Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Sets Inaugural Exhibitions for 2026 Opening
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has outlined the first exhibitions it will present when it opens on September 22, 2026, offering an unusually broad survey of image-based storytelling. The debut installation will include more than 1,200 objects spread across about 30 galleries in Exposition Park, with a program that moves between thematic displays and artist-focused rooms.
Founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the museum is built around Lucas’s collection of more than 40,000 works of illustrator art assembled over the past half century. Its opening galleries will be organized in two ways: some will examine recurring ideas such as love, family, community, work, school, sports, and adventure, while others will focus on individual 20th-century artists.
The roster spans a wide range of visual traditions. Works by N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, Thomas Hart Benton, and Jessie Willcox Smith will appear alongside paintings by Frank Frazetta, including his 1970 work “A Princess of Mars.” The museum will also show illustrations by Beatrix Potter, E.H. Shepard, and Jacob Lawrence, as well as comics and graphic novels by Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, Mœbius, and Alison Bechdel. Manga and anime will also be represented.
Photography and mural-scale work will have a substantial presence as well. The museum has announced pieces by Judy Baca, JR, and Diego Rivera, along with photographs by Robert Capa, Gordon Parks, and Dorothea Lange. Separate spaces will be devoted to Lucas’s archives of sets, props, costumes, and the designs that informed the building’s architecture.
The building itself, designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, has been one of the most closely watched museum projects in Los Angeles. After breaking ground in 2018, the institution faced repeated delays and recent leadership changes, including the departures of Sandra Jackson-Dumont and Pilar Tompkins Rivas. Even so, the opening now has a firm date, and the museum’s first presentation suggests an ambition to treat narrative art not as a niche category, but as a central visual language of the 20th century and beyond.
