Excerpt: Bob Dylan Center by the architecture firm Olson Kundig is a synoptic, dynamic, and highly programmed space with holistic exhibit experiences. Understanding Dylan’s life and career as a portrait of transformation, Alan Maskin envisioned the Center as the embodiment of continual change, from the building’s architectural approach to its exhibit design and rotating installations.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Dedicated to the study and appreciation of Bob Dylan and his worldwide cultural significance, the new Bob Dylan Center traces the creative trajectory of this prolific artist across his 60-year career. Located in the Tulsa Arts District, the Center is envisioned as a dynamic, multifaceted venue, housing permanent, temporary, and travelling exhibitions readily accessible by artists, historians, musicologists, and the general public seeking a deeper comprehension of Dylan’s work, his influences, and the offshoots inspired by his legacy.
Olson Kundig was selected through an international design competition. The firm’s winning entry was focused on the notion of Bob Dylan as a “Master of Change.” Understanding Dylan’s life and career as a portrait of transformation, Design Principal Alan Maskin envisioned the new Bob Dylan Center as the embodiment of continual change, from the building’s architectural approach to its exhibit design and rotating installations.
The new Bob Dylan Center also serves as the primary public venue for The Bob Dylan Archive, a collection of more than 100,000 items spanning handwritten manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence, films, videos, artwork, memorabilia, and original studio recordings. While the archive’s permanent repository is open only to qualified researchers and scholars, a linear gallery wall and interactive display feature nearly 100 items from the collection for visitors to explore.
Since the 1960s, design principal Alan Maskin has been inspired by the role that change and reinvention have played in the creative life of Bob Dylan. Rather than create a monument to Bob Dylan in the traditional music museum sense, the designers imagined a synoptic, continually changing, and highly programmed facility featuring immersive exhibit experiences and rarely seen artifacts that will transform and grow along with the accompanying Bob Dylan Archive.
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