As the world's first museum focusing on the value and influence of narrative art, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in the United States recently released its latest developments. The museum's director and CEO, Ms. Sandra Jackson Dumont, revealed that the 300,000 square foot (27,870 square meters) five-story museum located in Los Angeles's Exposition Park is under construction and is gradually integrating with the landscape and the 11-acre (4.45 hectare) park. In addition, the collection is also steadily increasing. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will be completed and put into use in 2025.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art under construction, September 6, 2022.

The 11-acre campus is gradually taking shape

The museum is located in the center of the 11-acre campus, which was designed by Ma Yansong/MAD and Stantec led by Michael Siegel.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art under construction, June 28, 2022.

The original trees in the Exposition Park provided shade and a gathering place for the public, and also inspired Ma Yansong. Ma Yansong envisioned that the new building in the center of the park would become an extension of the tree canopy; in addition, by raising the center space of the first floor of the building, an open new urban public space would be created on the ground.

Museum ground square, August 9, 2022.

In order to achieve the building's organic exterior, the final curtain wall will be realized through more than 1,500 FRP curved panels of different shapes. The installation of the FRP curtain wall has begun, and the installation of the south curtain wall is currently underway.

Prefabricated curtain wall FRP panels, March 9, 2022.

Curtain wall installation underway, August 3, 2022.

South curtain wall installation, August 9, 2022.

Designed by Mia Lehrer of MLA, the museum’s landscape will provide museum visitors and the local community with an open, diverse experience that is integrated with the building: the original asphalt parking lot is replaced by an 11-acre museum campus; the museum will serve as a new gateway to the campus, open to the neighboring community, and activate the west side of Exposition Park.

Library, 28 June 2022.

4th floor skylight, June 28, 2022.

North Lobby, June 28, 2022.

In addition, the first batch of more than 200 trees have been planted, which will present different visual effects with the changing seasons. The original water path of the parking lot now enters the city sewer system, and the new campus will use a rainwater collection system for irrigation. Other highlights of the landscape include an open-air theater, floating gardens and pedestrian bridges, which are now taking shape.

Rooftop, May 25, 2022.

Create a collection that tells stories

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has a diverse collection, ranging from ancient Roman mosaics to Renaissance paintings to contemporary photography. Different art media show diverse cultures and fully demonstrate the museum's multi-dimensional exploration of different themes and angles.

Pilar Tompkins Rivas, the museum's chief curator and deputy director of exhibitions and collections, said: "Through narrative art, everyone can feel and touch different times, regions and cultures. Narrative art can also challenge social beliefs and values, as shown in the museum's 2021 collection of "George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: A Page from an American History Textbook" (1975) by Robert Colescott."

George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: A Page from an American History Textbook, Robert Colescott (1975)

Additional additions include: To Freedom II from the To Freedom series (by Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Schaal in collaboration with Eric Gottesman and White Grary of the To Freedom platform, 2018), and Art Connoisseur by Kadir Nelson (2019). Both works are contemporary responses to the work of Norman Rockwell (whose work the Lucas Museum has a large collection of). The Last Indian Market (2015) by Carla Romero features a group of modern Native American artists posing in the style of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, re-creating this classic socio-mythological image to reflect the diversity and complexity of humankind.

The Art Connoisseur, Kadir Nelson (2019)

One of the main functions of narrative art is to express and transmit social beliefs and values, as reflected in Lucas Cranach the Elder’s The Judgment of Solomon (1526). Other works in the collection that tell biblical or religious stories include The Triumph of Galatea (c. 1650), attributed to Artemisia Gentneschi and Onofrio Palumbo, and John Singer Sargent’s Las Meninas after Velázquez (1879), a copy painted more than 200 years after Diego Velázquez’s original, which shows how stories resonate across borders and time. The museum has a large collection of works by Ernie Barnes, who created some of the most iconic 20th-century paintings about black life in the United States, including The Drummer (2003).

Las Meninas after Velázquez, John Singer Sargent (1879)

The Long Drummer, Ernie Barnes (2003)

The age of mass production and distribution brings a new meaning to the dissemination of visual narratives. Works based on this experience demonstrate the widespread social impact of widely distributed objects and commercial images in material culture. The Museum has a strong collection of original works in comics, books and magazines, with recent additions including Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon #1 (1933);

Flash Gordon #1, Alex Raymond (1933)

Jamie Hernandez’s alternative comic Love and Rockets (2010), which he has been creating with his brothers Gilbert and Mario for more than 40 years; Jerry Pinkney’s children’s illustrated book Black Cowboy, Wild Horse: A True Story (1998); Wei Shuoyou Evertley’s At the Bottom of the Mountain (2019), which tells the story of a Navajo World War II pilot. Kerry James Marshall’s Rhythm Master Daily Serial (2018) shows artists responding to the lack of black superheroes, black characters, and black scenes in mainstream American comics.

"Black Cowboy, Wild Horse: A True Story", Jerry Pinkney (1998)

* About the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art *
As the first museum dedicated exclusively to visual storytelling, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art believes that narrative art can bring people together and help build a more just and just society. With its growing collection, the museum's collections include works of art from different cultures, places, times, and media, including paintings, sculptures, murals, photography, comics, book and magazine illustrations, and film art. The Lucas Museum will explore the potential of narrative art to further raise questions, invite opinions, inspire communities, and encourage people to think about the impact of images on the world.

The museum was co-founded by George Lucas, the "Father of Star Wars", and Melody Hobson, and is led by Director and CEO Sandra Jackson Dumont. The museum building is designed by MAD and Stantek Architects, and will open in 2025 in Exposition Park, Los Angeles. The new 11-acre campus, with landscape design by Studio-MLA, will include a 300,000-square-foot museum building with exhibition halls, two state-of-the-art theaters, and dedicated spaces for learning, interaction, dining, retail, and events.