Mellody Hobson is no stranger to big bets. Now, one of the nation’s most prominent business leaders is opening the doors to a $1 billion cultural institution designed to change how people see art.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, co-founded by Hobson and her husband, distinguished filmmaker George Lucas, officially opened to the public on Sept. 22 in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. The 300,000-square-foot museum includes more than 100,000 square feet of gallery space spread across more than 30 galleries.
The museum’s opening-night celebration drew an A-list crowd, including Oprah Winfrey, Queen Latifah, Samuel L. Jackson, Tyler Perry, Spike Lee, Michael B. Jordan, and Magic Johnson. Winfrey and Jackson later narrated a drone show featuring images from the museum’s collection before Will.i.am performed.
But the star power is only part of the story. For Hobson, the former chair of Starbucks, the museum represents years of work alongside Lucas to build an institution centered on visual storytelling — from illustration and comics to paintings, murals and film-related artwork. The couple’s vision also reflects a broader interest in expanding access to culture and education, including their effort to preserve the historic EBONY and JET archives and their $10 million donation to Spelman College to support arts education, according to TheGrio.
“We wanted a museum unlike any other — one that brings people from every walk of life through the same doors,” said Hobson, president and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, in a statement posted on the museum’s website
. “That’s why this collection holds so many different kinds of stories: so that more people can walk in and, somewhere in these galleries, see themselves — and the world they know—reflected back. That kind of recognition is what we built this place to offer.”Lucas, the founder of the Star Wars franchise, has described the institution as a challenge to traditional definitions of fine art. Its collection brings together works that might not traditionally share museum walls, including illustration, comics, photography, and cinematic art.
“The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art was created to honor humanity’s stories and the artists who illustrate them,” said Lucas. “The
artists in this collection didn’t just create images; they connected our modern imaginations with our ancient emotions—with common beliefs creating community. Their work spans genres, media, and time. They deserve to be in a museum.”Designed by architect Ma Yansong, the museum sits on a 13-acre campus that includes gardens, public gathering spaces, and more than 40,000 works. The institution says its mission is to explore how visual stories connect people across cultures and generations.
“I am deeply grateful to George Lucas and Mellody Hobson for giving me the opportunity to create a building that will faithfully serve the visitors and the art while being as light and free as a cloud, or a dream,” said Yansong. “Designed with emotional architecture spaces, so that it is fluid in every part, and merged like a natural feature of the landscape into Exposition Park, the building invites everyone to participate in a journey of discovery and become part of the story of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.”
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