George Lucas breaks ground on LA’s Museum of Narrative Art
LOS ANGELES — Wielding a silver shovel instead of a lightsaber, “Star Wars” creator George Lucas joined a handful of elected officials Wednesday in breaking ground on a billion-dollar museum dedicated to the art of visual storytelling.
Construction of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a dream of the 73-year-old writer-director for more than a decade, is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
Trucks rumbled by the museum site near downtown Los Angeles as Lucas, dressed casually in a white- and blue-checkered shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, thanked more than 100 well-wishers. Among them was his collaborator and longtime friend, director Steven Spielberg.
“I think it’s important to have a museum that, as I was joking and saying, supports all the orphan arts that nobody else wants to see, but that everybody loves,” Lucas said, describing the project.