Tracey Bates says the George Lucas Museum will let visitors step into its parks and gardens without paying for a ticket when it opens on September 22. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is keeping its galleries separate, with adult admission set at $25 and entry free for kids 17 and under.
Tracey Bates on the gardens
“I love that if you walk into our parks and gardens, you feel different,” Bates said. “You do feel like you’ve been transported somewhere else, which is the joy of storytelling—which is what the museum is all about.”
That free access is the sharpest part of the museum’s pitch. Visitors can use the gardens and the public library without a ticket, while the paid galleries stay behind a separate entrance, turning the opening into a split experience rather than a single admission line.
Ma Yansong and Mia Lehrer
Ma Yansong of MAD Architects designed the museum building, while Mia Lehrer and the team at Studio-MLA shaped the free park space around it. The grounds have been maturing off-site for the past six years, and the gardens include a shallow amphitheater along the southern end.
The outdoor space is not a generic add-on. It sits around a cloud-shaped building that appears to float above multi-tiered gardens, and the plan gives the public a place to enter the project even if they never buy a gallery ticket. Seth Green says George Lucas Museum Will Show Detours Episodes, adding another layer of curiosity for visitors who follow the wider story of the institution.
Star Wars and 7%
Star Wars is one of the museum’s most visible draws, but it represents only 7% of the displays. That leaves the rest of the collection to carry the institution’s identity, from Frida Kahlo to Batman to Rosie the Riveter, with the museum framing itself as a broader home for narrative art rather than a single franchise shrine.
The gardens push that argument further with bronze and sculptural references that include Jabba the Hutt, Leia, Padmé, Yoda, Grogu, Willis O’Brien and Terracotta Daughters. The result is a public-facing opening that starts with free access, not with the ticketed galleries, and that should make the museum feel less like a one-off launch than a long-built civic space finally opening its gates.
For visitors, the practical move is simple: walk in for the gardens and library first, then decide whether the galleries are worth the $25 adult ticket. The real test now is whether the free park space can build its own rhythm once monthly programming begins.
