The dawn of L.A.’s newest museum is upon us, with plans to enhance the region’s motion picture arts scene and add flourish to a city playing host to major events in the years to come.
For years, people have watched the uniquely shaped Lucas Museum of Narrative Art take shape in Exposition Park. The institution is moving forward with plans to open Sept. 22. In preparation for that, the museum late last week announced a new perk: all residents sharing its 90037 ZIP code are being granted museum membership in perpetuity.
“It’s been a long and exciting project, coming up on eight years now,” said Tracey Bates, chief executive of the Lucas Museum, in an interview.
“We want to make sure our neighbors are some of the first in the building and then have the ability to join us ongoing. It’s a forever pass, for as long as you’re in that ZIP code.”
The institution will serve as a legacy for legendary filmmaker George Lucas, whose Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises have remained iconic. Rather than representing just film, the museum will celebrate and promote all forms of narrative art, including painting, photography, sculpture, stage performance and comic art. Lucas and wife, Mellody Hobson, founded and funded the museum, which lies in proximity to Lucas’ alma mater in the University of Southern California.
“This is a really wonderful full circle moment, having the opportunity to spend so much time and working with George,” Bates said. “One of the moments is always that we can see his alma mater over the way. His student films that he worked on, we can now show when we announce our film program. There’s really wonderful moments, not just geographically, but things we’re putting actually within the collection that are really wonderful to witness.”
Long journey to L.A.
Discussions for the Lucas Museum date back more than 13 years, with sites unsuccessfully proposed in San Francisco and Chicago before the institution ultimately landed in Exposition Park in 2017.
Construction began in 2018, with a targeted opening date of 2021. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, further delaying construction across essentially every ongoing construction project as supply chains became challenged.
The 300,000-square-foot museum – funded privately, although museum officials did not disclose how much has been raised – was designed by Chinese firm MAD Studio and Canadian firm Stantec. San Francisco-based Hathaway Dinwiddie is the general contractor, with
Boyle Heights-based Studio-MLA handling the landscape architecture design for the 11-acre campus.
At Exposition Park, the Lucas Museum neighbors the California Science Center and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, as well as the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and BMO Stadium.
The opening of the Lucas Museum also comes at an active moment for L.A.’s arts and culture scene. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art recently debuted its highly anticipated David Geffen Galleries. (Michael Govan, the director of LACMA, is a board member for the Lucas Museum.) The California Science Center is months away from opening its new wing, which includes the vertical space shuttle display. The Broad art museum downtown is also undergoing an expansion, while The Huntington in San Marino is planning a major library renovation.
“I think joining our Exposition Park museum partners is a very special moment. There’s this really grand moment in L.A. of cultural significance that we’re very proud to be a part of. What hopefully we will do as a new space in South-Central is bring more people to South-Central, so once they’ve hopefully visited the Lucas Museum, they’ll visit our other partners, too.”
Opening plans and the future
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is now complete. (Photo courtesy of the Lucas Museum)
Ahead of its Sept. 22 opening date, the Lucas Museum will host a community preview day on Sept. 13 for local partners, business owners and civic leaders.
Residents of the ZIP code who receive their free membership passes, which are called LM37 passes, will also have access to this preview event.
The museum itself will host works from a variety of artists, including materials related to Chicano artist Judy Baca’s Great Wall of Los Angeles mural in the San Fernando Valley; famed comic book illustrator Jack Kirby; painters N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and Diego Rivera; fabric artist Yinka Shonibare; and former Lucas collaborator Ralph McQuarrie. The museum also has acquired the Separate Cinema Archive, which collects posters, film stills, scripts and other artifacts of Black American cinema.
And of course, Lucas has donated his own collection of props and memorabilia from his filmmaking career – Star Wars and Indiana Jones included – as well as other artifacts from his personal collection.
“We’re so excited to share storytelling and start influencing and inspiring the next generation of storytellers, and that’s what we’re really hoping that our museum will do,” Bates said.
“There’s not a better city to be in to advance the power of storytelling and hopefully inspire new creatives, to keep the essence of what L.A. has always been.”
Looking ahead, Bates said the museum is plotting activities and opportunities linked to the upcoming Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium in 2027 and the 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
There are some helpful connections for the latter opportunity. Hobson is a member of the LA28 committee for the Olympics. And before joining the Lucas Museum as an adviser in 2020, Bates – through her firm T&B Consulting – included prior Olympic games in London and Paris among her consulting clients.
“As a trusted adviser to us for years, Tracey Bates has been integral in shaping the foundation of the Lucas Museum,” Hobson said in a statement. “With her breadth of experience with arts organizations around the world, Tracey is an invaluable partner and the right strategic visionary to advance the Lucas Museum’s mission and help build it into a world-class institution.”
Bates added that the museum plans to collaborate with local universities to provide opportunities for narrative arts students, as well as bring in film experts for lecture series and special screenings at its two theaters, just like the opportunities Lucas had as a young, aspiring filmmaker.
“We’re really excited to pass the baton, and that’s really what George wants from this: art in all forms, storytelling through all forms, not just film,” Bates said. “We really want to inspire and make sure that the next generation comes here and is inspired to work in those fields. That’s really what we’re trying to do here.”
