On Sept. 22, 2026, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art held its Grand Opening at Exposition Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. With tickets sold out through Sept. 30, visitors filled the five-story, 300,000-square-foot building throughout the day.
Co-founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, the museum’s artwork is dedicated to “the power of storytelling through images”, according to the Lucas Museum website. Starting to collect artwork during college, Lucas and Hobson have been building their collection together ever since. Star Wars pieces are under the Cinema section, where costumes, vehicles, and models are displayed.
On the first floor of Lucas Plaza, a gift shop stands to the left, offering a wide variety of “signature merchandise and artist-inspired goods including prints, books, apparel, and gifts.” Across from the elevator are the Slavko Vorkapich and Robert Flaherty Theater, which both run screenings throughout the day.
The fourth floor features a variety of artwork organized by genres including adventure, love, science fiction, community, and family. Other galleries focus on Western comics, manga, and children’s stories with artists such as Jessie Willcox Smith, Maxfield Parrish, Frank Frazetta, and more.
“There was one [artwork] about Norman Rockwell of the Red Sox in their locker room. That one, I really liked that one,” Jimmy Adrian, a visitor to the museum, said.
The fifth-floor gallery space holds large-scale murals and a special exhibit dedicated to the anonymous England-based artist, Banksy, along with others. A rooftop restaurant, Skywalker Grill, is also available upon reservation.
The museum includes a library on the second floor of the Education Wing. Each part was designed as a tribute to the Skywalker Ranch Library in Lucas’s estate in Marin County.
“You’ll see a lot of this homage to just the overall architecture of the building, which has this curvature and appeal to the aesthetic that mimics the exterior of the museum…it gives them warmth,” Joan Jocson-Singh, the Director of the Library, said.
The mezzanine incorporates selected titles from Lucas and Hobson’s Skywalker collection that they donated to the library. In contrast, the third floor features art books donated by actor, musician, and comedian Steve Martin. Currently, no access is allowed beyond the first floor.
“It really complements our books on narrative art,” Singh said. “You can’t go up to those floors because they’re special collections, but they will be published on our online library catalog to be paged down for researchers to consult.”
Just outside the library sits the Sculpture Garden available to the public for free. A bronze piece titled “The Hutt Slayer” shows Princess Leia strangling Jabba the Hutt, depicting the “Return of the Jedi” scene.
“I’m happy just to be one of the first to see all of the artwork that they made available to us,” Justine Santoyo, a visitor to the museum, said.
