The Woody Guthrie Center is a public museum and archive located in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, Oklahoma that is dedicated to the life and legacy of American

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

ian and singer-songwriter

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

. The Center also contains the archives of folk singer, songwriter, and fellow social activist Phil Ochs.

Description

The Woody Guthrie Center is located at 102 East Reconciliation Way in the Tulsa Arts District. It features an interactive museum where the public may view musical instruments used by Guthrie, samples of his original artwork, notebooks and lyrics in his own handwriting, and photographs and historical memorabilia that illustrate his life, music, and political activities. Visitors may also view a short biographical film and listen to samples of his music and that of other artists who were influenced and inspired by Guthrie. Various folk music events are sponsored by the Center. The Woody Guthrie Archives, which is the world's largest collection of material relating to Guthrie's life, are housed on-site in a climate-controlled facility that is partially visible through windows from the public museum area. The archives contain manuscripts, lyrics, correspondence, artwork, scrapbooks, musical recordings, books, and photographs, and are open to researchers by appointment.

History

The Woody Guthrie Center officially opened on April 27, 2013 after the archives were acquired by the Tulsa-based

George Kaiser George Bruce Kaiser (born October 30, 1943) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman of BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As of September 2021, he is the 476th richest person in the world and was, in 2012, one of ...

Foundation. Previously, the archives were owned by the Woody Guthrie Foundation, which was headed by Guthrie's daughter,

Nora Guthrie Nora Lee Guthrie (born January 2, 1950) is the daughter of American folk musician and singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie and his second wife Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, sister of singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie, and granddaughter of renowned Yiddish po ...

Phil Ochs archives

In September 2014, Meegan Lee Ochs announced that she was donating the archives of her father, singer-songwriter Phil Ochs, to the Center. Ochs was heavily influenced by Guthrie, and was a troubadour and social activist in his own right. The donation of notebooks, photographs, videotapes, and other memorabilia is the first collection included in the center from an artist other than Guthrie.

Virtual Reality "Dust Bowl" exhibit

In 2018, the Woody Guthrie Museum announced its plan to host a new program bowl that is intended to offer visitors the opportunity to experience

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) a ...

conditions in the Oklahoma Panhandle during 1934–1938. While wearing a virtual reality headset, they will sit on a replica of a front porch, watching a dust cloud roll in across the prairie to envelop them. The Dust Bowl inspired a number of Guthrie's musical works, and led him to take up the causes of migrant workers and other people disenfranchised by an ecological disaster.Tramel, Jimmie. ''Tulsa World''. February 5, 2018.
Accessed June 19, 2018.

Notes

References

External links

Woody Guthrie Center website
{{authority control Museums in Tulsa, Oklahoma Guthrie Music museums in Oklahoma Woody Guthrie Phil Ochs Museums established in 2013 Music archives in the United States