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The Bob Dylan Center inspires and celebrates fearless creativity by exploring the music and artistry of the Nobel Prize–winning singer-songwriter as a catalyst for personal expression and cultural change.
Located in the Tulsa Arts District, the Bob Dylan Center® serves to educate, motivate and inspire visitors to engage their own capacity as creators. While the center is anchored by a permanent exhibit on the life and work of Bob Dylan, it also offers additional exhibits, public programs, performances, lectures, and publications, through which it aims to foster a conversation about the role of creativity in our lives.
As the primary public venue for the Bob Dylan Archive® collection, the center offers curated exhibits pulled from the priceless collection of more than 100,000 items spanning Dylan’s career, including handwritten manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence; films, videos, photographs and artwork; memorabilia and ephemera; personal documents and effects; unreleased studio and concert recordings; musical instruments; and many other elements.
Both the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie Center® operate under auspices of the American Song Archives, a project of the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF).
Acquired by the George Kaiser Family Foundation in 2016, the Bob Dylan Archive® highlights the unique artistry and worldwide cultural significance of Bob Dylan. Originally housed at the University of Tulsa’s Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum, the archive will now be permanently housed at the Bob Dylan Center.
While the center offers a curated exhibit of items from the collection, the archive itself is open by appointment only. Due to high demand, access to the archive is only granted to individuals with qualified research projects.
Located in Tulsa’s burgeoning arts district just steps from the city’s renowned Woody Guthrie Center, the Bob Dylan Center was designed by renowned architectural and exhibit design firm Olson Kundig, led by design principal Alan Maskin.
The center features cutting-edge and immersive technology in a multimedia environment that is designed to be as impressive and revealing to visitors new to Dylan’s work as it will be to long-time fans and aficionados.
59 Productions, world-leading specialists in design for stage and live events, collaborated with Olson Kundig on the exhibition design and media development.
The three-story façade of the Bob Dylan Center faces downtown Tulsa’s hugely popular public gathering space, Guthrie Green, and depicts a rare 1965 image of Dylan, donated to the center by renowned photographer Jerry Schatzberg.
An award-winning design studio and production company based in London and New York, 59 Productions also collaborated on the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the record-breaking David Bowie Is exhibition and the decor concept design for The Met Ball, among other projects. For more information, visit 59productions.co.uk.
Established in 1999, the George Kaiser Family Foundation invests in a culturally vibrant and economically robust Tulsa to ensure a thriving community that affords opportunities for all of its citizens to enjoy a high quality of life. The Foundation’s civic ventures are designed to advance its primary mission while also adding to the diversity and vitality of the city. Visit www.gkff.org for more information.
Now in its sixth decade of practice, Olson Kundig is a collaborative design practice whose work includes cultural and museum projects, exhibition design, commercial and mixed-use design (including wineries and sports facilities), private and multifamily residential, hospitality projects, places of worship, interior design, product design and landscape design. With deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, the firm and its staff of over 200 work with clients around the world. Find more information at olsonkundig.com.
“… it is clear that the archives are deeper and more vast than even most Dylan experts could imagine, promising untold insight into the songwriter’s work.”
The New York Times
Your tax-deductible donation helps support the center in its mission to inspire and celebrate fearless creativity by exploring the music and artistry of the Nobel Prize–winning singer-songwriter as a catalyst for personal expression and cultural change.
Each Bob Dylan Center membership comes with a variety of exclusive perks and privileges. Find the level that’s right for you.
Shop now and support the study and appreciation of Bob Dylan and his worldwide cultural significance.
The official Bob Dylan artist website, bobdylan.com features up-to-date tour information, the latest news, complete lyrics, book recommendations, and an online store.
Heaven’s Door is a collection of handcrafted American Whiskeys co-created with Bob Dylan. The perfect blend of art and craft, a collection of stories to be savored and shared. Each bottle of Heaven’s Door showcases Dylan’s distinctive welded iron gates he created in his studio, Black Buffalo Ironworks.
“Girl From the North Country”, written and directed by celebrated playwright Conor McPherson, boldly reimagines 20 legendary songs of Bob Dylan as they’ve never been heard before. This spiritually uplifting and beautiful story is set in Duluth, MN, in 1934, when a group of wanderers’ lives intersect at a house full of music, life and hope weaving through a story the Chicago Tribune declares is “Nothing less than a Broadway Revelation.”
Established in 1982, Halcyon Gallery is a leading international art gallery specializing in modern and contemporary art. With locations on Bond Street and at Harrods, Knightsbridge, Halcyon Gallery showcases art from emerging and established artists including Bob Dylan, Lorenzo Quinn, Dominic Harris, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso.
Bob Dylan Center
116 E Reconciliation Way, Tulsa, OK 74103
Wednesday – Sunday: 10AM – 6PM
918.392.3353 | info@bobdylancenter.com
