$1bn Lucas Museum of Narrative Art lifts off at long last

The $1bn Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is scheduled to open in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park on 22 September, eight years after its 2018 groundbreaking and after delays from an original 2021 target. Founded and fully funded by filmmaker George Lucas, 82, and Mellody Hobson (chief executive of Ariel Investments), the museum features a sci-fi-like building by Ma Yansong of Mad Architects and gardens by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA, with 300,000 sq. ft of exhibition space. Its inaugural presentations will show more than 1,200 objects from Lucas and Hobson’s 40,000-piece collection across 35 galleries, ranging from comic art (including Robert Crumb) to works by Frida Kahlo, Norman Rockwell, and Maxfield Parrish, plus select Star Wars-related items such as General Grievous’s wheel bike from Revenge of the Sith. Senior curator and head of film programmes Ryan Linkof and CEO Tracey Bates describe the museum’s focus on “narrative art” and its mission to elevate illustrators and artists often overlooked by traditional institutions.

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