Founded by Muscogee (Creek) collector Thomas Gilcrease, the renewed museum builds on its founder’s vision through deeper partnerships with tribal nations and new ways to engage with more than 300,000 works spanning the Americas.
TULSA, Okla., Sept. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — More than 75 years after Thomas Gilcrease, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, established a museum in Tulsa to tell the stories of the Americas, Gilcrease will reopen in March 2027 in a new purpose-built facility. Rooted in Tulsa, a city whose history and proximity to tribal nations have long shaped its mission, the renewed museum builds on its founder’s vision that the stories of the Americas are best understood by bringing together art, history and culture.
Designed by SmithGroup, with exhibition design by G&A, the new museum provides the space and infrastructure to fully realize that mission.
“Thomas Gilcrease envisioned a space where Indigenous and settler art and culture were in conversation with one another at a time when almost no one else thought that,” said Brian Lee Whisenhunt, executive director and CEO of Gilcrease. “Seventy-five years later, we’re giving that idea a building big enough to hold it.”
Gilcrease is home to one of the nation’s most interdisciplinary collections, comprising more than 300,000 works and cultural materials spanning 12,000 years of the Americas. The museum’s ongoing relationships with tribal nations inform its work across collection stewardship, repatriation, exhibitions and interpretation, reflecting a commitment to collaboration with the living communities whose cultures and knowledge the collection represents.
As Oklahoma’s only museum with a dedicated conservation department, Gilcrease is also a center for preservation and scholarship. Through the Helmerich Center for American Research, it provides academics, students and communities with access to extensive archival resources that deepen the understanding of the Americas and ensures these collections remain accessible for future generations.
Established in 1949, Gilcrease is owned by the City of Tulsa. Through an important public-private partnership, The University of Tulsa has stewarded Gilcrease for nearly two decades, caring diligently for the collection, working to increase affinity and support and expanding Tulsa’s global reach.
Additional details about exhibitions, programs, new hiking/biking trails and opening celebrations will be announced in the coming months as Gilcrease prepares to welcome the public in March 2027.
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SOURCE The University of Tulsa
