Los Angeles Prepares to Welcome the Lucas Museum

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is preparing to open in Los Angeles on 22 September. A 4 September preview in Forbes describes a destination in Exposition Park that combines galleries with gardens and a research library. Gallery visits will require timed-entry tickets, while the park and library are intended to be free to visit.

Stories beyond the cinema screen

The museum's opening announcement sets out a collection spanning painting, illustration, comics and film. Its research library will bring together books and archives that give these images a wider context, including material on mythology, children's literature and the history of illustration. The institution is therefore being presented as more than a display of George Lucas's film career.

Different ways to use the campus

• A gallery visit organised around a booked entry time.
• A library visit focused on research or reading.
• A walk through the outdoor spaces.

These are different kinds of visits, not interchangeable admission arrangements. Someone coming to read or walk may have a different plan from a visitor spending several hours with the exhibitions. Free access to one part of the campus should not be read as free access to every activity.

A landscape replacing parking space

Landscape architect Studio-MLA describes its design as the transformation of a former parking area. Shaded places, lawns, an amphitheatre and elevated viewpoints provide a sequence of outdoor settings. A roof garden extends that landscape above ground level, while planting draws on Southern California's varied environments.

The design gives the museum an outdoor presence as well as an indoor programme. For neighbours, that distinction matters: a cultural building can become part of an everyday walking route without every visit becoming a full exhibition trip.

Opening day is still ahead

The public opening remains a forthcoming event at the time of this report. Advance previews are separate from general admission. The immediate practical step for a gallery visitor is to select a timed ticket; the longer-term question is how the exhibitions, reading spaces and gardens will be used together once the campus welcomes the public.