The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened to the public on Sept. 22 in Los Angeles, turning a long-finished construction site into a new stop for people who care deeply about stories and for people who could not care less about the Force.
George Lucas and Mellody Hobson co-founded the museum, and the opening gives Lucas a public home for the collection he built around narrative art and Star Wars. The museum's Star Wars collection includes props, costumes and more from across the franchise, while local residents will get free admission and everyone can visit a free public garden.
For years, the building was part of the Los Angeles skyline before it opened, with a white, curved exterior and a grassy roof that made it look as much like a landmark as a museum. That long wait is part of why the opening matters now: the place that had been visible behind construction barriers is finally taking visitors inside.
The museum also has to serve two very different crowds at once. Star Wars superfans will come for the collection, but the museum is not built only for them. Its pitch is broader than a fan pilgrimage, and that is the point — Lucas and Hobson have opened a public institution meant to outlast any single franchise, even one as durable as Star Wars.
What remains unanswered is how far that Star Wars collection goes beyond the props and costumes now being advertised. The opening on Sept. 22 gives the public its first chance to find out, and it sets the museum up as a Los Angeles destination that begins with one famous galaxy and is trying to reach well beyond it.
