A giant, gleaming starship has landed in Los Angeles, rising dramatically above Exposition Park like something beamed in from a galaxy far away. But this is no UFO. It’s the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art—the city’s most eagerly anticipated new cultural landmark, two decades in the making. The billion-dollar project is finally ready for its close-up: On Saturday night, ahead of its official September 22 opening, the museum hosted an epic celebration, drawing a star-studded crowd of Hollywood’s biggest names, from Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg to Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, Michael B. Jordan, Katy Perry, and Kim Kardashian.
Founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, the museum is not simply a monument to Star Wars, but a sweeping love letter to the art of storytelling, bringing together paintings, illustrations, photography, animation and cinematic imagery that explore how pictures have the power to shape the stories we tell.
“There’s a feeling of disbelief—like, how do we have a museum?” Hobson, in custom Ashi, told Vogue on the red carpet. “I feel, and I know George feels this way, relieved that we got here. It was a push. We also feel gratitude to all the people who believed in us and helped us. And we feel happy that people like the museum. I hope people will visit the museum and leave asking the question: why? Which is George’s big thing. It’s not how, it’s why. Why do people do what they do? Why do they believe what they believe? Why do we have the myths that we have? If we can get young and old people to ask why, I think we would not oversimplify so many things, which leads to some struggle and strife in our world.”
Located in downtown Los Angeles, across from Lucas’s alma mater, the University of Southern California, the museum is a five-story, 300,000-square-foot building featuring 35 galleries and more than 40,000 works. The collection spans celebrated artists including Norman Rockwell, Frida Kahlo, and Banksy, as well as comic art by Jack Kirby. And yes, there are plenty of Star Wars artifacts. The museum’s inaugural exhibition, Star Wars in Motion, showcases vehicles, costumes—including Princess Leia’s—props, and artwork from the first six films. There’s also Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder and the first physical build of General Grievous’s Wheel Bike from Revenge of the Sith.
The opening-night celebration began with an al fresco cocktail reception in the museum’s sprawling plaza, with a live 27-piece orchestra. Guests then moved inside for an electrifying performance by Voices of Fire, the Virginia Beach gospel group co-founded by Bishop Ezekiel Williams and Pharrell Williams. Joined by Jon Batiste on piano and a choir of 75 singers, they performed Star Wars’ Yoda’s Theme and Pharrell’s hit tune Happy, prompting Janelle Monáe and Spike Lee to dance along beneath the museum’s striking, space-age glass elevators.
Later, Lucas and Hobson took the stage alongside the evening’s co-chairs Steven Spielberg, Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Greta Gerwig, Guillermo del Toro, Queen Latifah and Julie Bell, as well as architect Ma Yansong and Lucas Museum CEO Tracey Bates, to raise a toast. “If your husband or spouse comes home and says, ‘They want to build a museum,’ I suggest your response is a hard ‘no,’” Hobson told the crowd, prompting big laughs. “From the moment George began envisioning this museum, he was adamant and specific—just like his world-building in his movies.”
