A Hard Hat Tour of the New Gilcrease Museum Building

Last Friday, I had the privilege of putting on my hard hat (and gloves, safety glasses and safety vest) to tour the new Gilcrease Museum building! Mayor G.T. Bynum and a FlintCo representative led the tour.

Before we began, Mayor Bynum confirmed that the building is about 70% complete and on track for a November 2024 finish. However, at that point, it will still take about 18-24 months to install the exhibits.

Somehow, the new building – which covers six floors, three for public use and three for internal use – is smaller than the original building. However, Bynum said, there was a lot of wasted space in the old building – including staircases that led nowhere.

Key Features

The new building has two main staircases, an Earth Staircase and a Sky Staircase. It will be neat to see these in their final form – and especially to see the Sky Staircase looking a little safer, ha. One cool thing we got to see at the end of the tour was the crane lifting the final piece of the Sky Staircase into the building!

Earth Staircase

Sky Staircase (this section will be covered by a skylight, letting in some nice natural light

The old building, said Mayor Bynum, could only display about two percent of Gilcrease’s impressive collection of American art. He also told us that Gilcrease collection has more Remingtons than every other museum in the world combined. Not bad!

Another exciting thing about the new building is the traveling exhibition space. When completed, Gilcrease will be the only museum in Oklahoma to have a large enough space to house major exhibitions on the scale of, say, the King Tut exhibition.

This picture probably does not do justice to the large traveling exhibition space, but here it is, in part

For those of you who remember the gorgeous views from the old building’s Vista Room, you may be happy to know that the new building will have even more windows and better views. It will offer panoramic views of both the Osage Hills and downtown Tulsa. Not only from within the building, but from the large balcony area and amphitheater space.

Standing on the Gilcrease balcony overlooking the Osage Hills

The cafe area indoors also has large windows looking towards downtown Tulsa.

View of the cafe area

Outdoor Area

Outdoors, as stated before, you’ll find an amphitheater perfect for concerts, etc. This will be accessible without needing to go inside the museum.

Amphitheater. The black spaces will be filled in with grass

Future plans for the grounds include mountain biking trails and other amenities for people of all ages to enjoy. The goal is to create a “place for families to enjoy themselves whether they want to see art or enjoy the outdoors.” Bynum said, the new Gilcrease should be “not just a place to store art but a whole range of experiences. Of course, the art is most important.”

The sandstone covering the building comes from a quarry in Poteau – the same one that supplied much of the Gathering Place sandstone

In the Meantime…

So, the building is coming along, but we still have a long wait before the museum is open for visitors. In the meantime, Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood is a public art installation featuring works from the Gilcrease collection at five area parks. (With one work displayed at a time.) Learn more at gilcrease.org/gilcrease-in-your-neighborhood

And the Gilcrease gift shop, Curations by Gilcrease, is located at 101 E. Archer St. You can also shop online. If you wish to visit Curations in person, the hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12-5 p.m. Learn more at gilcrease.org/store