Lucas Museum shocker: Chief curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas is out in latest shakeup

Less than a month after announcing its opening date, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art told staff that chief curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas is leaving the museum this week.

“There are no immediate plans to replace Pilar’s role as Chief Curator and Deputy Director of Curatorial and Collections,” wrote interim Chief Executive Jim Gianopulos in an email obtained by The Times. “George Lucas will continue to oversee curatorial content and direction.”

Rivas did not respond to a request for comment.

The $1-billion Lucas Museum, which remains on track to open on Sept. 22, 2026, issued a statement that said, “We thank Pilar Tompkins Rivas for her hard work over the last five years, which has been instrumental in preparing the museum for its opening. We wish her well in her future endeavors.”

Rivas’ departure comes nine months after former museum director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont stepped down from her role. Jackson-Dumont did not comment publicly about her departure, but the museum said in a statement at the time that her decision was based on a “new organizational design” that would split her job into two positions, with Lucas responsible for content direction and Gianopulos, the former chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures, assuming the CEO title until a permanent one could be found.

Three months after that, the museum laid off 15 full-time employees, many from the organization’s education and public programming team — amounting to 14% of the full-time staff. An additional seven part-time, on-call employees also lost their jobs. At that time, two employees, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, described the layoffs as shocking and chaotic.

In 2020, the Lucas Museum was touted for appointing six women — five of whom were women of color — to leadership roles. That number did not include Jackson-Dumont. With Rivas no longer in her job, only two women hired at that time remain: Larissa Gentile, managing director of special projects, and Erica Neal, director of computing and infrastructure.

“I’m an advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, that’s a huge part of who I am,” Jackson-Dumont told The Times in 2020. “But when I’m hiring, I’m looking for the best and most qualified candidates — and that was them.”

Rivas is known for her connection to Los Angeles and its diverse communities. She was formerly the director and chief curator at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College. Prior to that she worked as coordinator of curatorial initiatives at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her resume also includes curatorial and project coordinator positions at Santa Monica’s 18th Street Arts Center, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and the Claremont Museum of Art.