Lucas Museum Bets Narrative Itself Justifies a Collection

George Lucas's new Los Angeles museum organizes its 110,000 square feet around narrative as a curatorial category rather than a theme—a radical premise that museum scholars have long resisted. The founding logic assumes narrative transcends medium and justifies gathering objects together, but this risks obscuring what makes each medium distinct.

Museum opens fall 2024 in Los Angeles with 110,000 square feet of illustration, film, sculpture, animation.

Organizes collection around narrative as foundational principle, not incidental formal property or thematic choice.

Museum scholars argue narrative describes what works do, not what they are—a strategy, not substance.