Art Processors, the experiential design consultancy, is celebrating the opening of the Bob Dylan Center, a new museum dedicated to the American singer-songwriter in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum, which was announced in May 2021, is home to a permanent exhibit on the life and work of Bob Dylan. It also offers public programmes, performances and lectures.
More than 100,000 items from Dylan’s archive are showcased, including handwritten manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence, as well as films, videos, photographs, and artwork.
“It’s his mind on the page,” Mark Davidson, curator of the collection, told CBS News. “We’ve got an early version of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ here, replete with coffee stains. And you can see he’s pounding away on the keys, he makes a mistake, he just simply XXXX’s over it.”
“What you get a sense of is the decisions, the choices that were being made right in the moment,” adds Steven Jenkins, the centre’s director. “We are far less interested in saying, ‘Ha! We got this guy figured out,’ because what’s so wonderful about Dylan, among much else, is the elusiveness.”
Memorabilia, personal documents, unreleased studio and concert recordings and musical instruments are also displayed in the new museum.
A unique audio experience
Working with exhibition design company 59 Productions, Art Processors created unique audio syncing technology so that visitors can choose which videos, music and personal accounts they listen to all with one tap of their device.
“The goal is to have people forget the fact that they’re dealing with technology. We were trying to create an experience where there was increased connection without drawing attention to it,” says Art Processors CEO, Mark Nihill.
Thanks to proximity-detection technology, visitors can be immersed in the songs and eras of Dylan’s artistic journey as they explore the Center. By using audioguide devices, guests can access touchpoints throughout their visit, meaning that they can listen to songs and other audio clips. Along the way, they can also revisit landmark moments from his career and enjoy rare film and video footage – essentially curating their own personalised experience.
“As you walk through the opening galleries, you see many screens playing clips on a loop from Bob’s early career, home movies, never-before-seen interviews, videos of famous recording sessions and performances,” says Kyle Slagley, senior project manager at Art Processors. “And there are listening booths and interactives scattered throughout.”
Nic Whyte, co-founder and chief technology officer at Art Processors adds:
“The experience is eyes-up and intuitive, encouraging visitors to engage in their surroundings not peer down at tech. The hearing sense can be forgotten inside exhibition spaces, but here, sound enhances the visual experience. This is especially true in personalized and shared moments.”
New museum launches in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Highlights at the new museum include The Church Studio Control Room, sponsored by the legendary Tulsa recording studio, where guests can experience hands-on mixing of a regularly changing selection of original Dylan recordings and The Columbia Records Gallery, sponsored by Dylan’s longtime record company, which chronicles the artist’s 60-year career.
A 16-foot-high metalwork sculpture, designed and built by Dylan himself, is situated inside the entrance.
The Bob Dylan Center is run by the Tulsa-based George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), which acquired Dylan’s archive in 2016. The foundation is also behind the Woody Guthrie Center, located close to the new museum.
The 29,000-square-foot facility was designed by Olson Kundig, led by design principal Alan Maskin. 59 Productions worked with the design practice on the exhibition design and media development. The company worked on the record-breaking ‘David Bowie Is’ touring exhibit, as well as the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.
The three-storey building faces downtown Tulsa’s public gathering space, Guthrie Green in Tulsa Arts District. The facade depicts a rare 1965 image of Dylan, donated by photographer Jerry Schatzberg.
Art Processors also recently worked on Decoded: 75 Years of the Australian Signals Directorate, a new exhibition at the National Museum of Australia.
Header image by Lester Cohen/Getty Images for The Bob Dylan Center
