Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens in Los Angeles with Star Wars showcase
The new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles will open to the public later this month, featuring a small Star Wars exhibit alongside a broad collection of art owned by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson.
Los Angeles will soon host the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a 300,000-square-foot structure that began construction in 2018 and cost between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, fully financed by George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson. The building, conceived by Ma Yansong, resembles a floating cloud or canopy and houses 33 galleries with roughly 1,300 artworks. Visitors will first encounter a massive yellow Naboo N-1 Starfighter from "Episode I - The Phantom Menace," but museum officials stress that Star Wars occupies only about 7% of the exhibition space.
The bulk of the museum showcases Lucas’s personal collection of comic art and pieces by commercial artists such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, Frida Kahlo and Andy Warhol, arranged by everyday-life themes like sports and civic activism. CEO Tracey Bates and curator Linkof emphasized the focus on narrative myths rather than strict artistic categories. Two on-site theaters will offer a rotating selection of movies and a program on film as a storytelling medium, and tickets will cost $25 for adults.
Why it matters
The museum adds a major cultural venue to LA, blending pop-culture icons with historic art for public education and tourism.
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