George Lucas's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art to Open in Los Angeles in September 2026

After 15 years of planning and delays, George Lucas's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open on September 22, 2026, in Los Angeles's Exposition Park. Designed by Ma Yansong's MAD Architects, the $1 billion, 28,000-square-meter structure resembles a monumental spaceship. The museum houses over 40,000 works from Lucas's collection, including paintings, sculptures, photographs, comics, and film memorabilia, with highlights from Frida Kahlo, Beatrix Potter, Kadir Nelson, Jack Kirby, Chris Ware, R. Crumb, Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dorothea Lange. It also features the Separate Cinema Archive focused on African American cinema, acquired in 2019. The museum includes 35 galleries, a public library, cinemas, a theater, restaurants, and event spaces. Landscape architect Mia Lehrer designed a 4.5-hectare campus with gardens. The project faced setbacks including the resignation of founding director Sandra Jackson-Dumont in February 2025 and the departure of chief curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas in May 2025. Lucas, with his wife Mellody Hobson, conceived the museum to celebrate narrative art as a universal language.