George Lucas Opens Narrative Art Museum In LA — SkimNews
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- George Lucas opened the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles on Saturday after more than a decade of effort, including failed attempts to locate the museum in San Francisco and Chicago that ran into legal hurdles.
- Lucas grew his collection from a $35 Alley Oop drawing to 40,000 pieces — largely illustrations — and used the ceremony to push back on critics who questioned whether the work belonged in a museum, saying 'you get to decide what art is.'
- Celebrity guests included Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill in the Star Wars wing, plus Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola, Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Nicolas Cage, Vin Diesel, Keke Palmer, and Emma Watson.
- Rival CEOs showed up together, with Disney's Josh D'Amaro (and predecessor Bob Iger), YouTube's Neal Mohan, Netflix's Ted Sarandos, and Snap's Evan Spiegel on the guest list; Mohan was seen deep in conversation with Disney President Dana Walden.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom attended hours after officially signing a post-production tax credit bill that day, joined by Nancy Pelosi and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
- Architect Ma Yansong corrected a popular misconception from the stage, noting the building was modeled after a cloud — not a spaceship as commonly assumed.
- The evening closed with a drone show featuring R2-D2, Captain America, Banksy, and Frida Kahlo pieces, narrated by Oprah Winfrey and Samuel L. Jackson, followed by a Black Eyed Peas afterparty set.
Why it matters: Lucas and Hobson spent more than a decade pushing past skeptics who dismissed illustration as too commercial for a museum, including failed bids in two other cities. Saturday's guest list — every major Hollywood creative, rival tech CEOs mingling freely, and Newsom fresh off signing an industry tax credit — makes the opening a single-night concentration of Los Angeles entertainment-industry clout, and gives the narrative arts their first dedicated major museum.
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