Gilcrease museum plans expanded home in Tulsa

When a person thinks of Oklahoma, it might be of the famous musical by the same name, or Native Americans, tornadoes or any number of other things, including its nickname “The Sooner State” and the college football team known as the Sooners. But not many people are likely to think of an art collection.
William Thomas Gilcrease did, though. He was an oilman and the founder of the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, now known as the Gilcrease Museum.
He was affectionately called “Indian Tom,” and he was of Creek descent. Gilcrease collected art and established a private museum for its display: He donated it to the city of Tulsa in 1955, with an agreement that the city would build a proper place to preserve and display it.
That’s just what Tulsa has been doing, and it is beginning anew with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in November 2024. The old museum was demolished, and new construction began on the same spot in the Osage Hills. Gilcrease’s grandson, Thomas Gilcrease Denney, said the location was where his grandfather wanted it, “for the citizens of Tulsa and Oklahoma.”

The new building will cost $137 million. Tulsa voters approved the majority of that funding, while private donors raised $49 million – showing their approval of the project and the way they value the collection. It will be displayed again when everything has been completed on a date projected to be in 2026. The building will be of sizable proportions: The collection consists of more than 200,000 objects.
Mona Chamberlin, executive director for marketing and communications at the University of Tulsa, explained that the museum is owned by the city of Tulsa and managed by the university.
“The original Gilcrease Museum, founded by Muscogee – or Creek – Nation citizen Thomas Gilcrease, opened to the public in 1949. Over the decades, the museum expanded in a patchwork of additions and renovations that ultimately resulted in an aging, inefficient complex,” Chamberlin said. “The need for a new structure was driven by the inability to meet modern museum standards for collections care, exhibitions and visitor experience. The new 95,000-square-foot building is a much-improved space that meets contemporary standards for care of Gilcrease’s extensive collection and touring exhibitions.”
The project began when the facility closed on July 4, 2021. Demolition followed in January 2022, with construction beginning in 2024.
The new Gilcrease Museum was designed by SmithGroup, one of the world’s preeminent integrated design firms. Located within the Osage Nation reservation boundaries, the new building is conceived to align cardinal directions with natural elements and experiences: north, sky; south, earth; west, night; and east, day. The color and material palettes for the building reflect the art deco styles found throughout Tulsa, including the use of stone and gilded metals.”

“The lower level of the building includes earth tones, creating a connection to the ground, while the upper level utilizes sky tones, blurring the line between architecture and the sky,” Chamberlin continued. “A three-story atrium will orient visitors, while other spaces throughout the building frame views of downtown and north Tulsa. Panoramic views of the Osage Hills will create experiential moments between visitors and the great American landscape that surrounds the museum and grounds.”
Like many projects of this scale, the timeline was impacted by COVID-19-related factors including inflation, supply chain disruptions and increased labor costs. Tulsa voters helped close part of a $20 million budget gap through the 2023 Improve Our Tulsa 3 initiative. “As of now, the museum is on track for construction completion and occupancy by fall, with the public reopening set for early 2027.”
The work continues steadily. “The move is scheduled to begin in November after the building is completed and has undergone the critical stabilization period needed for museum-grade environmental conditions,” Chamberlin said. “This includes time for materials to off-gas and temperature and humidity to be carefully monitored and adjusted to ensure a safe environment for the collection. The move itself is a highly specialized process managed by our collections team and trained art handlers, ensuring that each object is transferred with the highest level of care and documentation.” It’s hardly the kind of thing where a person grabs his or her neighbors and friends, packs boxes and moves it all in a day. Exhibition installation will begin in 2026.
“Even though the building has been closed, Gilcrease remains deeply connected to the community. In 2022, museum staff launched Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood, placing high-quality reproductions of works from the collection in public spaces across Tulsa – parks, community centers, libraries, grocery stores and other unexpected places – making art accessible beyond the museum walls, Chamberlin added. “We also presented ‘Past Forward: Native American Art from Gilcrease Museum,’ a traveling exhibition that toured major institutions nationwide in 2024–25. To ensure our collection stayed accessible in museum settings, we placed long-term loans with partner institutions, including the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.”
While the museum is hibernating, so to speak, education and outreach efforts have not stopped. “We expanded partnerships with Tulsa’s Any Given Child program, offered Gilcrease Family Festivals in neighborhoods across the city, welcomed an artist-in-residence and connected with local schools and cultural centers to deliver hands-on programming.”
This fall, Gilcrease will host Scrollathon, a nationwide multimedia art project that brings together 500 Tulsans to create a collaborative artwork representing Oklahoma in a national exhibition for the country’s semiquincentennial.
“We’ll also welcome back artist-in-residence Stephen Towns for a special lecture on Nov. 5 at the University of Tulsa. Even before our official reopening, we’ll invite the community back with UNcrease, a series of community-driven events inside the new space starting next spring. These monthly open houses will feature performances, workshops, art showcases and creative experiences led by Tulsa’s artists, musicians and cultural leaders,” Chamberlin exclaimed.
A special exhibition. at the University of Tulsa Helmerich Center for American Research in honor of the semiquincentennial, includes a rare opportunity to view Gilcrease’s copy of the Declaration of Independence.

“Through it all, we’ll continue our ‘museum without walls’ approach until the doors reopen in 2027,” Chamberlin said. The program is viewed as an important contribution to the community and a sure way to keep interest high as anticipation grows for the reopening.
She thought the types of artwork featured in the Gilcrease collection are more varied than most people might expect.
“Gilcrease is a museum of the art, history and culture of the Americas. Thomas Gilcrease became an active collector in the 1930s, gradually expanding his holdings beyond artwork to include books, manuscripts and cultural materials. Today, the museum represents hundreds of Indigenous cultures from across the Americas, with material culture and archaeology ranging from 12,000 BCE to the 21st century. The collection also includes more than 350 years of North American paintings, sculptures and works on paper.”
The collection is priceless when it comes to preserving history, a history that cannot, and in the minds of Oklahomans, must not be forgotten.
Gilcrease was far-seeing when thinking about what would be important for generations to come. “He had a long-standing commitment to education,” Chamberlin noted. “We’ve been part of Tulsa’s Any Given Child program for more than a decade, reaching thousands of first graders annually with arts instruction. During the closure, we adapted using in-classroom programs, art kits and virtual resources. With the new building, we plan to expand hands-on learning, interactive tours and family friendly activities.”
Gilcrease is home to Oklahoma’s only in-house art conservation lab and houses rare documents like a handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence, according to Chamberlin. “While we don’t have a formal guidebook, much of the collection can be explored online at collections.gilcrease.org. We’ll continue to expand digital access alongside the museum’s reopening.”
The Helmerich Center houses more than 100,000 rare books, manuscripts, maps, and documents. “Scholars, students and researchers from around the world come to study this extensive archive. Through programs like the Duane H. King Postdoctoral Fellowship, short-term fellowships and travel grants, it supports scholarship in the humanities – but anyone is welcome to visit the library, conduct research and explore the depth of the collection,” Chamberlin concluded. “Both the museum and the center remain committed to connecting art, history and people, and to deepening the understanding of the rich, vast heritage of the Americas.”
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