{"id":453863,"date":"2026-09-04T23:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/453863\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:24:25","slug":"the-lucas-museum-of-narrative-art-showcases-a-story-for-everyone-annenberg-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/453863\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art showcases a story for everyone \u2013 Annenberg Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 60 years after George Lucas graduated from USC\u2019s School of Cinematic Arts, the filmmaker is bringing his vision for a museum of narrative art to Exposition Park \u2014 just across the street from where he received his diploma. <\/p>\n

The museum, which opens to the public on Sept. 22, houses more than 40,000 works spanning illustration, comics, photography, animation, film and fine art.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a long haul,\u201d Lucas said at the preview. \u201cI don\u2019t like to do things people think can be done. I\u2019m fascinated by doing things people say can\u2019t be done . . . I\u2019m used to doing the impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ACo-founders filmmaker George Lucas and businesswoman Mellody Hobson speak at the press conference (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn) <\/p>\n

The Lucas Museum is no exception.<\/p>\n

Surrounded by the Natural History Museum, the California Science Center and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Lucas Museum occupies one of Exposition Park\u2019s most striking locations.<\/p>\n

Visible from the intersection of freeways and marked by a unique grassy roofscape, it is both grounded and ethereal.<\/p>\n

\"Buildings\"The view of Downtown L.A. and USC from the roof of the Lucas Museum (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn). <\/p>\n

From the outside, the museum is a silver screen vision. It\u2019s a spaceship, a capsule or a futuristic canopy. It\u2019s meant to be whatever a visitor makes of it. <\/p>\n

Head architect Ma Yansong\u2019s design philosophy is rooted in the relationship between architecture and nature, and that buildings themselves have a narrative quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all curved,\u201d he said while guiding a tour of the museum. \u201cIn nature, you never see straight lines. So, you can discover the building from any angle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"painitng.\"Original model of the museum (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn). <\/p>\n

Since founding MAD Architects<\/a> in 2004, Yansong has routinely masterminded projects that combine the natural world (the \u201ccontext,\u201d as he calls it) and his creativity. His 2011 Ordos Art & City Museum<\/a> \u2014 a building that looks like it descended from above onto sand dunes \u2014 caught George Lucas\u2019s attention and became the reason Yansong was chosen for this intergalactic undertaking. <\/p>\n

Filmmaking was Yansong\u2019s first professional passion<\/a>, and he revealed that his design was unconsciously inspired by a \u201cStar Wars\u201d scene. <\/p>\n

\"ManHead architect Ma Yansong stares out the overlook point (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn). <\/p>\n

While Yansong sees the museum as a link between humans and the world around them, Lucas sees it as a \u201ctemple of peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exhibitions diverge from the conventional time period that most museums offer. Instead, stories are arranged around the shapes of ordinary life: love, family, community, play, work, sports, childhood and adventure.<\/p>\n

\u201cStories are how we\u2019ve always made sense of who we are,\u201d CEO Tracy Bates said in the opening press conference. \u201cPeople have always needed images to carry their stories to remind us what we have in common with each other.\u201d <\/p>\n

A dedicated cinema gallery opens with \u201cStar Wars in Motion,\u201d built from archives of the first six Star Wars films. <\/p>\n

\"Robots\"R2-D2 (Left) and C-3PO (Right) from the Star Wars franchise. (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn) <\/p>\n

Concept art, props and costumes follow the evolution of the Star Wars universe, from Luke Skywalker\u2019s landspeeder in \u201cA New Hope\u201d to General Grievous\u2019s wheel bike in \u201dRevenge of the Sith.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Props\"Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder prototype (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn). <\/p>\n

As much as Lucas\u2019s name is synonymous with his franchise creations, the museum is a reflection of his other interests and passions. Illustrations and other hand-drawn creations are the priority<\/a>. It\u2019s a turning point from traditional art museums that have historically excluded such artwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, however, much of that storytelling, illustration, comics, advertising, animation didn\u2019t get treated with the same respect as painting or sculpture,\u201d Bates said. <\/p>\n

The collection\u2019s scope shows up gallery to gallery: comic art, mural painting, children\u2019s book illustration, science fiction art and photography all get their own space.<\/p>\n

\"DESCRIBEGarfield Comic Strip (Andriana Yatsyshyn). <\/p>\n

In the comic art galleries, nostalgia is a part of the experience. Garfield and a top-hat Snoopy bring childhood favorites off the page and into the museum. <\/p>\n

\"snoopy\"Snoopy in the comics section created by legendary cartoonist Charles M. Schul (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn). <\/p>\n

Works by Frida Kahlo, Norman Rockwell, Carrie Mae Weems and Maxfield Parrish sit nearby, challenging the idea that popular and fine art belong in separate worlds.<\/p>\n

\"Painting\"Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser by Frida Khalo (1940) (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn) <\/p>\n

Even British street artist Banksy got to leave his mark. Remnants of splashed paint have since dried into the floors near his work on the fifth floor. <\/p>\n

\"Painting\"Surprise Banksy Painting (Photo by Andriana Yatsyshyn). <\/p>\n

The Lucas Museum will also have a daily film program. The Robert Flaherty Theater will showcase works of documentary filmmakers from Richard Averson to Robin Dashwood, while the Slavko Vorkapich Theater plans to screen short films that \u201cexplore the essence of cinema \u2014 editing, light, motion, color and sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

The library located on the second floor is free for all visitors, regardless of whether they have a museum ticket. Inside, visitors will find a collection of art publications, as well as a Steve Martin collection of donated books and archival materials available for research.<\/p>\n

\"DESCRIBELucas Museum Library (Photo By Andriana Yatsyshyn) <\/p>\n

For a museum built around storytelling, perhaps its most important collection isn\u2019t what hangs on its walls. It\u2019s the imagination visitors bring with them. <\/p>\n

As Tracy Bates said, \u201cIf this museum sparks that same imagination in even one young mind that George felt 50 years ago, it will have been well worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets are available online<\/a> now. Admission is free for visitors under 18 years of age or for residents of all ages within the 90037 zip code area<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 60 years after George Lucas graduated from USC\u2019s School of Cinematic Arts, the filmmaker is bringing his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[179304,32318,25084,48,52,51,47,50,49,63549,178402,6607,179305,3533],"class_list":["post-453863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-banksy","tag-exposition-park","tag-george-lucas","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lucas-museum-of-narrative-art","tag-ma-yansong","tag-museum","tag-tracy-bates","tag-usc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}