The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has announced details for its inaugural exhibition "Star Wars in Motion," set to open on September 22. The show will feature props, costumes, and vehicle designs from the first six Star Wars films, including Luke's Landspeeder and General Grievous' Wheel Bike, as part of a broader lineup of about 20 inaugural exhibitions spanning visual storytelling from ancient art to modern film. The 300,000-square-foot museum, founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, will display over 1,200 artworks across 100,000 square feet of gallery space, with additional galleries dedicated to comic art, manga, children's literature, and works by artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Beatrix Potter, Jack Kirby, Alison Bechdel, Frank Frazetta, Norman Rockwell, Diego Rivera, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks.
This matters because the Lucas Museum represents a major new institution in Los Angeles that explicitly champions narrative art—a genre often overlooked by traditional fine art museums. By centering its inaugural programming on a blockbuster franchise like Star Wars alongside canonical illustrators and comic artists, the museum signals a deliberate shift toward popular visual culture and storytelling traditions, potentially broadening the definition of what belongs in a museum. Its opening in Exposition Park also adds a significant cultural anchor to the area, with 11 acres of green space and a focus on inclusivity across mediums and eras.