Visiting the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art: A First Timer’s Guide

For years, every time I drove past Exposition Park I would look over at the giant white building rising next to the Coliseum and wonder when we would finally get to go inside. It looked like a spaceship had quietly landed in the middle of Los Angeles. This fall, the wait finally ended. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened on September 22, 2026, and it is easily one of the most talked about new attractions in California.

The first thing to know is that this is not a Star Wars museum. Yes, there is a Naboo Starfighter hanging in the lobby, and yes, you will see original costumes and models from the films. But George Lucas built this place to celebrate something much bigger: the stories we tell through pictures. That means Norman Rockwell paintings, original comic book pages, children’s book illustrations, iconic photography, murals, and film, all under one roof.

In this guide I will share everything you need to know before you go, including tickets, hours, parking, the galleries you should not miss, and a few tips I wish I had known before my first visit.

Details

• Location: One Lucas Plaza (3800 S. Vermont Ave), Los Angeles, CA 90037, inside Exposition Park next to the Natural History Museum and the Coliseum.
• Hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 10 am to 5 pm; Friday 10 am to 9 pm; Saturday 9 am to 9 pm; Sunday 9 am to 5 pm. Closed Tuesdays. Last entry is 45 minutes before closing.
• Holiday closures: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day.
• Cost: $25 for adults, $21 for seniors 65 and over. Free for kids 17 and under
• Reservations: Everyone needs a timed-entry ticket booked in advance, including kids and members. Tickets are sold at lucasmuseum.org.
• What’s included: All galleries, exhibitions, and theaters. The park, gardens, store, Skywalker Grill, and café do not require a ticket.
• Parking: Paid parking run by Exposition Park, with two garages on the museum grounds and four more lots around the park. The Metro E Line Expo Park/USC station is a short walk away. Parking was $20 when I went.
• Food: Skywalker Grill on the fifth floor (open 11 am to 8 pm, later on Friday and Saturday) plus a café on site.
• Park and gardens: Free and open daily from 8 am to sunset.
• I visited in October, 2026

The History of the Lucas Museum

George Lucas has been collecting art for about 50 years, and his collection now holds more than 40,000 works, from Norman Rockwell paintings to original comic strips and children’s book illustrations. He and his wife, Mellody Hobson, wanted a permanent home where anyone could see it, but finding that home took more than two decades. The museum was first planned for the Presidio in San Francisco and then the lakefront in Chicago, where a lawsuit from a parks group stalled the project. In 2017, Lucas chose Los Angeles, just steps from his alma mater, USC. Construction began in 2018 on a former parking lot in Exposition Park, and after pandemic and supply chain delays pushed it back roughly four years, the $1 billion museum finally opened on September 22, 2026. The building itself, designed by architect Ma Yansong of MAD, is a 300,000 square foot structure with 35 galleries on an 11 acre campus of new gardens and green space.

Top Galleries

Most of the main galleries are on the fourth floor, and instead of being arranged by time period, they are grouped by themes like adventure, romance, family, sports, and science fiction. Here are the ones you should not miss.

Cinema Gallery. This is the one Star Wars fans will head to first, and it sits right at the center of the fourth floor. You will find Luke’s landspeeder, life-size R2-D2, C-3PO, and Darth Vader, speeder bikes from Attack of the Clones, a General Grievous mockup, and original concept art like Doug Chiang’s podrace crash painting from The Phantom Menace.

Norman Rockwell and the American Illustrators. Lucas is one of the biggest Rockwell collectors in the world, and these galleries show off his scenes of everyday American life alongside N.C. Wyeth’s adventure illustrations and Frank Frazetta’s fantasy art.

Children’s Stories. This was a surprise favorite. You can see original art from Winnie the Pooh by E.H. Shepard, Where the Wild Things Are, Frog and Toad, and Babar. It is the gallery where adults get just as excited as the kids.

Comics, Graphic Stories, and Manga. Original Peanuts strips, Batman pages, and a whole manga section anchored by a figure of Kaneda from Akira. If you grew up reading comics, you could easily spend an hour here.

Photography. Some of the most famous images in history hang here, including Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, taken in Nipomo, California in 1936, and the original photo used for the Beatles’ Abbey Road cover.

Murals (Fifth Floor). The fifth floor is dedicated to murals, including a large archive and video installation of Judith Baca’s half-mile-long Great Wall of Los Angeles, reproductions of Diego Rivera, and Banksy’s first museum commissioned installation.

What It’s Like to Visit

The experience starts before you even walk in. The building’s curved white shell floats above the gardens, and it really does look like something that just docked on Coruscant. Out on the grounds you will find sculptures scattered across the lawns, including Princess Leia taking down Jabba the Hutt with her own chains.

Step inside and the first thing you see is a full size Naboo Starfighter hanging in the glass lobby with R2-D2 in the co pilot seat. A trio of tube shaped elevators carries you up to the galleries, and from there it is a treasure hunt. One minute you are looking at a Frida Kahlo, the next you are standing in front of Batman, and around the corner is one of the original dogs playing poker paintings from 1894. That mix of fine art and pop culture is what makes this museum feel so different. Nothing here feels stuffy.

When you need a break, head to the research library. It is quiet, beautifully designed, and full of books about the artists and stories in the galleries. Then grab a bite at Skywalker Grill on the fifth floor before taking one more lap through your favorite gallery.

Final Thoughts

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is unlike any other museum in California. It took decades, three cities, and a billion dollars to build, and the result is a place that treats a Peanuts comic strip with the same respect as a Rockwell painting. Whether you come for the Star Wars models, the children’s book art, or just to see that spaceship of a building up close, it is well worth a trip to Exposition Park.

Have you visited the Lucas Museum yet? Let me know your favorite gallery in the comments!