Exterior view of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa (courtesy of the Woody Guthrie Center)
From KC, four hours will get you to Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center; It’s five to Oklahoma City’s First Americans Museum
If you find yourself road-tripping this summer south and west of the Missouri or Kansas borders, Tulsa and Oklahoma City have some worthy roadside attractions to explore.
Tulsa
Greenwood Rising, an innovative new hyperlocal history museum, tells the story of North Tulsa’s Greenwood District, home of a thriving entrepreneurial “Black Wall Street” in the first decades of the 20th century. A century later, visitors can immerse themselves in the personal oral and pictorial histories of the African American business mecca that was decimated in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Through high-tech interactive exhibits, the museum fearlessly frames the conditions of systemic oppression that led to the massacre, the ongoing resilience of the African American community, and a hopeful path forward for racial reconciliation and justice. www.greenwoodrising.org
Tulsa’s lively 20th-century music history comes to life in a trio of music museums. Oklahoma’s greatest troubadour is celebrated at the Woody Guthrie Center, which houses an archival collection of 10,000 items related to American folk music. This summer they welcome the exhibition “My Eye to a Lens: Music Photography of David Gahr,” featuring candid portraits of music legends from Aretha to Willie, Cash to Bowie. woodyguthriecenter.org
Located next door, within the walkable Tulsa Arts District, is the sprawling Bob Dylan Center, an in-depth permanent exhibit on the Nobel Prize-winning singer-songwriter curated from the massive 100,000-item Bob Dylan Archive. They present a new exhibition this summer, “How Many Roads: Bob Dylan and His Changing Times, 1961–1964,” highlighting the artist’s growing political awareness, including the civil rights and anti-war movements of the early 1960s. bobdylancenter.com
Leon Russell, legendary Tulsa musician and songwriter, converted a historic church into his recording studio in 1972. The Church Studio became a creative hub and the epicenter of the “Tulsa Sound,” a soulful blend of blues, rockabilly, country and rock that attracted the likes of Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Wonder and Tom Petty. Newly restored in 2022, the pristine venue features an in-demand analog and digital recording studio alongside displays of Russell artifacts and memorabilia. thechurchstudio.com
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City is at the intersection of two major interstate highways, I-35 and I-40, where a 90-foot-tall earthwork mound marks the site of the First Americans Museum (FAM). It has quickly become one of the state’s top cultural attractions — finally, from the perspective of Native people. Oklahoma has no fewer than 39 distinct, sovereign tribal nations in its borders, most of whom did not choose to be there. The painful American history of tribal removal, broken treaties and failed policies is told with unflinching honesty and interpretive depth. The bigger story that emerges, however, is one of Indigenous creative power, cultural resilience and contemporary relevance. People, stories, objects, architecture, food and nature are beautifully integrated into this can’t-miss museum experience. famok.org
Factory Obscura, Oklahoma City’s booming homegrown art collective, continues to evolve their handcrafted brand of IRL, all-senses-engaged immersive installations. Employing a team of 30-some-odd artists across disciplines and generations, their 6,000-square-foot “Mix-Tape” experience has made it one of the top venues of its kind in the United States. Look for a new exhibition space opening this summer: “Time Slip: Tomorrow, Now, and Back Again” will reimagine iconic pieces from previous temporary projects while exploring future-positive narratives. Pro tip: Get the All-Access Pass. www.factoryobscura.com
At the end of August, Oklahoma Contemporary hosts a major interdisciplinary exhibition in “Outré West: The American School of Architecture from Oklahoma to California.” Post-war visionary architecture professors Bruce Goff and Herb Greene opened up the canon of Western architecture with organic, unconventional approaches to design and building that influenced generations of architectural experimentation across the American West. oklahomacontemporary.org/exhibitions/upcoming/outre-west
A new Gilcrease Museum opening soon
One of Tulsa’s cultural crown jewels is the Gilcrease Museum. Founded in 1943 by its namesake, successful oilman and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art holds 350,000 items representing the art, culture and history of the Americas, with a particular emphasis on Native cultures and the history of the American West.
Closed since 2021, the Gilcrease Museum is nearing completion of a new 83,500-square-foot building with entirely new exhibitions, the Helmerich Center for American Research and extensive gardens on its 460-acre site north of downtown Tulsa. Earlier this year they announced Brian Lee Whisenhunt, a Tulsa native, would lead the new Gilcrease Museum, owned by the City of Tulsa and managed by The University of Tulsa. Among its new amenities are a dedicated traveling exhibition space, outdoor amphitheater and café. City leaders are pushing for November 2024 to finish the building, with a grand reopening in the works. https://gilcrease.org/
After a distinguished career in Kansas City, including serving as collection manager for The Collectors Fund and The Kansas City Collection, two years ago, family matters led KC Studio contributing writer Brian Hearn to relocate to Norman, Oklahoma.
