Martin Scorsese will moderate a panel at New York Comic Con on Sunday, organized by the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The panel features street artist JR and fantasy painters Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, offering a preview of the museum's collection, renderings, and a prerecorded interview with founders George Lucas and Mellody Hobson. The museum, originally slated to open in 2023 in Los Angeles, has faced delays and is now expected to open in 2026, following a tumultuous year that included the departure of director Sandra Jackson-Dumont and staff layoffs.
This panel matters because it signals the Lucas Museum's continued push for public engagement despite construction setbacks and leadership changes. The museum, backed by a $1 billion budget and Lucas's personal collection, aims to become a major institution for narrative art, spanning painting, film, and comics. Its acquisition of Robert Colescott's $15.3 million painting and the Separate Cinema Archive underscores its ambition to highlight diverse visual storytelling, making this preview a key moment for building anticipation among comic-con audiences and the broader art world.