George Lucas Says Building His $1 Billion Narrative Art Museum Tested His Resolve

George Lucas said the effort to build the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles tested his determination, describing it as a project that "almost broke my will." The 82-year-old filmmaker, who co-founded the museum with his wife Mellody Hobson, spoke at a press preview ahead of the museum’s September 22 opening in Exposition Park, near the University of Southern California.

Lucas noted that the museum’s development spanned 17 years, including eight years of active construction, and faced obstacles such as location disputes, design disagreements, pandemic-related shutdowns and supply-chain delays. He added that navigating bureaucratic hurdles and opposing viewpoints added to the difficulty, but the team ultimately succeeded.

The five-story, 300,000-square-foot building, designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects with Stantec, sits on a 13-acre campus featuring gardens and public spaces by landscape architect Mia Lehrer. Inside, more than 100,000 square feet of gallery space will showcase over 1,300 objects from a permanent collection of 40,000 works, ranging from paintings by Frida Kahlo and Norman Rockwell to comic art, movie posters and pieces by Banksy. A cinema exhibition titled "Star Wars in Motion" will display iconic props, while a bronze sculpture of Princess Leia confronting Jabba the Hutt will be installed outdoors.

Lucas emphasized that the museum aims to blur the line between fine art and popular imagery, arranging galleries by themes such as love, family, work and adventure. He argued that shared visual stories help forge common belief systems that unite societies. Hobson described the institution as "a museum by the people, for the people," noting that general admission will be $25, with free entry for visitors 17 and younger and for residents of the surrounding ZIP code through a special pass.

"A picture is very powerful, and the stories are very powerful. You combine them together, and those two elements create a society," Lucas said.

"Narrative art creates a group of people with common belief systems," he added.

"I know we have a tendency to draw in because I’m controversial in terms of the media, but hey, I just do what I feel I have to do," Lucas concluded.