A ceremony on Wednesday marked the official groundbreaking of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.
Located at Exposition Park in South Los Angeles, the museum sets out to celebrate the art of visual storytelling, focusing on narrative arts across mediums including painting, illustration, comic art, photography, film, animation and digital art.
"The focus of the Museum is to open up people's imaginations and inspire them to dream beyond what is considered possible," said co-founder George Lucas at the museum's groundbreaking. "Narrative art and storytelling stirs our emotions, shapes our aspirations as a society, and is the glue that binds us together around our common beliefs."
The 300,000-square-foot museum, housed in a building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, will include collection galleries and exhibition spaces featuring original works of art and cutting-edge digital technologies, while two state-of-the-art theaters will host daily film screenings.
Education is also a major focus of the non-profit venue, which will offer hands-on and digital classrooms as well as a research library.
The museum project will transform a series of asphalt parking lots, surrounding the museum building with 11 acres of new park land and gardens designed by LA-based landscape architecture firm Studio-MLA.
Construction, now under way, is expected to be completed by late 2021.
Cover Photo: Rendering of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art | © Courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.