After more than a decade of planning, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, co-founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, is finally set to open its doors on September 22, 2026, in Exposition Park, Los Angeles.
The Lucas Museum is conceived as a dedicated institution for “narrative art”, a broad category that spans illustrated storytelling in many forms, including paintings, comic art, photography, children’s book illustration, and cinematic artifacts. Its permanent collection will include more than 40,000 works, featuring names such as Norman Rockwell, Frida Kahlo, Jack Kirby, Alison Bechdel, Gordon Parks, and Dorothea Lange. The museum will also house the Lucas Archives, which will hold models, props, concept art, and costumes from George Lucas’s filmmaking career.
Form and Material Strategy
Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, with Stantec as executive architect, the museum is a sculptural, five-story building spanning approximately 300,000 sq ft on an 11-acre campus. The structure is elevated, creating shaded areas and a human-scaled public zone beneath.
One of the most striking aspects of the design is its exterior, over 1,500 curved fiberglass-reinforced polymer (FRP) panels that form its undulating, biomorphic surface. These panels are uniquely shaped, each one digitally modeled, robotically fabricated, and hand-finished to achieve smooth contours and consistent color. An oculus crowns the roof, offering a sculptural connection to the sky, while the building’s form evokes a floating canopy, a metaphor for shelter, imagination, and gathering.
Integrating Landscape and Sustainability
Studio-MLA, led by Mia Lehrer, has designed the Lucas Museum’s surrounding landscape to be an integral part of the experience. What was a surface parking lot is being transformed into a lush park with walkways, more than 200 new trees, drought-tolerant plantings, and architectural features such as a hanging garden, amphitheater, pedestrian bridge, and even a waterfall-like fountain. On the sustainability front, the project incorporates rainwater harvesting to irrigate its greenery, and rooftop solar panels help reduce its energy footprint.
Inside the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art: Galleries, Cinemas, and Public Areas
Inside the building, the museum offers approximately 100,000 sq ft of dedicated gallery space spread over multiple floors. In addition to the 35 thematic galleries (exploring themes like family, childhood, work, and adventure), there are two advanced cinemas, a library, ten studios for learning and engagement, event spaces, a café, a restaurant, and a museum shop.
The layout is deliberately organized around human experience. The gallery themes are not strictly chronological or by medium; instead, they are grouped to reflect universal facets of life such as love, play, community, and growth.
Located in Exposition Park, the museum will join other major cultural institutions, including the Natural History Museum and the California Science Center, strengthening an already rich cultural corridor in Los Angeles. George Lucas has called this institution “a museum of the people’s art,” underlining his belief that illustrated storytelling is accessible and deeply human. In the words of Mellody Hobson, the goal is for visitors to “see themselves, and their humanity, reflected.”
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is scheduled to open in Los Angeles in September 2026. The institution will introduce a new cultural destination for the city on its official opening day, welcoming visitors.
Image credit: Pedro Ramirez
