugural collection of over 1,300 works. The first‑floor gallery explores heroes, myths and sacred imagery from ancient times to the present, while other galleries focus on themes of love, family, community, fantasy, romance and adventure.
Highlights include paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; illustrations from Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and Charles Schulz; and comic‑book art from Robert Crumb and Judith F. Baca. The museum also displays reproductions of immovable treasures such as the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Altamira cave paintings and the Aztec Sun Stone.
Star Wars and cinema
Film fans will find a dedicated cinema collection featuring the complete Lucas Archives from 1971 to 2012. An inaugural exhibition titled “Star Wars in Motion” presents concept designs, props and costumes from the first six Star Wars films, including Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder and the first physical build of General Grievous’s Wheel Bike.
Design and outdoor spaces
The striking building, designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects with Stantec, features a curving façade clad in more than 1,200 individually shaped panels and a central 185‑foot arch that crowns a public plaza. Surrounding the museum is a new 13‑acre park and gardens designed by landscape architect Mia Lehrer, transforming a former asphalt lot into a green oasis with over 300 newly planted trees, an amphitheater, meadow, hanging garden and ten monumental outdoor sculptures.
Family‑friendly amenities
Two theaters provide continuous film programming, and a research library—free to the public—houses more than 30,000 comic books, select holdings from the Skywalker Ranch Library, about 3,000 art books donated by Steve and Ann Martin, and nearly 3,000 volumes from the personal library of mythologist Joseph Campbell, whose work inspired Lucas’s creation of Star Wars.
Visitors can also dine at the Skywalker Grill, a full‑service restaurant open to museum guests and the general public.
Community impact
Lucas and Hobson say the museum was created to honor humanity’s stories and the artists who illustrate them. “We wanted a museum unlike any other—one that brings people from every walk of life through the same doors,” Hobson said. The museum’s emphasis on diverse narratives aims to reflect the experiences of Los Angeles residents and encourage families to see themselves in the galleries.
City officials praised the project for adding a cultural anchor to Exposition Park, complementing nearby attractions such as the Natural History Museum and the California Science Center, and for generating new jobs in construction, museum operations and hospitality.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is now open to the public, with tickets available online and at the museum’s box office.
Original reporting: NBC4 Los Angeles — read the source article.
