Los Angeles — After more than a decade in planning, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (co-founded by George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson) has officially set its opening date: 22 September 2026 in L.A.’s Exposition Park. The $1 billion, 300,000-square-foot museum will showcase over 40,000 works of “narrative art” from comics, film, fine art and photography, marking it as one of the most ambitious cultural projects in recent U.S. museum history.
Design, location & scale
The museum sits on an 11-acre campus next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and California Science Center, anchoring the city’s cultural corridor. The building, designed by Chinese architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, features a futuristic, spaceship-like form with flowing curves, over 1,500 fibreglass-reinforced panels and a green roof sculpted into rolling hills.
The interior will include approximately 100,000 sq ft of gallery space across 35 thematic galleries. These will be complemented by two state-of-the-art theaters, a research library, classrooms, café and retail areas. Landscape architecture firm Studio-MLA has designed the surrounding park, with public green space accessible even to non-ticketed visitors.
Collections & mission
The museum’s mission is to explore how narrative art—the telling of stories through images—shapes culture and society. The collection spans 40,000-plus items, including fine art (Frida Kahlo, Norman Rockwell), comics (Jack Kirby, Alex Raymond), photography (Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks), and film-archives from Lucas’ own career (Star Wars, Indiana Jones).
George Lucas described the institution at a recent panel as “a temple to the people’s art” emphasising that the work on display belongs to all communities, not just traditional fine-art audiences.
Why the delays & budget
Originally announced in the early 2010s and previously slated for San Francisco and Chicago, the museum landed in Los Angeles in 2017 and broke ground in March 2018. The budget for the project has grown from around $700 million to roughly $1 billion. Delays were attributed to global supply-chain disruptions, pandemic-related slowdowns and additional design refinements.
What to expect on opening day
When doors open on 22 September 2026, visitors will encounter:
- A sweeping main lobby with floor-to-ceiling glass, wooden railings and views into the landscape park.
- 35 galleries curated around themes such as “Adventure”, “Work”, “Love”, “Myth” and “Sports”.
- Two cutting-edge theaters for film screenings, talks and immersive experiences.
- A dedicated Lucas Archives wing housing props, models and costumes from Lucas’ film history.
- Public green space above the parking podium: native plantings, groves and undulating terrain open to the community.
Cultural & economic impact
For Los Angeles, the museum is more than a building—it is expected to act as a cultural hub, job creator and tourism magnet. The surrounding Exposition Park area stands to gain increased visitation and spill-over to nearby institutions (e.g., the Natural History Museum). Local officials and arts economists say the museum could draw hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, strengthening L.A.’s position as a global cultural city.
From a broader perspective, the museum marks a shift: it elevates popular culture, comics, film-art and illustration to the level of fine art in a major institution. Lucas’ view is that “visual storytelling is the universal language”, signalling a move toward inclusive, cross-disciplinary museum practices.
Challenges & what it means for visitors
Despite the excitement, the museum faces operational and programming challenges. Earlier this year it laid off 14 % of full-time staff amid a reorganisation aimed at opening smoothly. Visitors should expect ticket pricing, membership options and exhibit strategies to align with a broader cultural mission beyond blockbuster draws. The inclusion of immersive and popular media alongside traditional art may require new visitor-orientation models.
For art lovers and film fans alike, the Lucas Museum offers a unique bridge between worlds: the fine-art of Kahlo and Rockwell, the comic art of Kirby, and the cinematic legacy of Lucas’ own creations. It invites visitors to reconsider how stories are told—and how they shape our lives.
Why it matters
By combining large-scale architecture, cross-medium collections and narrative-driven exhibitions, the museum sets a precedent in museum design and curation for the 2020s. For fans of George Lucas and his work, it is a tangible legacy project beyond film. For Los Angeles residents it is a major civic and cultural addition. And for the global museum sector, it signals that the boundaries between “high art” and popular media are increasingly porous.
The countdown is on. The pieces are in place. On 22 September 2026, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens its doors—and the story-telling begins.
