The Philbrook Museum of Art in downtown Tulsa will close later this month and move out its collection so the Bob Dylan Archive can move into the building and open there in 2021.
The Philbrook will close its doors at 116 Reconciliation Way (map here) of Guthrie Green on Dec. 29. The Philbrook keeps its main campus in midtown Tulsa.
The action solves two problems for the museum and the songwriter’s archive, according to the Tulsa World:
“The downtown location opened in 2013 and never really became what we intended it to be,” said Philbrook spokesman Jeff Martin.
“The Dylan folks didn’t want to have to build a new building, so I would say this is truly a win-win for both.” […]
Martin said the area around the downtown spot has evolved into a “music-centric” neighborhood that also features several art galleries. It is next door to the Woody Guthrie Center, near Cain’s Ballroom, the Brady Theater and several club venues, and across the street from Guthrie Green, which is popular for outdoor concerts.
The area also will be the future site of the Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture, aka OKPOP, which broke ground just a few weeks ago.
News on 6 in Tulsa reported on a letter Philbrook CEO Scott Stulen sent to benefactors:
Stulen said The George Kaiser Family Foundation offered them a chance to end their lease agreement early, and the museum’s leadership decided to accept the offer.
“By focusing on one location, Philbrook will greatly increase our capacity to fulfill our mission to make a creative and connected community through art and gardens,” he said in a letter to friends of the museum.
“We are thrilled to welcome The Bob Dylan Center to downtown Tulsa, a growing hub for American music and culture.”
The Dylan Archive contains more than 6,000 items of the musician’s never-before-seen handwritten manuscripts, notebooks, correspondence, films, videos, photographs, artwork, memorabilia, personal documents, unrecorded song lyrics and chords.
The Kaiser foundation announced in 2016 it bought Dylan’s archives and had been quietly sorting it out since, allowing access to a precious few researchers. The foundation also acquired folk-music icon Woody Guthrie’s archive in 2011. Because Dylan was a disciple of Guthrie, it’s a natural pairing to have their collections close to each other.
Dylan remains best known for his massive hit from 1965, “Like a Rolling Stone,” but he probably is the most influential songwriter of the second half of the 20th century. I read a pop-music reference book that argued he was one of a handful of people most responsible for ending the Vietnam War.
Guthrie’s links to Route 66 are many. But any links to the Mother Road and Dylan are somewhat scant. Early in his career, Dylan claimed to have spent part of his childhood in Gallup, New Mexico. That probably was Dylan messing around with a reporter; he grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota.
In terms of highways, Dylan was much more associated with U.S. 61. That one went through his hometown, and he recorded “Highway 61 Revisited” for a classic album of the same name in 1965.
(Image of Peter Ross’ painting of Bob Dylan painting by Martin Beek via Flickr)