Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Sets September 22 Opening

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art under construction, Exposition
Park, Los Angeles (Aug 2022). Photo by Ron Raffety, licensed under CC
BY-SA 2.0 Generic via Wikimedia Commons

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art announced that it will open to the
public on September 22, 2026, setting a confirmed date for one of the
most anticipated museum openings in the country after years of
construction delays, according to Urbanize LA. The project was
spearheaded by Star Wars creator George Lucas and his wife Mellody
Hobson, and represents an investment of more than \$1 billion in a
300,000-square-foot building at Exposition Park in Los Angeles.

Construction began in 2018 and experienced multiple delays during the
course of the global pandemic before reaching its current completion
stage. The September 22 date, announced in November 2025, marks the end
of a seven-year construction period and the beginning of the museum's
public life, per Urbanize LA.

What the Museum Contains

The Lucas Museum's permanent collection consists of more than 40,000
works spanning illustration, mural art, comic art, children's book
illustration, science-fiction imagery, and cinematic artifacts including
movie posters and production design materials. Artists represented in
the collection include Norman Rockwell, Jack Kirby, Alison Bechdel,
Frida Kahlo, Beatrix Potter, Gordon Parks, and Dorothea Lange, among
many others, according to Urbanize LA.

The museum houses 35 galleries totaling 100,000 square feet of
exhibition space. Documentaries featuring artists and filmmakers will
also be presented as part of the programming model, extending the
museum's engagement with storytelling into moving image formats.

Narrative Art as a Category

The Lucas Museum introduces "narrative art" as its organizing
principle — a term encompassing work that tells stories, whether
through sequential imagery, illustration, or cinematic design. The
category bridges fine art and popular culture, placing Norman
Rockwell's magazine covers in conversation with Jack Kirby's comic
panels and the original production art from major Hollywood films.

The Art Newspaper identified the Lucas Museum as one of the major museum
openings of 2026, alongside the V&A East in London, a revamped Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. The
Exposition Park location places it adjacent to the Samuel Oschin Air and
Space Center, currently under construction next to the California
Science Center, reshaping the cultural landscape of that area of Los
Angeles ahead of the 2028 Olympics, per Apollo Magazine.

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