Keep the Pop A-Rollin

It never hurts to be first in line when you're asking for money, especially from the state Legislature.

Perhaps that explains the timing of last week's press conference by state and city officials announcing the beginning of a campaign to bring a museum focusing on the state's contributions to popular culture to Tulsa.

The museum, which would be called Oklahoma Pop, is planned for the Brady district and comes at a price tag of $33 million. Dr. Bob Blackburn, executive director of the state Historical Society, said the organization has asked state lawmakers--now in the final days of the current session--to approve a $25 million bond issue to help fund the project next year.

Blackburn smiled when asked if museum supporters were trying to position their request at the top of the 2010 list for legislators, who are virtually guaranteed to face an even tighter budget next year than they have this year.

"Absolutely," he said.

But rather than wait until the state and national economies have rallied, Blackburn believes the time is now to start planning the proposed 45,000-square-foot facility that will have a broad focus: music, radio, television, performance venues, concerts, movies and Route 66, all created or strongly influenced by Oklahomans.

"It's time we do this in Tulsa," Blackburn said after the May 19 press conference at Lola's at the Bowery, where he was joined by Mayor Kathy Taylor and Ken Levit, president of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, who announced a $1 million challenge grant for the project.

"We've never invested anything in Tulsa. We've always had a rural-dominated Legislature, so we've got facilities in Fort Towsson, Fort Supply, Enid and a lot of other cities because that's where the legislative leadership has come from over the last hundred years."

The society already operates more than 30 museums, historic sites and battlefields across the state. But with the speaker of the state House of Representatives, Chris Benge, hailing from Tulsa now, Blackburn figures the time is right to give the state's second-largest city its due.

"A museum honoring the state's creative class should be in Tulsa because no other community (in the state) can compare," he said. "We need a footprint here."

Blackburn said during the press conference that at least three sites are under consideration for the project, all of them in the Brady district. The project's proposed budget calls for $25 million to be spent on land acquisition and construction, $5 million to put together the exhibits and $3 million to create an endowment that would be deposited with the Tulsa Community Foundation, a sum expected to generate $150,000 a year in interest to keep the exhibits fresh and changing.

If that $25 million bond issue request is approved by the Legislature next year, the architectural and exhibit design process would begin then, along with the planning phase for the fundraising campaign. The museum is not projected to open until the summer of 2013.

The building design would bring another iconic presence to an area that already is home to Cain's Ballroom and the Brady Theater, and will welcome ONEOK Field in the spring of 2010. The front of the building will feature a 50-foot-by-80-foot media façade for full LED video presentations and promotional information. Its entryway is described as the "wow room," an area that touches on all the elements of pop culture while doubling as a special events venue.

The building's top floor will feature a replica of a 1950s coffee shop café called the Pop Top that offers views of the downtown skyline.

The building also will feature 16,000 square feet of exhibit space, 7,000 square feet for special events and programming, a gift shop and affiliated spaces for research, admissions, storage, offices and restrooms. Surrounding the museum would be a lot with 140 controlled parking spaces, green space to support programs and space for future expansion.

The museum's annual operating budget is projected at $1.5 million.

Taylor led off the May 19 press conference by citing Tulsa's efforts to revitalize its downtown with a new arena and ballpark, among other projects, and noting the impact those investments have had on the city's image.

"They're hearing about us in one of the most important places, to me," she said. "That's at the other end of the turnpike at the state Capitol."

Levit followed by talking about how his organization's discussions with the Historical Society have unfolded over the last few years as both entities discussed the need for the OHS to have a presence in Tulsa. He spoke about how successful the new Oklahoma History Center has been in Oklahoma City.

"We think this project here can be as pivotal . . . as that one is," he said.

Our Story

Blackburn said the concept for the Tulsa project has undergone a good deal of evolution since those original conversations. In its original form, the project was planned as a rock 'n' roll museum, then a country-and-western museum.

"Neither was entirely right," he said. "Music alone was not the ultimate goal here."

The concept finally grew into a museum celebrating the state's considerable contributions to pop culture, a place where the careers of everyone from Bob Wills, Charlie Christian, Woody Guthrie, Wanda Jackson, Garth Brooks and Leon Russell could be celebrated alongside those of Will Rogers, Tony Randall, Mary Kay Place, Paul Harvey and Tom Mix.

"All of this can be part of our story," Blackburn said, explaining that such a museum drawing on shared memories can help residents make some sense of what they're experiencing as Oklahomans.

Blackburn elaborated on that theme after the press conference, addressing the way Oklahomans have embraced so many elements of their culture in recent years after decades of seemingly ignoring everything except football and the oil business.

"The centennial had a lot to do with that," he said. "And the History Center made a difference."

Blackburn believes Oklahomans are finally leaving behind the negative self-image that resulted from the hard times of the 1930s and 1940s.

"We've always had a chip on our shoulder about 'The Grapes of Wrath,' but that's changing," he said. "Maybe now we can even celebrate 'The Grapes of Wrath.'"

Oklahoma Pop will present an opportunity to help celebrate the career of one of the leading chroniclers of that era, famed songwriter Woody Guthrie, who until a few years ago was still largely a pariah in his home state because of his ties to the American Communist Party. Guthrie's daughter Nora, director of the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York, has been touring the country presenting a program featuring "The Live Wire," a recently restored recording of her father and mother performing in Newark, N.J., in 1949. While in Oklahoma to present a program at the Blue Door in Oklahoma City a few weeks ago, Guthrie met with Levit to discuss the possibility of the Woody Guthrie Archives being involved in the Oklahoma Pop project.

"We've been talking to the Woody Guthrie Archives about drawing a connection between the archives in New York and the museum," Levit said. "We've had some interesting, good conversations, and we hope some practical results will come of it."

Levit cautioned that no firm agreement has been reached yet, but he said Guthrie seemed receptive to the idea.

"She has a great love for Oklahoma and a great respect that this is where Woody came from, and an absolute desire to deepen the connection," Levit said.

As for the immediate future of the project, Blackburn likened the press conference as a call to action and said the next step in the process is for the conversation about the project's future to be expanded.

"We need to be prepared for the next legislative session," he said. "We need the state of Oklahoma to invest in this."

He also cautioned against waiting to pursue the project until the financial picture improves. He pointed out that much of the fund raising planning for the Oklahoma History Center was done during the economic slowdown of the mid-1990s.

"We feel strongly you have to keep planting the seeds for future harvest," he said, adding that periodic economic downturns are inevitable. "This is the third revenue shortfall I've experienced as an agency administrator."

He also promised the museum will feature first-class exhibits.

"One thing we have to do is keep our standards high," he said. "Anything less than Smithsonian quality is not OK."