(Review) The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is a love letter to the populist power of stories
On September 22, 2026, in Los Angeles, California, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open its doors to the public. This museum is unlike any museum in the world in many ways. It’s affordable, beautifully designed and in some ways it makes no sense at all. And that’s exactly why you should visit it.
All photos by Joe Spencer
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is a case study in perseverance. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, it took George Lucas more than two decades to find a home for his desired museum. Once Los Angeles became the home for the museum, global issues like the pandemic and supply-chain struggles slowed the museum’s construction. After eight and a half years of construction, invitees set foot inside its futuristic-looking halls. And now it’s your turn.
Attractions Magazine was granted the opportunity to explore the museum before its official opening. Join us as we share thoughts, tips, and reflections, and give you a preview of what you can expect during your visit.
What is the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art?
It’s been an oft-repeated line during the previews, media events and promotional push surrounding the museum, but it bears reiterating: the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is NOT a Star Wars museum.
Even though it features true-to-life replicas of Naboo starfighters, landspeeders and podracers, it is more than a Star Wars museum.
Yes, there is a statue garden where visitors can find statues of Leia Organa Choking Jabba the Hutt with her own chains, whilst her mother, Padme Amidala, fights her own battle against an otherworldly creature just steps away. Yes, one of the main galleries features costumes, models and conceptual art from both the original and prequel trilogies. Yes, the building itself resembles a ship we might have seen dock on Coruscant, dropping off any number of spectacular creatures at the Senate building.
However, to simply boil this museum down to a ‘Star Wars Museum’ does the rest of the collection (and the curation of said collection) a vast disservice.
Rather, the 100,000 square feet of gallery space, with its artwork, film screenings, and architectural wonder, is a love letter to an overlooked and underappreciated type of art; the art of stories.
In this space, founders George Lucas and Mellody Hobson (married to each other) have created a beautiful love letter to the art of storytelling through visual images. Lucas became a Disney Legend in 2015; watch our YouTube video below to witness that moment.
The Museum, originally planned for sites in both San Francisco and Chicago before landing steps away from Lucas’s alma mater, the University of Southern California in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, will open to the public on September 22, 2026.
Highlights of each floor
The museum’s primary galleries are located on the fourth floor. Rather than organizing the collection chronologically, the museum groups works around subjects ranging from broad genres such as adventure, science fiction and romance to more focused themes including motherhood, school and civic life.
Other galleries highlight individual artists. Visitors can explore Norman Rockwell’s depictions of American life, N.C. Wyeth’s adventure illustrations and Frank Frazetta’s influential fantasy and science-fiction artwork.
At the center of the fourth floor is the Cinema gallery. Its current displays include artwork, sculptures and models created for the original and prequel “Star Wars” trilogies.
The fifth floor focuses on murals. Highlights include an extensive archive related to Judith F. Baca’s half-mile-long “The History of California,” also known as “The Great Wall of Los Angeles,” as well as Banksy’s first museum-commissioned installation.
The fifth floor is also home to Skywalker Grill, a restaurant open to the general public. Unfortunately, it was not available for us to experience during our visit.
Visiting with a child (free admission for ages 17 and under)
On our preview visit, we arrived at Exposition Park shortly after 6 pm, and we brought our 4-year-old son with us. We had gathered enough information to realize that he would be interested in its offerings and thought it would be a good test run for future art gallery trips. We were mostly correct in this hypothesis.
He loved the Star Wars collection, specifically the life-sized recreations of R2-D2, C-3PO and Darth Vader, as well as the miniature models of starfighters, AT-ATs and Podracers. He also loved seeing the collection in the Children’s Stories section, and was delighted to find original artwork of his good friends Frog and Toad.
However, as it was around dinner time, he got a little burned out after that, and so we divided and conquered to get a quick look at the other exhibits and find a quiet place where he could regulate and recharge.
The museum’s research library gave us the quiet we needed and is a great space you shouldn’t skip during your visit. It not only is filled to the brim with books that provide context for the themes, art and artists explored across the Museum’s galleries, but it’s also a visually stunning space in its own right.
Overall, I would say that the museum is a good one for kids, but as with anything kid-related, your mileage may vary.
An art museum for the people
As I continued to peruse the collection, I very quickly could have (and plan to during a future visit) spent hours pouring over every nook and cranny in the place. By displaying comics, film artifacts and popular illustrations alongside works by celebrated fine artists, the museum treats the stories people encounter in everyday life as art worthy of preservation and appreciation. The museum’s admission is affordable to boot!
As Attractions Magazine’s unofficial Anime Correspondent, I was excited to see a whole area dedicated to Manga art, complete with an Akira figure at the heart of the gallery, and honestly I could spend my entire visit in the Comics/Graphic Stories section.
I got excited to see artwork depicting stories from the modern era to ones that captured the romantic fantasy of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” There’s so much to discover here that I would recommend a visit to anyone with even a passing interest in art or stories. You won’t walk away unsatisfied.
After exploring the rest of the museum, we made our obligatory stop at the gift shop, where I, among other things, picked up a pennant for my office. As part of its design, it proudly decrees that narrative art is ‘The People’s Art’.
That idea stayed with me long after I left the Lucas Museum. Here, original prints of Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip are displayed alongside works by Frida Kahlo, while episodes of the unreleased series “Star Wars Detours” play just steps away from the original photograph used for the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album cover.
By presenting popular culture and fine art with equal care, the Lucas Museum truly feels like an art museum for the people.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is located at One Lucas Plaza, 3800 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles.
It is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. It is closed Tuesdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Last entry is 45 minutes before closing. Find more information at lucasmuseum.org.
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