Woody Guthrie Center — Woody Guthrie Center
The Woody Guthrie Center, a 12,000-square-foot museum and archive in the Brady/Tulsa Arts District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, opened April 27, 2013, a historic renovation of the Mathews Warehouse (Tulsa Paper Company building) funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, with architecture by Kinslow, Keith & Todd (now Ethos Architects), exhibit design and interpretive planning by Gallagher & Associates, and lighting design by Schuler Shook.
| Venue | Woody Guthrie Center |
|---|---|
| Project type | Major Renovation |
| Status | Completed |
| Year completed | 2013 |
| Technologies | virtual reality (Dust Bowl exhibit) |
Credits
| Firm | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ethos-architects | Architecture | As Kinslow, Keith & Todd, Inc. (KKT Architects) at time of completion, later rebranded Ethos Architects; architecture, interior design, structural engineering, and construction administration for the historic renovation of the Mathews Warehouse (Tulsa Paper Company building) under historic preservation tax credit guidelines |
| Gallagher & Associates | Exhibit Design | Mike Buday of Gallagher & Associates served as a curator of the permanent exhibit alongside Robert Santelli (The Grammy Museum) and Nora Guthrie / Tiffany Colannino (The Woody Guthrie Archives) |
| Gallagher & Associates | Interpretive Planning | |
| Schuler Shook | Lighting Design | Lighting design for the lobby, galleries, and archive display cases, including glass pendants and downlights in the lobby, integrated ceiling-level tracks, and non-UV low-wattage LED lighting calibrated to protect archival objects while remaining legible for visitors. |
Description
The center houses the Woody Guthrie Archives — acquired by the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation in 2011 and relocated from Mount Kisco, New York — including thousands of manuscript pages, notebooks, photographs, and recordings, centered on a display case holding the handwritten manuscript of "This Land Is Your Land." The building also includes rehearsal rooms used by the Tulsa Symphony and theatrical groups and climate-controlled archive storage. Permanent-exhibit curation was led by Mike Buday (Gallagher & Associates), Robert Santelli (The Grammy Museum), and Nora Guthrie and Tiffany Colannino of The Woody Guthrie Archives.
Sources
- https://schulershook.com/projects/woody-guthrie-center
- https://kktarchitects.com/projects/woody-guthrie-center/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie_Center
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Gallagher_(designer)
- https://www.npr.org/2013/05/28/186893611/coming-home-the-woody-guthrie-center-opens-in-tulsa
- https://www.kgou.org/2013-05-28/coming-home-the-woody-guthrie-center-opens-in-tulsa