Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites

The launch of the Lucas Museum, focusing on the power of visual storytelling, has been greatly anticipated and has been a long time in the making for Mellody Hobson, president and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, former chair of Starbucks, and her film industry icon husband George Lucas, renowned filmmaker and entrepreneur.

Over the past 50 years, the creator of Star Wars amassed a collection of countless works ranging from traditionally evocative paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Norman Rockwell, Charles White, Frida Kahlo and more to less conventional Japanese Manga and old-school advertising prints, along with the Lucas Archives (Star Wars, Indiana Jones).

As a budding filmmaker studying at USC in the 60s, Lucas began his collection by buying comic art at underground auctions, where he would sometimes spend $30, eventually purchasing multimillion-dollar pieces from some of the world’s great masters.

George Lucas and his wife have described their endeavor as “a temple of the people’s art.” Lucas calls it a tasting menu with a little bit of everything, including everything from paintings, statues, comics, movie props, photography and filmed work displayed in on-site theaters.

The museum has adopted the expression narrative art to describe the countless pieces in the collection, making it the sole unifying force of the collection and exhibits, seeking to elevate work reflecting shared human experience from a diverse range of voices and perspectives.

George Lucas museum aspirations began in the late 1990s when he was bidding to move the Lucas film headquarters to recently decommissioned Crissy Field in the San Francisco Presidio. When granting it the Presidio Board asked if Lucas would create a museum in the Presidio as well.

The museum seemed to develop along with the Hobson-Lucas relationship. Plans for the Lucas Museum began in 2006, the year the couple began dating, and they were married in 2013. When attempts to open the museum in San Francisco did not work out, they then proposed building the museum in Chicago, Hobson’s hometown. However, in 2013 Eric Garcetti, then Mayor of LA, wrote a letter stating that LA would provide a place where its impact could be amplified like no other and a deal was signed in 2017 to build in Exposition Park near the USC campus, where Lucas began his filmmaking career.

The Museum roof is lined with greenery, including trees and native plants, with the center known as the Oculus providing sunlight for guests passing through the interior. Inside visitors will find 100,000 square feet of gallery space, two theaters, a café, and classroom spaces. The lobby on the ground floor features three elevator shafts resembling pneumatic tubes from a sci-fi film. A wood-lined library built to replicate one at Skywalker Ranch stands in stark contrast to the rest of the museum. Architecture is by Ma Yansong (MAD Architects) with surrounding gardens by Studio-MLA.

When the museum debuts on September 22, more than 1,200 objects will be on display across more than 30 galleries. They are organized around themes of love, family and adventure, showcasing how visual media helps humanity make sense of the world.

Star Wars fans will be delighted with the spotlight focused on space opera. According to Hobson “Our hope is that millions and millions of people go to the museum and are inspired and get to reflect on our common humanity through illustrations, photography, and moving images, that really is the whole point.” Adult museum tickets are $25.00, Seniors $21.00. Admission free for children 0-17. For full information visit: www.LucasMuseum.org.