The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, is set to open on September 22 at Exposition Park in Los Angeles. The building, designed by MAD led by Ma Yansong and executed by Stantec, features landscaping by Studio-MLA, and its shape is often compared to a spaceship or cloud hovering over the park.

After unsuccessful site selections in San Francisco and Chicago, the project has settled in Los Angeles, taking over sixteen years from proposal to opening, with groundbreaking in 2018. British media generally report the cost to be around $1 billion, primarily funded by Lucas; the circulated figure of $1.5 billion lacks equivalent authoritative sources. The building spans approximately 300,000 square feet, with exhibition space of about 100,000 square feet, featuring 30 to 35 thematic galleries, along with two cinemas, a library, a restaurant, and retail space.

The inaugural exhibition will display around 1,300 pieces from Lucas's private collection, which totals over 40,000 items, covering illustrations, comics, children's literature, sci-fi paintings, murals, and film archives. Star Wars concepts and props occupy about 7% of the exhibition space, with sculptures like Leia defeating Jabba displayed alongside classical statues. General adult tickets are approximately $25, with free admission for those aged 17 and under, requiring timed reservations.

Mechanically, the buyers are visitors interested in narrative images and film artifacts, while the seller is the founder who elevates illustrations into the museum tier using personal wealth. The event is driven by the opening day, with funds already solidified as real estate and collections during the construction phase; beneficiaries include the foot traffic at Exposition Park and surrounding venues, while the operational team aiming to establish a "Star Wars destination" faces pressure to create an illustration museum—most exhibition walls do not discuss the Force.

Public information has not indicated that the Star Wars proportion exceeds half, nor has it released the final confirmed target for the first year's visitor numbers after opening.

Source: Public Information