Bob Dylan Center

Bob Dylan Center The official page of the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Bob Dylan Center® is dedicated to the study and appreciation of renowned American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his cultural significance. The center serves to educate, motivate and inspire visitors to engage their own capacity as creators. While the center is anchored by a permanent exhibit on the life and work of Bob Dylan, it also offers additional exhibits, public programs, performances, lectures, and publications, through which it aims to foster a conversation about the role of creativity in our lives. As the primary public venue for the Bob Dylan Archive® collection, the center offers curated exhibits pulled from the priceless collection of more than 100,000 items spanning Dylan’s career, including handwritten manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence; films, videos, photographs and artwork; memorabilia and ephemera; personal documents and effects; unreleased studio and concert recordings; musical instruments; and many other elements. Both the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie Center® operate under auspices of the American Song Archives, a project of the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF).

Join us on Saturday, Oct. 10, for Family Folk Fest — an annual event for families and children of all ages, hosted by th...
09/14/2026

Join us on Saturday, Oct. 10, for Family Folk Fest — an annual event for families and children of all ages, hosted by the Bob Dylan Center and Woody Guthrie Center.

Throughout the festival, families can enjoy live musical performances, storytelling, arts and crafts, writing activities and educational activities that encourage imagination and self-expression. Local musicians, teaching artists and community partners lead engaging activities that inspire children to create music and art of their own.

Woody Guthrie Center Artists/Activities:
Alexandria Moore - Woody Guthrie Center Theater
Nellie McKay - Woody Guthrie Center Theater
Not Boxed In - Woody Guthrie Center Lower Lobby
Moonlight Art Factory - Woody Guthrie Center Classroom

Bob Dylan Center Artists/Activities:
Rockstar Imagination Play Photo Op - Bob Dylan Center Lower Lobby
Magic City Books Story Time - Bob Dylan Center Upper Lobby
Scraps Designs Interactive Playscape - Bob Dylan Center Immersive Gallery

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Learn more and register at bobdylancenter.com/event/family-folk-fest-2026

This Thursday, Sept. 17, join Bob Dylan Center Director Steven Jenkins for an online discussion with poet and scholar Ro...
09/14/2026

This Thursday, Sept. 17, join Bob Dylan Center Director Steven Jenkins for an online discussion with poet and scholar Robert Polito about his bold take on Dylan’s output since the early 1990s.

A prevailing narrative goes: Bob Dylan, the voice of the 1960s counterculture, disappeared in the ‘70s then released arguably the worst music of his career in the ‘80s, only to be resurrected in 2016 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Dylan’s concerts once began with an announcer intoning a deadpan version of just such a narrative.

Robert Polito has other ideas. Drawing on thousands of pages of archival materials, “After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace” reveals Dylan’s creative work during the last three decades as his most ambitious yet. Across an abecedarium of chapters surveying his albums, performances, films and books since the early ‘90s, the celebrated poet and biographer shows how Dylan evolved a late musical style that has embodied and resisted its era—interweaving Ovid and Americana, film noir and the Civil War. Imaginatively researched—partially in the Bob Dylan Archives in Tulsa—”After the Flood” is both an essential revision and continuation of the Dylan saga.

Blending biography and archival history, “After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace” asks of Bob Dylan, “If your dreams are fulfilled at twenty, what do you do with the rest of your life?”

The 2026 Bob Dylan Center Book Club Series is presented by Joe Donnelly and Becky Thorson.

Get tickets: bobdylancenter.com/event/robert-polito

Released on this day in 1990, “Under the Red Sky” was the first album including a producer credit for “Jack Frost,” alon...
09/10/2026

Released on this day in 1990, “Under the Red Sky” was the first album including a producer credit for “Jack Frost,” alongside brothers Don and David Was. (“Jack Frost” shows up numerous times on subsequent Dylan albums, and many assume that it’s a pseudonym for Bob Dylan.) Three of the songs — “Born in Time,” “God Knows” and “TV Talkin’ Song” — were songs he’d attempted during the “Oh Mercy” sessions, whereas others were newly composed for the album. Despite the seeming simplicity of the lyrical themes on the album, drafts of the lyric manuscripts in the Archive reinforce Dylan’s never-ceasing attention to detail.

“Under the Red Sky” included a number of high-profile guest musicians, among them David Crosby, Bruce Hornsby, Randy Jackson (who later hosted the American Idol TV show), Elton John, Al Kooper and Jimmie Vaughan, with featured guitar solos by Slash (“Wiggle Wiggle”), Stevie Ray Vaughan (“10,000 Men”) and George Harrison (“Under the Red Sky”). Although the album did not receive the same praise as his previous record, “Oh Mercy,” the album’s first single, “Unbelievable,” reached #20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, with a music video featuring Dylan alongside actors Molly Ringwald and Sally Kirkland.

Pictured: “Under the Red Sky” original photographic print and 45 rpm single for “Unbelievable.” Currently on display in the Earl Minnis Gallery exhibition of the Bob Dylan Archive.

On this day in 1965, Bob Dylan released “Positively 4th Street.” Recorded during the “Highway 61 Revisited” sessions, ju...
09/07/2026

On this day in 1965, Bob Dylan released “Positively 4th Street.” Recorded during the “Highway 61 Revisited” sessions, just four days after his controversial electric set at Newport, and released only weeks after the album, the standalone single reached the Top 10 in the U.S. and U.K.

Pictured: “Positively 4th Street”/“From a Buick 6” single, Bob Dylan, Columbia Records. Released Sept. 1965. Currently on display in the Parker Brothers Gallery as part of “Thin Wild Mercury: Dylan 1966.” Courtesy of David Eckstrom, Forever Young Records.

“Thin Wild Mercury: Dylan 1966” is generously supported by Presenting Sponsors Bob and Debbie Russell. Learn more about the exhibit: bobdylancenter.com/exhibit/thin-wild-mercury

Tonight at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, don't miss “13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests.” A thea...
09/05/2026

Tonight at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, don't miss “13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests.” A theatrical and cinematic concert experience featuring a baker’s dozen of Pop Art pioneer Andy Warhol’s “Screen Test” films — made in the mid-1960s to spotlight his self-made Superstars and the era’s cultural icons in larger-than-life close-ups — will be presented with live musical accompaniment by dream-pop duo Dean & Britta and their band.

Learn more and get tickets: bobdylancenter.com/event/13-most-beautiful

On Thursday, Sept. 17, join Bob Dylan Center Director Steven Jenkins for an online discussion with poet and scholar Robe...
09/03/2026

On Thursday, Sept. 17, join Bob Dylan Center Director Steven Jenkins for an online discussion with poet and scholar Robert Polito about his bold take on Dylan’s output since the early 1990s.

A prevailing narrative goes: Bob Dylan, the voice of the 1960s counterculture, disappeared in the ‘70s then released arguably the worst music of his career in the ‘80s, only to be resurrected in 2016 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Dylan’s concerts once began with an announcer intoning a deadpan version of just such a narrative.

Robert Polito has other ideas. Drawing on thousands of pages of archival materials, “After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace” reveals Dylan’s creative work during the last three decades as his most ambitious yet. Across an abecedarium of chapters surveying his albums, performances, films and books since the early ‘90s, the celebrated poet and biographer shows how Dylan evolved a late musical style that has embodied and resisted its era—interweaving Ovid and Americana, film noir and the Civil War. Imaginatively researched—partially in the Bob Dylan Archives in Tulsa—”After the Flood” is both an essential revision and continuation of the Dylan saga.

Blending biography and archival history, “After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan’s Memory Palace” asks of Bob Dylan, “If your dreams are fulfilled at twenty, what do you do with the rest of your life?”

The 2026 Bob Dylan Center Book Club Series is presented by Joe Donnelly and Becky Thorson.

Get tickets: bobdylancenter.com/event/robert-polito

Bob Dylan Center Senior Director Steven Jenkins recently made his third guest-DJ appearance on The Dylan Hours (radio sh...
09/01/2026

Bob Dylan Center Senior Director Steven Jenkins recently made his third guest-DJ appearance on The Dylan Hours (radio show), a Sunday morning radio program broadcast from Cal State Northridge in Los Angeles and hosted for nearly twenty years by self-professed “Sad Eyed Lady” Lisa Finnie (note her hat, available in our gift shop). In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Dylan’s landmark 1966 double album “Blonde on Blonde,” Jenkins’ playlist included “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine),” “One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later),” “Temporary Like Achilles,” Merry Clayton’s upbeat cover of “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” Oren Lavie’s psychedelia-tinged take on “4th Time Around,” and unreleased live versions of “Pledging My Time” by Robyn Hitchcock and “Visions of Johanna” by Emma Swift, both with Doug Keith on guitar and recorded at The Church Studio in Tulsa.

08/31/2026

School is back in session and it’s never too early for educators to schedule a field trip to the Bob Dylan Center and Woody Guthrie Center. Make your field trip memorable with educational add-ons like songwriting or creative writing workshops, hands on activities and singalongs. Admission is free for students and educators and visits are tailored to meet your needs. For more information, visit: bobdylancenter.com/education

"Highway 61, the main thoroughfare of the country blues, begins about where I began. I always felt like I’d started on i...
08/30/2026

"Highway 61, the main thoroughfare of the country blues, begins about where I began. I always felt like I’d started on it, always had been on it and could go anywhere, even down into the deep Delta country. ... It was my place in the universe, always felt like it was in my blood." – Bob Dylan, "Chronicles: Volume One"

On this day in 1965, Bob Dylan released "Highway 61 Revisited." Recorded in two sessions, one the month before his electric debut at Newport and one just days after, the resulting album was both a critical and commercial triumph. It became Dylan’s first to break into the Top 5 in both the U.S. and U.K. and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential works of his career.

On this day in 2006, Bob Dylan's 32nd studio album, "Modern Times," was released. A pivotal entry in Dylan's discography...
08/29/2026

On this day in 2006, Bob Dylan's 32nd studio album, "Modern Times," was released. A pivotal entry in Dylan's discography, the album continued a run of highly acclaimed albums, following "Time Out of Mind" and "Love and Theft."

Upon its release, "Modern Times" was one of those albums that critics, fans and trainspotters love to pick apart to pinpoint the various influences. As those became clearer, it provoked larger conversations about the transformation of source material vis-a-vis the folk tradition.

Pictured: a "Modern Times" promotional poster, on display in the Earl Minnis Gallery exhibition of the Bob Dylan Archive.

Address

116 E Reconciliation Way
Tulsa, OK
74103

Opening Hours

Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 10am - 6pm

Telephone

+19183923483

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Bob Dylan Center posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Bob Dylan Center:

Shortcuts

Share

Category