The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, founded by filmmaker George Lucas, is scheduled to open in Los Angeles on September 22, according to reporting by CNN. The opening marks the conclusion of a development process that began in 2010 and previously encountered failed proposals in both San Francisco and Chicago. According to CNN, Lucas has personally invested roughly $1 billion to build the facility.
Exhibition Spaces and Collection Highlights
Located within Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, the approximately 28mila-square-foot institution will house a collection of over 1,300 items, including comic art, illustrations, photography, and film and animation works, many drawn from Lucas’s personal archive. According to CNN, works dedicated to the Star Wars franchise will account for less than 10 percent of the total collection. The museum’s galleries will instead feature works by American artists and illustrators such as Frida Kahlo, Norman Rockwell, Gordon Parks, Frank Miller, and Frank Frazetta. Additional displays include pieces by Man Ray, anime from the Cowboy Bebop series, and student short films directed by Lucas himself.
Architecture and Design at Exposition Park
The museum building was designed by MAD Architects, an international firm founded by Chinese architect Ma Yansong, and occupies a site within Exposition Park alongside established institutions like the Natural History Museum, the California Science Center, and the California African American Museum. According to architectural descriptions, the structure features a large white, undulating silhouette characterized by organic, fluid forms. Inside, the layout includes curvilinear spaces, tubular elevators, and interconnected galleries designed to diverge from traditional chronological museum presentations. The introductory exhibition focuses on the history of narrative art and visual storytelling across different eras, while upper-floor galleries organize original collection items by individual artists or specific themes and genres.
Development Challenges and Leadership Changes
The project’s path to completion involved several logistical and organizational hurdles since its initial announcement in 2010, which faced public debate over its private-funding model, a $25 general admission ticket price, and its classification as a personal museum project by Lucas. Site selection proved particularly contentious; before securing the Los Angeles location, initial plans to build in San Francisco and Chicago were abandoned. In Chicago, plans to construct the private institution on public land drew strong opposition from a local nonprofit organization. Leadership turnover also marked the final stages before opening, according to reports. The museum’s initial director and CEO, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, departed in 2025 during the planning and installation phase, after which George Lucas took a more direct role in curation. Pilar Tompkins Rivas, who subsequently stepped in as curator, also resigned last December due to strategic differences with the institution’s direction.
