Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the long-planned institution founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, will open in Los Angeles on 22 September after nearly a decade of construction and earlier efforts to locate the project in other cities.
Unveiled to reporters this week, the museum sits beside the University of Southern California, where Lucas studied, and is distinguished by a sweeping, spacecraft-like profile. Inside, about 100,000 square feet of galleries and theaters are dedicated to visual storytelling in all its forms, including painting, comics, murals, photography and sculpture. Exhibits range from works by Judy Baca, Norman Rockwell, Diego Rivera and Banksy to drawings of Asterix and Garfield and the Cowardly Lion costume from The Wizard of Oz.
Hobson told the press the collection unites pieces that convey narratives, often within a single image. Senior curator Ryan Linkof described visual storytelling as part of daily life, from newspaper photography and advertising to book covers, posters, street art and cinema. Lucas said pictures help give shared myths tangible form, fostering common ground.
Inside the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
The campus comprises two main structures. One houses most galleries and two cinemas, while the other contains a dedicated mural space and a research library. Architect Ma Yansong said the fluid, cloudlike design was inspired by tree canopies and open sky, not Star Wars, though the building’s silhouette invites the comparison. A shaded plaza between the wings includes an oculus that, as Yansong noted, frames views of the sky.
The project has been years in the making. Lucas began collecting art in the 1970s and later combined holdings with Hobson. After proposals in San Francisco and Chicago did not proceed, ground was broken in Los Angeles in 2018. Hobson said the city is where the museum was meant to be, and leadership noted that cinema, the most widely consumed narrative art, has deep roots in Los Angeles.
Visitors enter through a ground-floor experience that surveys millennia of storytelling, from immersive cave-painting recreations to depictions from ancient civilizations and the Bible presented through original works and reproductions. Glass elevators then carry guests to the core collections focused on the 20th and 21st centuries.
Galleries are organized by medium, theme, genre and individual artists. A comics room features strips such as Krazy Kat, Little Orphan Annie, The Adventures of Tintin and Superman. A children’s stories section includes art from Where the Wild Things Are and fairytale illustrations. A manga area highlights Astro Boy and a portrait of Pikachu.
Other rooms gather works around ideas. A community section features neighborhood scenes by Ernie Barnes and a Frida Kahlo self-portrait. Childhood includes a Margaret Keane painting, Children of Paris, and a Pablo Picasso drawing, Little Girl. Civic life presents photographs from the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike and a painting by Shepard Fairey and Ernesto Yerena Montejano opposing immigration raids.
Single-artist galleries spotlight NC Wyeth, Jessie Willcox Smith and Maxfield Parrish, while genre displays focus on science fiction, fantasy and adventure. Although the museum is not devoted to Star Wars, fans will find a display on transportation in the films, with vehicle models, production art and costumes, along with other discreet references.
A dedicated mural space showcases some of the institution’s most dramatic works. A video traverses Judith Baca’s history-spanning mural along the Los Angeles River. Several Banksy pieces appear on sections of wall relocated to the gallery. A large-scale image of JR’s Kikito depicts a child peering over the US-Mexico border barrier.
Wall labels provide titles, dates, artists and materials, but extended texts are minimal by design. Linkof said the goal is to avoid a heavily mediated experience and to encourage visitors to form their own interpretations. Those who want more detail can scan works with a phone to access concise context about creators and motivations.
Museum leaders emphasized that many featured creators, while widely recognized, have not always received institutional esteem equal to their influence. CEO Tracey Bates noted that artists such as Rockwell were once categorized primarily as illustrators despite the narrative depth of their images. Bates said Lucas and Hobson hope the museum elevates the status of these storytellers, describing the collection as “the People’s Art.”