The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened Tuesday in Los Angeles, a $1 billion institution funded by Star Wars creator George Lucas.

The museum describes itself as a "temple to the people's art," according to the source report. It stands in Exposition Park, where the venue held its Founding and Member Opening Party before the public launch.

The institution is not devoted exclusively to Star Wars. Its founding concept, narrative art, spans a far broader field — the museum takes its name from that mission rather than from the filmmaker's most famous franchise.

Lucas, who built his reputation and fortune on Star Wars, has put a reported $1 billion behind the project, making it one of the most expensive private cultural gifts in recent American memory.

The opening in Exposition Park places the museum among Los Angeles's major cultural institutions. The venue's debut follows its Founding and Member Opening Party, documented in photographs by Jessica Pons for NPR.

The museum's stated ambition — a "temple to the people's art" — signals its founding premise: that narrative art, in all its forms, belongs to a broad public rather than to a specialized audience. How that mission plays out in its galleries will become clear as the institution welcomes its first general visitors.