George Lucas’s new Los Angeles museum will provide free access to neighbors

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, which opens to the public on September 22, has announced that it is offering free annual passes as well as an early preview of its closest residential neighbors in the 90037 ZIP code of South Los Angeles. George Lucas and his partner Melody Hobson’s long-awaited billion-dollar, 300,000-square-foot cultural institution — with its own futuristic building to match, since it was made possible by star wars Fortune – will have more than 1,300 items on display, as well as 11 acres of green space throughout the campus.

“We wanted to make sure that neighbors who have watched the museum being built from the ground up over the past eight years are the first to enter the museum,” explains Tracy Bates, the museum’s CEO, of the revolving ticket program, which allows holders to reserve a pair of tickets.

According to census data, the 3-square-mile ZIP code 90037 includes more than 17,000 households. A quarter of the Hispanic and African American population lives below the poverty line. The Lucas Museum is located on the northern border of the zip code, within Exposition Park, which also houses the California Science Center as well as the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Acclaimed landscape designer Mia Lehrer—whose other projects include Sophie’s Playground—is located behind the grounds of the Lucas Museum, which complements Ma Yansong’s otherworldly architecture. “Our parks and public spaces are really their backyard now,” Betts points out to the local community. “We want to give them reasons to visit.”

The museum’s collection, which includes the original Lucasfilm archives that Lucas kept after the company was sold in 2012 to Disney for $4 billion, includes a cast of deities ranging from Norman Rockwell, Jack Kirby and Robert Crumb to Frida Kahlo and local star Judith Baca, best known for her massive mural of local history along the Los Angeles River in the San Fernando Valley.

The Lucas Museum’s arrival follows the high-profile debut of David Geffen’s exhibitions at LACMA in April. It opens as the city’s La Brea Tar Pits and Museum closes for renovations.

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