[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1.-Lucas-Museum-Courtesy-the-Lucas-Museum-LMNA-Press-Kit_Architecture_Rain-Fountain-2.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tWith Los Angeles\u2019s Lucas Museum of Narrative Art finally open to the press, the institution\u2019s chief executive has responded to layoffs and high-profile departures that took place last year in the run-up to the inauguration.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a New York Times<\/em> profile of the Lucas Museum, a private museum opened at a cost of $1 billion by collectors George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, Tracey Bates, the CEO who replaced Sandra Jackson-Dumont as the institution\u2019s leader in January, suggested that the turnover had not impacted operations.<\/p>\n \n\tLucas, Bates told the Times<\/em>, \u201chas always been the chief curator.\u201d Moreover, she said, \u201cthe planning, the mission, vision and values of this organization have never changed.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn fact, Lucas was not always chief curator. In 2020, Pilar Tompkins Rivas was named chief curator of the museum. She departed the museum in 2025. \u201cGeorge Lucas has been responsible for all curatorial and content direction for the last year and will continue to work closely with the team as we move forward toward opening in September 2026,\u201d the museum said at the time.<\/p>\n \n\tTompkins Rivas was not the only high-profile staffer to leave in 2025. Jackson-Dumont left in February, a departure that the museum attributed to a \u201cnew organizational design to split the current role into two positions.\u201d Dan Nadel, the Lucas Museum\u2019s curator-at-large, left the institution to join the Whitney Museum in New York.<\/p>\n \n\tAlso in 2025, the museum laid off 14 percent of its workforce; the cuts largely impacted the learning and engagement and museums services departments.<\/p>\n \n\tAt least one notable departure preceded 2025: that of Amanda Hunt, who left her role as director of public programs in 2022 for a role at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n \n\tHunt and Tompkins Rivas were two of six hires made in 2020 to fulfill top roles at the museum; all of those hires were women of color. At the time of Tompkins Rivas\u2019s departure in 2025, just two of those hires remained on staff.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Lucas Museum is devoted to \u201cnarrative art,\u201d a concept that its founders\u2014both of whom appear on the ARTnews<\/em> Top 200 Collectors list\u2014have said refers to art in many mediums that can be used to relay stories. This includes Star Wars<\/em> props, paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, an illustration depicting Pikachu, drawings by Norman Rockwell, and recreations of cave paintings, all of which now appear at the museum, which opens to the public on September 22.<\/p>\n \n\tGeorge Lucas, for his part, has suggested that bringing the Lucas Museum to fruition\u2014a project beset by delays and controversy that has taken nearly a decade to realize\u2014was a herculean effort. \u201cThis one almost broke my will,\u201d the Star Wars<\/em> creator said at a press conference yesterday, according to a Variety<\/em> report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/lucas-museum-ceo-responds-staff-departures-1234796895\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1.-Lucas-Museum-Courtesy-the-Lucas-Museum-LMNA-Press-Kit_Architecture_Rain-Fountain-2.jpg?w=1024″] With Los Angeles\u2019s Lucas Museum of Narrative Art finally open to the press, the institution\u2019s chief executive has responded to layoffs and high-profile departures that took place last year in the run-up to the inauguration. In a New York Times profile of the Lucas Museum, a private museum opened at a cost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2126474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2126474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2126474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2126474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2126474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}