A Special Preview of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

On September 3, Scott and Janette had the opportunity to experience something years in the making: a special preview of the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

The evening brought together artists whose work is part of the museum’s collection, along with many of the architects, builders, designers, craftspeople, and others who helped bring George Lucas and Mellody Hobson’s vision to life. For Scott, it was also the first opportunity to see his monumental bronze El Vaquero installed in its new home.

Scott Rogers during the September 3 preview of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

From the moment guests arrived, the evening felt exceptional. Concierge staff welcomed and guided visitors, drinks were offered while guests waited to enter, hors d’oeuvres were served throughout the evening, and the museum itself was dramatically illuminated. Every detail seemed carefully considered.

And then there was the building.

Designed by architect Ma Yansong of MAD, the Lucas Museum rises from Los Angeles’s Exposition Park in a sweeping, sculptural form that seems to hover over the landscape. The five-story building encompasses approximately 300,000 square feet, including more than 100,000 square feet of galleries. Surrounding it is a 13-acre campus of gardens, meadows, pathways, gathering areas, and more than 200 newly planted trees designed by landscape architect Mia Lehrer and Studio-MLA.

It is an extraordinary setting for a museum built around a remarkably simple idea: stories matter.

A Museum Made for Storytelling

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is devoted to visual storytelling—images that communicate ideas, preserve memories, create characters, and help one generation tell its stories to another. Its collection stretches across centuries and mediums, encompassing painting, illustration, comics, photography, murals, cinematic art, sculpture, and more. George Lucas has spent more than 50 years collecting narrative artwork, and the museum’s founding collection now includes more than 40,000 works.

The inaugural galleries include substantial holdings of work by artists such as Norman Rockwell, whose familiar images of American life are represented in a dedicated Rockwell exhibition. Other galleries explore artists including N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish and Thomas Hart Benton, along with photography, murals, children’s illustration, comics, fantasy, science fiction and many other forms of visual storytelling.

One section is devoted specifically to Western Stories—the myths, people and imagery of the American West. It is here that Scott’s monumental, 70%-life-size El Vaquero has been installed.

Seeing the sculpture in that setting was particularly meaningful. Scott has spent much of his career telling stories of the American West through bronze—not simply recreating clothing, horses or historical details, but trying to capture character, relationships, humor, struggle and moments that invite viewers to imagine what came before and what happens next.

Scott with “El Vaquero” during the special museum preview on September 3.

El Vaquero now joins that larger visual conversation about the West, alongside works that include James Earle Fraser’s iconic sculpture End of the Trail.

A closer look at Scott Rogers’ monumental “El Vaquero” in its new museum setting, with James Earle Fraser’s “End of the Trail” sculpture behind.

“It’s Finer Art, Because It’s Actually Telling a Story”

Later that evening, guests gathered on the rooftop of the museum to hear from George Lucas and his wife and museum co-founder, Mellody Hobson.

The setting was almost as memorable as the remarks. The museum’s upper level opens onto landscaped outdoor spaces overlooking Los Angeles. Its rooftop restaurant and terrace were designed as warm gathering places surrounded by lush plantings, with panoramic views across the city. That night, the rooftop took on an entirely different character—grass underfoot, low and moody lighting, music filling the space, and the illuminated museum and city creating the backdrop.

Guests gathered on the rooftop of the Lucas Museum for remarks from George Lucas and Mellody Hobson.

Lucas spoke about why he had spent so many years pursuing the idea of a museum devoted to narrative art.

“This has been a pet project of mine for almost 20 years.”

At the heart of his remarks was a question that has followed many illustrators, sculptors, filmmakers, comic artists and other representational artists: where does their work fit within the traditional definitions of fine art?

Lucas answered it simply:

“Is it fine art? It’s finer art, because it’s actually telling a story.”

He spoke about wanting the museum to broaden the recognition given to generations of gifted artists whose work has connected deeply with people but who have often existed outside the conventional museum world.

“We want to change the world in terms of people getting credit and getting a little bit of an accolade for what they contributed to society over the last many thousands of years.”

Lucas referred to some of them as “orphaned artists”—artists whose skill and influence have not always translated into institutional recognition.

“We’ll lift the profile of a group of talented people who I like to call ‘orphaned artists’ and say these are people and they’re talented and very good at what they do and they need to be in a museum.”

He recalled artists expressing a simple wish: “What I really wanted in life was I wanted to be in a museum.”

His response brought the purpose of the entire project into focus:

“And they deserve to be in a museum. Their towns are happy to celebrate them but I think the whole world should celebrate them and that’s why we’re here.”

Becoming Part of the Story

Those words carried particular meaning while standing in a museum where one of Scott’s own sculptures had just been installed.

For more than three decades, storytelling has been central to Scott’s work. Whether a sculpture depicts a cowboy, a Native American figure, a historical personality, a quiet human moment or a scene filled with multiple characters, the goal has rarely been simply to reproduce what someone or something looks like. There is nearly always a story beneath the surface.

That makes the Lucas Museum an especially fitting home for El Vaquero.

The museum describes itself as “a museum shaped by stories and the people who tell them,” built around the belief that images can shape collective memory, communicate values and help people recognize something of themselves in the experiences of others.

For Scott and Janette, September 3 was an opportunity to see that philosophy made physical—to walk through the galleries, experience the building before its public opening, meet many of the people responsible for creating it, and see El Vaquero standing among artwork chosen specifically because of its ability to tell a story.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens to the public September 22, 2026, in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park.

Explore the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art