The $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open next September in Exposition Park

More than seven years after construction began, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art announced on Wednesday it will open to the public on Sept. 22, 2026.

Construction on the $1 billion museum, founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson, began in March 2018 in Exposition Park.

The 300,000-square-foot, five-story building is expected to house works by artists including Norman Rockwell, Kadir Nelson, Jessie Willcox Smith, N.C. Wyeth, Beatrix Potter, Judy Baca, Frida Kahlo, and Maxfield Parrish; as well as comic art notables such as Winsor McCay, Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, and R. Crumb; and photographers Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dorothea Lange. The museum will also house the Lucas Archives, containing models, props, concept art, and costumes from Lucas’ filmmaking career.

The museum will feature a cafe and restaurant, theaters, office space, lecture halls, a library, classrooms, exhibition space and landscaped open space. The building features 35 galleries covering 100,000 square feet, with each named to reflect “the human experience,” such as love, family, play, work, sports and adventure.

“Stories are mythology, and when illustrated, they help humans understand the mysteries of life,” Lucas said in a statement Wednesday in conjunction with the opening day announcement. “The museum was built on the belief that illustrated storytelling is a universal language.”

Hobson added, “This is a museum of the people’s art — the images are illustrations of beliefs we live with every day. For that reason, this art belongs to everyone. Our hope is that as people move through the galleries, they will see themselves, and their humanity, reflected back.”