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Lucas Museum in Los Angeles Slated to Open in 2025
Lucas Museum in Los Angeles Slated to Open in 2025
(8 months later)
In the spring of 2018, after years of bidding wars, shifting proposals and changing plans, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art broke ground in South Los Angeles.
In the spring of 2018, after years of bidding wars, shifting proposals and changing plans, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art broke ground in South Los Angeles.
And despite many subsequent delays, pandemic-related and otherwise, the enormous scope of the project by the “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas is finally coming into focus, and the museum is slated to open sometime in 2025, my colleague Adam Nagourney recently reported in The New York Times.
And despite many subsequent delays, pandemic-related and otherwise, the enormous scope of the project by the “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas is finally coming into focus, and the museum is slated to open sometime in 2025, my colleague Adam Nagourney recently reported in The New York Times.
That may come as a surprise.
That may come as a surprise.
“My sense from the response to this story is that many people here were unaware of how far along the museum has come, and how big it is,” Adam, who is based in Los Angeles, told me.
“My sense from the response to this story is that many people here were unaware of how far along the museum has come, and how big it is,” Adam, who is based in Los Angeles, told me.
As a refresher, Lucas considered building his billion-dollar museum in Chicago or San Francisco, but settled on Los Angeles, where officials were more aggressive in courting the project, which was expected to bring with it prestige and thousands of construction and museum jobs. The futuristic building, reminiscent of a low-flying spaceship, is being built on what were once parking lots in Exposition Park, across the street from the University of Southern California, Lucas’s alma mater.
As a refresher, Lucas considered building his billion-dollar museum in Chicago or San Francisco, but settled on Los Angeles, where officials were more aggressive in courting the project, which was expected to bring with it prestige and thousands of construction and museum jobs. The futuristic building, reminiscent of a low-flying spaceship, is being built on what were once parking lots in Exposition Park, across the street from the University of Southern California, Lucas’s alma mater.
The Lucas, designed by Ma Yansong, one of China’s most prominent architects, is part of a recent wave of museum construction in Los Angeles. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in 2021, and the Hammer Museum this month completed yearslong renovations. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is also in the midst of a major overhaul.
“Even without this project, Los Angeles has emerged as a major art center in the United States,” Adam said. The Lucas is “set on a vast, landscaped park,” he said. He continued, “I’m guessing people are going to want to go there: The big question is whether tourists (who are more familiar with Hollywood, Venice and Santa Monica) will make the trip as well.”
One key thing that Adam (and almost everyone) will be watching for is what’s actually inside. The museum isn’t a shrine to Lucas, one of the nation’s best-known filmmakers, as one might have assumed, but a home for the museum’s sprawling, eclectic collection of some 100,000 paintings and book and magazine illustrations, including works by Norman Rockwell, Frida Kahlo, Judy Baca and more.
As the name suggests, the museum’s theme is supposed to be art that tells stories, though that label doesn’t offer much in the way of details. When I asked Adam what exactly “narrative art” is, he replied: “You are not the first person to ask that question, and I will not be the first person not to answer.”
Regardless, the museum’s contents will decide its fate.
“There’s no question that the building is architecturally striking,” Adam said. “But what ends up going inside the walls is going to determine whether this is viewed as a vanity project by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, as Christopher Knight, the art critic for The Los Angeles Times put it, or a real addition to this city’s vibrant and cutting-edge art world.”
For more:
Read Adam’s full article.
Oil bill passes: Gov. Gavin Newsom won legislative approval of his plan to establish a watchdog agency that can scrutinize oil company profits, The Sacramento Bee reports.
Financial aid: This year, more California high school students applied for financial aid than in the previous year, EdSource reports.
Farm workers: California’s immigrant farm workers bore the brunt of this winter’s extreme weather, yet they have scant resources to put their lives back together, The Guardian reports.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Vulnerable buildings: Thirty-three concrete buildings owned by Los Angeles County could be vulnerable in an earthquake, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Fletcher ends campaign: Nathan Fletcher, a San Diego county supervisor, ended his bid to become a state senator, citing post-traumatic stress and alcohol abuse, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Landslide: A hillside collapsed in a Pacific Palisades neighborhood Sunday evening, sending a wall of earth crashing into a home, KTLA reports.
CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
Flooding problems: The Central Valley has been saturated by major storms, leading to flooding that will persist this spring. See photos of the situation here.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Silicon Valley Bank: The Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision blamed Silicon Valley Bank’s demise on poor internal management and excessive risk-taking.
Levee maintenance: The Pajaro River runs between Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, yet separate agencies with separate budgets maintain the levees designed to prevent the river from flooding, The Mercury News reports.
A critical-care nurse wanted to build a house in Los Angeles for “just one person.” Finding the perfect lot wasn’t easy.
Roasted white bean and tomato pasta.
Today’s tip comes from Doris Simonis, who lives in the Sacramento area. Doris recommends a Central Coast getaway:
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
What foods do you consider quintessentially Californian? Avocado toast? In-N-Out Burger? See’s Candies? Garlic ice cream?
Tell us your favorite Golden State dish or snack and include a few sentences about what it means to you. Email us at CAToday@nytimes.com.
Six rare birds escaped from the Oakland Zoo last week after their aviary was destroyed by a recent storm.
Three of them — iridescent superb starlings — quickly flew back to their habitat on their own. A hooded vulture named Oliver, who had been lurking on zoo grounds, was eventually lured back into his home with some treats.
But two black-and-white pied crows native to Africa were still missing. On Saturday, an Oakland resident who lives a few miles from the zoo saw one of the crows, Deauville, puttering around the front porch. This is how SFGate described what happened next:
As of Monday night, that left only Diego, the other pied crow, on the loose. The zoo called him “a very shy bird that startles easily” and urged anyone who finds him to call its hotline.
Keep an eye out — maybe he’ll walk up to your front door.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.
Briana Scalia, Bernard Mokam and Geordon Wollner contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.
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Correction: March. 29, 2023
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Lucas Museum would showcase 10,000 art objects. It will showcase 100,000.
