George Lucas Opens His New Museum, And Gets Every A-Lister In Hollywood To Show Up

Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Hollywood has seen its share of star-studded openings, but few could rival the sheer concentration of cultural power assembled in Los Angeles on Saturday night. On September 19, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson hosted the opening night of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, welcoming an extraordinary mix of Hollywood legends, artists, musicians, philanthropists, business leaders and cultural heavyweights for the first major celebration of the long-awaited institution ahead of its public opening on September 22.

And this was no ordinary museum gala.

Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Tom Cruise, Guillermo del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Sir Lewis Hamilton, Jensen Huang, JR, Steven Spielberg, Pharrell Williams and artist Julie Bell served as co-chairs, setting the tone for an evening that blurred the lines between art-world opening, Hollywood premiere and one very glamorous celebration.

Guests arrived at Lucas Plaza for cocktails accompanied by a 27-piece orchestra before Voices of Fire — the Virginia Beach vocal collective co-founded by Bishop Ezekiel Williams and Pharrell Williams — took the stage. Joined by Jon Batiste on piano and an additional 75 singers, the group performed a set that fittingly included Star Wars’ “Yoda’s Theme,” alongside “Happy” and “JOY (Unspeakable).”

Queen Latifah then hosted the evening’s program, which included remarks from Lucas, Hobson, architect Ma Yansong and Lucas Museum CEO Tracey Bates.

Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

For Lucas, the museum represents something much broader than a monument to cinema — or even to his own formidable legacy.

“Art is in the eye of the beholder,” he told guests. “If it is emotional to you, then it’s art.”

Hobson described the institution as the culmination of Lucas’s extraordinary determination, calling it “a museum by the people for the people,” while noting that Lucas himself describes it as a museum of “the people’s art.”

Photo Credit: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Photo Credit: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

That philosophy is at the heart of the museum itself.

Dedicated to storytelling through images, the Lucas Museum deliberately expands the traditional definition of what belongs inside an art institution. Its scope stretches from prehistoric cave paintings and illustration to comics, photography and contemporary screen art, examining the ways visual storytelling shapes culture, beliefs and collective identity.

The setting is nearly as ambitious as the collection.

Located in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, the museum occupies a 300,000-square-foot building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with Stantec. Its sweeping, futuristic structure anchors a new campus that includes a park designed by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA, creating an expansive new cultural destination within the city.

Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Photo Credit: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Opening-night guests were among the first to explore its more than 30 galleries before heading to the fifth-floor rooftop, where the museum staged one of the evening’s most spectacular moments.

Oprah Winfrey and Samuel L. Jackson introduced and narrated a drone show by Nova Sky Stories, transforming the Los Angeles night sky with imagery drawn from the museum’s collection. The display moved across centuries and mediums, from the Cave of Altamira and N.C. Wyeth’s The Storybook to Julie Bell’s The Huntress, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon, Maxfield Parrish’s Ecstasy and, naturally, the Millennium Falcon.

Then came another surprise: the Black Eyed Peas, who kept the celebration going with a medley that included “Let’s Get It Started,” “Where Is the Love” and “I Gotta Feeling.” LA Dance Project, Jake Shimabukuro, Xavier de Maistre, Damien Escobar, Kaki King, DJ Kiss and DJ M.O.S. were also among the evening’s performers.

Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

But even by Hollywood standards, the guest list was staggering.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, Francis Ford Coppola, Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, Peter Jackson, Ron Howard and Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage, Orlando Bloom, Michael B. Jordan, Vin Diesel, Mark Hamill, Jon Favreau, Denis Villeneuve, Meg Ryan, Cynthia Erivo, Sofía Vergara, Kerry Washington, Keke Palmer, Eva Longoria and Owen Wilson were among those in attendance.

The worlds of music, fashion, sports and entertainment were equally represented, with Alicia Keys, SZA, Doja Cat, Katy Perry, Camila Cabello, Janelle Monáe, Babyface, Flea, Diane Warren, Pharrell Williams, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Law Roach, Zac Posen, Russell Westbrook, Lindsey Vonn and Magic Johnson joining the celebration.

Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, Oprah Winfrey, Bob Iger and Willow Bay, Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant, Brian Grazer, Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, George R.R. Martin, Wolfgang Puck and Justin Trudeau were also among the guests.

Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Photo Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

The art world had its own formidable showing, including Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Refik Anadol, Judy Baca, Kadir Nelson, Thelma Golden, Michael Govan, Cheech Marin and Julie Bell, alongside philanthropists and leaders including Michael Bloomberg, Melinda French Gates, David Geffen, Laurene Powell Jobs, Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis and Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault. Artemis II astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch even joined the festivities.

For all of the wattage surrounding its debut, however, the Lucas Museum ultimately revolves around a remarkably democratic idea: that the images through which we tell stories — whether they appear on a cave wall, a canvas, a comic-book page or a movie screen — deserve to be considered not simply as entertainment, but as part of our cultural history.

It is an idea Lucas has spent decades collecting around and championing. Now, in the heart of Los Angeles, it finally has a home.

For more of Haute Living‘s coverage of the people and places shaping Los Angeles culture, browse our running guide to the best spots in the cities we cover.

Photo Credit: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Photo Credit: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Lucas Museum of Narrative Art