Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa opens to the public

The Bob Dylan Center, which houses a collection of the memorabilia and media the acclaimed musician collected over his 60-year career, held its ceremonial ribbon-cutting Tuesday at the site in downtown Tulsa.

About 200 people attended the event. Dylan, a notoriously taciturn man, was not one of them. Tulsa People magazine published a gallery of photos from the event.

According to a report by the Tulsa World newspaper, the center holds more than 100,000 items, with many of them available for inspection by appointment only to researchers.

Visitors will experience multi-media, interactive displays as they make their way through exhibits that chronicle not only Dylan’s life and career but the sense of restless creativity and experimentation that has been a hallmark of artistic output, which includes songs and recordings, prose works and paintings.

Variety magazine published a good rundown of 25 interesting items at the Dylan Center, including the tambourine that inspired the song “Mr. Tambourine Man,” the leather jacket he wore when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival, and Elvis Costello’s jukebox of Dylan songs and tunes that inspired him.

CBS Sunday Morning recently produced a story about the center:

Appropriately, the Woody Guthrie Center sits just a short walk from the Dylan Center. Dylan was a devotee of Guthrie early in his career. The archives of Guthrie and Dylan both were purchased and brought to Tulsa by local philanthropist George Kaiser.

The Bob Dylan Center is at 116 E. Reconciliation Way (map here) in downtown Tulsa, just 1 1/2 blocks off the Detroit Avenue alignment of Route 66.

The center’s hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. General admission tickets are available here.

(Image of the front of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa via Facebook)

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