(photo Mathew Millman)
Ron Bernthal
In May, 2022, Olson Kundig Architects announced the opening of the Bob Dylan Center, housed in a former warehouse in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Visitors to the museum will have access to The Bob Dylan Archive®, a collection of more than 100,000 items spanning almost 60 years of Dylan’s career. They will include handwritten documents and letters, films, videos, artwork and original recordings. Led by design principal Alan Maskin, Olson Kundig is architect and exhibit designer for the new museum, which is located in Tulsa’s expanding arts district just steps from the city’s well known Woody Guthrie Center®.
(Rowland Scherman // Wikimedia Commons 1965)
(photo Mathew Millman)
The Center will be a dynamic, multifaceted venue, housing permanent, temporary and traveling exhibitions readily accessible by artists, historians, musicologists and the general public seeking a deeper comprehension of Dylan’s work, his influences and the offshoots inspired by his legacy.
“Olson Kundig is thrilled to lead the amazing design team creating the Bob Dylan Center, the new home for the Bob Dylan Archive,” said design principal Alan Maskin. “The Bob Dylan Center will include immersive exhibit experiences with rarely seen artifacts that illustrate the creative trajectory of one of the world’s greatest and most prolific artists.”
(photo Matthew Millman)
Originally a former paper warehouse, the 30,000 square-foot center will serve as a space to educate, motivate, and inspire visitors through exhibits, public programs, performances, lectures, and publications. While designing the space, the Olson Kundig firm took into account three visitor experiences: “swimmers, skimmers, and divers” defining the different user profiles visiting the center and how they will interact with the content of the museum.
(photo Mathew Millman)
The museum’s exhibits and highlights include:
- – A large-scale façade mural depicting a rare 1965 image of Dylan, donated to the center by renowned photographer Jerry Schatzberg.
- – An ever-evolving curated display of elements that illuminate the depth and breadth of the Bob Dylan Archive® collection.
- – An immersive film experience that will initiate visitors through an innovative cascade of archival music and film, directed by renowned Dylan chronicler Jennifer Lebeau.
- – A recreation of an authentic studio environment where visitors will experience what it was like to be present at one of Dylan’s historic recording sessions.
- – The Columbia Records Gallery, which will provide an in-depth look at the creation, performance and production of timeless Dylan songs such as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Chimes of Freedom.”
- – A screening room that will showcase Dylan-related scripted films, documentaries and concert performances, including never-before-seen material unearthed from the Archive.
- – A multimedia timeline of Dylan’s life from his early years in Minnesota through the present day, written by award-winning historian Sean Wilentz.
- – The Parker Brothers Gallery, which will explore the creative process through the work of other innovative artists, in an initial exhibit curated by influential author Lewis Hyde.
(photo Matthew Millman)
To celebrate the opening, the Bob Dylan Center shared a recently unearthed image of Bob Dylan on stage during his 1974 tour with The Band, taken by renowned photographer Barry Feinstein, as well as a previously unknown recording of Dylan performing “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” This recording was made by Milton (Mell) and Lillian Bailey, friends and early champions of the young Bob Dylan when he was a fixture in New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene. This version of the song features alternate lyrics and is the earliest known recording of the song that was eventually released in 1963 on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
(Wikimedia Commons 1963) (Chris Hakkens / Wikimedia Commons 1969) Dylan 1976 (photo NBC Television // Wikimedia Commons)
