Is George Lucas’s new museum just Star Wars? What opens in Los Angeles — and the hours to check

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George Lucas’s name may send a searcher straight to Star Wars, but the museum he co-founded with Mellody Hobson is making a broader claim about art. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art says it will open to the public on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park. The opening is an announced future event as of this September 20 review, not a claim that we have observed ordinary public admission or visited the galleries.

The immediate answer is that this is not a Star Wars-only museum. Its inaugural collection and exhibitions place visual storytelling across eras and media side by side: paintings and murals, commercial illustration, comics, photographs and cinema. The museum says its 300,000-square-foot building contains more than 100,000 square feet of gallery space and over 30 galleries. It identifies artists including Artemisia Gentileschi, Norman Rockwell, Frida Kahlo and Robert Colescott, alongside film materials from the Lucas Archives. Some introductory displays use reproductions of immovable historic works, so visitors should not assume that every object described in the museum’s account is an original on loan.

There is still an unmistakable Star Wars draw. The museum’s announced “Star Wars in Motion” exhibition is planned to include vehicle designs, props, costumes and illustrations from the six Lucas-era films. Its own description specifically names Luke’s Landspeeder and a physical build of General Grievous’s wheel bike. The AP, reporting from a preview, described related sculptures in the gardens and a Naboo starfighter in the library lobby. Those attractions are a part of the opening offer, not the institution’s entire remit.

A visitor can reasonably ask how to attend. The museum’s plan-your-visit page lists standard adult admission at $25, seniors at $21 and under-18 admission as free. It says everyone, including members and children, needs a timed-entry ticket booked in advance. General admission includes galleries, exhibitions and theaters; the outdoor park and gardens and some dining and retail spaces do not require museum admission. The published address is One Lucas Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90037. Prices, access and available slots should be checked on the official booking page before travel.

There is an important unresolved practical detail. The museum’s September 2 opening announcement explicitly says public opening is Tuesday, September 22. Yet the current general visitor-hours page lists “Tuesday Closed” in both its opening-hours table and footer. This could be a special opening-day exception or an out-of-date routine schedule; neither explanation is established by the pages we read. The official ticket flow first asks visitors to choose ticket quantities, so we did not treat it as proof of September 22 availability. If that date matters to you, confirm a dated ticket slot or contact the museum rather than relying on either headline or weekly hours alone.

The AP’s recent preview described the project as having taken 17 years from its early conception and being reshaped after planned sites in San Francisco and Chicago. Its public debut therefore concerns more than a new set of film props: it is a long-gestating attempt to put popular visual culture in conversation with works that traditional museums often place in separate categories.