Hear the latest “inside” news on from Gilcrease Museum by participating in our members-only virtual events. Keep up to date on our construction project, discoveries from the archive, secrets of the vault and more in a lively discussion with question and answer format. Members, watch your inbox for invitations and instructions on how to attend these exclusive events. Be sure to check our Members Online page for other member updates.
Gilcrease Inside Out: A Panoply of Paintings: Current Conservation Projects at Gilcrease Museum
During this special, members-only webinar, our Chief Conservator Jacinta Noble shared examples of conservation work that’s recently been completed. Learn about the difference conservation treatments can make in how items look when they’re on display and hear about some unexpected discoveries we have made about works in our collection! Longtime Gilcrease members, Cathy and Steve Herrin, made a very generous challenge gift of $100,000 to support conservation of collection items, a good number of which need to be treated before the museum reopens in 2026.
Gilcrease Inside Out: New Discoveries, Never-Been-Seen Collections, and New Acquisitions in the Future Gilcrease Galleries
As the Gilcrease Curators research and develop future exhibitions for the new building, we are finding new ways to display the Gilcrease collections and are also planning to include several exciting recent acquisitions. In this presentation, curators Laura Fry and Chelsea Herr shared insights into unexpected discoveries along the way and provided a sneak peek of some of the new and never-before-seen works that will be on display in the new Gilcrease Museum.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Executive Director’s Update: A Bright Future Ahead
Executive Director Susan Neal gives a special members-only update on the bright future for Gilcrease Museum. In this virtual presentation, Susan highlighted recent and upcoming activities of the museum, including the latest information on fundraising, construction, conservation, and more!
Gilcrease Inside Out: Learning from the Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection
In 2020, Gilcrease Museum was honored to receive the extraordinary personal archive of one of Oklahoma’s most important African American women leaders, Eddie Faye Gates; a researcher, writer, historian, educator, and community activist. The Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection reflects her life’s work documenting the memories and lived experiences of Oklahomans that most history books left out. With a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Gilcrease digitized the collections photographs and videos, worked with community members to add tags and comments on items to make them more easily searchable, and developed teaching guides for K-12 educators.
In this video, hear about the project from Dr. William Smith, Associate Director of the Helmerich Center for American Research, and Alison Rossi, Anne and Henry Zarrow Director of Learning & Community Engagement.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Gilcrease Member’s Virtual Happy Hour
Hear from Gilcrease’s Executive Director Susan Neal about the museum’s accomplishments in 2022, followed by toasts by three special guests:
• Dr. Jay Harrison, Associate Professor of History of Hood College, a recent Helmerich Center for American Research Short-Term Fellow
• Dr. Wennette Pegues, a Gillie, and long-time museum member
• Josh Starks, Senior Vice Commander (Army) of VFW Post 577, a Community Advisory Council member and Gilcrease in Your Neighborhood partner
Gilcrease Inside Out: Designing a New Gilcrease
Find out from Executive Director Susan Neal and Senior Curator and Curator of Art Laura Fry what it takes to design galleries for an entirely new museum building. In this video, they share an overview of the exhibition design process from its starting point with an analysis of the permanent collection and conversation with the Tulsa community. They also discuss the research and planning work happening today.
Break and Build: An Inside Look at the Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection
In this members-only webinar, Dr. Autumn Brown, a research scholar who has worked with the collection for a year and a half, offers an inside look at the Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection. She shares insights that she’s gained about Eddie Faye Gates’ life and work, the importance of Greenwood and North Tulsa beyond the Race Massacre, and the many ways the area thrives today. This presentation is an adaption of Dr. Brown’s remarks at the second Annual Eddie Faye Gates Lecture, entitled “Break and Build: They can break, but they can’t erase—they can build, but they can’t bury”, delivered on August 25, 2022.
Sneak Peek: New Online Collections Content
Enjoy this virtual members-only presentation with Diana Folsom, Director of Digital Collections, as gives you a sneak peek of the new images, essays, artist biographies, and thematic browses that art lovers, students, and scholars will be able to explore soon. After three years of research on its Indigenous paintings and Thomas and Mary Nimmo Moran holdings, Gilcrease is preparing to share its findings by unveiling new online resources for more than 3,800 items. This project was made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Gilcrease at Crystal Bridges
In this video, Laura Fry, Gilcrease’s Senior Curator and Curator of Art, and Mindy N. Besaw, PhD, Crystal Bridges’ Curator of American Art and Director of Research, Fellowships and University Partnerships, discuss what members could look forward to on Gilcrease’s member bus trip to Crystal Bridges. Dr. Besaw also talks about how Crystal Bridges is integrating the Gilcrease works on long-term loan into their exhibitions and galleries.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Mary Nimmo Moran – A Woman Artist in the Nineteenth Century
Enjoy this virtual members-only discussion about 19th-century artist Mary Nimmo Moran, spouse of Thomas Moran, from Dr. Sandra Pauly, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Moran Collection Research. Dr. Pauly discusses Mary Nimmo Moran’s background, her early etched works, her approach to creating an etching, and some of her female artistic contemporaries, such as her sister-in-law Emily Kelley Moran. Dr. Pauly’s work is part of a project supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. (This video was re-recorded due to internet connectivity issues during the virtual event.)
Gilcrease Inside Out: Brewed for Gilcrease Preview
Enjoy this conversation with Alex Foster of The Nook Brewing Co. and Jonathan Neff of NEFF Brewing, two of the local craft brewers who participated in the inaugural Brewed for Gilcrease, which was held on Saturday, April 16, 2022. Learn about the history of both breweries, the state of craft beer in the Tulsa metro, and the inspiration behind the beers each debuted at the event.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Introducing Curations by Gilcrease Museum
Museum Store Director Melanie Rosencutter previews Gilcrease’s temporary retail space and community engagement gallery, Curations by Gilcrease Museum, at the Shops at Mother Road Market. Discover what goods and activities you, our members, and the greater Tulsa community can encounter in these spaces.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Introducing Dr. Mark Boxell, the newest Duane H. King Postdoctoral Fellow
In this members-only webinar, Helmerich Center of American Research Associate Director Dr. Billy Smith introduces the Helmerich Center’s third Duane H. King Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Mark Boxell, who shares his research exploring the early twentieth century intersection between race, land, and the petroleum industry in Indian Territory as well as connections between his scholarship and the Gilcrease collection.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Learning & Community Engagement Update
During this members-only webinar, hear from Alison Rossi, the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation Director of Learning & Community Engagement at Gilcrease, and find out how the Museum is reaching out to, serving and listening to Tulsa communities. Learn more about the Learning & Community Engagement team’s collaboration with Tulsa Public Schools, the museum’s partnership plans with Smarthistory, the most visited art history web resource in the world, and much more.
Gilcrease Inside Out: 2021 A Year to Remember
During this members-only event, Executive Director Susan Neal hosts a members-only virtual toast and looks back on 2021 and looks forward to 2022. With toasts by special guests, the event celebrates our many accomplishments and previews what’s in store for the new year.
Special Guests:
- Ivan O’Garro, Associate, SmithGroup and Lead Architect for Gilcrease Museum
- Deborah Horowitz, Exhibitions and Collections Consultant
- Cristina Cruz González, PhD, Associate Professor, Art History, Oklahoma State University
Gilcrease Inside Out: Executive Director’s Update
During this members-only event, Executive Director Susan Neal updates members on the recent and upcoming activities, including the ongoing moving process, the latest on museum design, future construction activity and more.
Identity and Place: Highlights from Gilcrease’s Native American Art and Archive Collections
During this members-only event, research scholar Roxanne Beason shares insights on works by contemporary Native American artist, Harry Fonseca (Nisenan Maidu, Hawaiian, Portuguese) including Two Coyotes with Flags and other paintings in his popular Coyote series. Additionally, Dr. Chelsea Herr, Jack and Maxine Zarrow Curator for Indigenous Art and Culture, shares highlights from the museum’s archival holdings and how these items speak to ideas of land, placemaking and home.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Membership in a Time of Change
Gilcrease has experienced significant change in the past year and a half, and museum membership has changed as well. The museum continues to adapt to a changing environment and create opportunities for members to safely participate in the life of the museum. Join Frank Mulhern, Senior Director of Development, to learn more about what members can expect from Gilcrease in the coming months. Note: Since this recording, the date of the October members-only virtual event has changed to October 19th at 6:00 PM.
Movin’ Out: “But what will you do with all of the art?!”
Go behind the scenes with Chief Preparator Curt Selby and learn what it takes to safely relocate the Gilcrease collection. Curt shares details on the planning, crating and logistics of carefully organizing and moving thousands of pieces of art in anticipation of the new museum building.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Building Project Update
During this members-only event, Susan Neal shares concept renderings of the new 83,500-square-foot building that will create new opportunities for Gilcrease to explore broad, complex stories of American history, art and culture. The re-envisioned museum will present a much-improved visitor experience and state-of-the-art exhibition space meeting today’s standards for care of the collection and touring exhibitions.
Assignment Tulsa: Through the Eyes of Gilcrease Museum Members
Assignment Tulsa, a collaboration between Gilcrease Museum and the Photographers of Tulsa Oklahoma Group (PHOTOG), is an exhibition of 49 photographs that showcases the many things that make Tulsa such a special place to live. Join Curator of History Mark Dolph and four of the featured PHOTOG photographers, Kathy Desruisseau, Anitra Lavanhar, Cindy McKinney and Dave Muller – all of whom are also Gilcrease members – as they discuss the inspirations, challenges and rewards of getting their winning shots.
Thomas Moran and Mary Nimmo Moran: Partners in Art
Gilcrease Museum holds the single largest collection of works by artists Thomas Moran and his wife Mary Nimmo Moran, including more than 2,000 paintings, drawings, and prints. The majority of these artworks have never been digitized or published, but will be soon. During this virtual event, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar Sandra Pauly and Gilcrease Senior Curator Laura Fry discuss Sandra’s research into Thomas and Mary’s relationship and their works in the Gilcrease collection. This project is made possible through a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Time did not allow Sandra and Laura to answer two questions posed by attendees during the presentation’s Q&A portion. Here are those questions and answers from Sandra:
Q: How much more research into the Morans remains to be done as a part of this project?
A: I continue to work on the couple’s etchings of Long Island and their collaborative commercial work. I will look at a few of Thomas Moran’s late oil paintings of both the American West and Long Island, works completed after Mary’s death in 1899. I will also research some artworks created by other Moran family members, which are part of the Gilcrease Moran collection. I will look at some prints by Thomas’s brother Peter and his wife Emily Kelley Moran, as well as Stephen James Ferris, also a printmaker, who married Thomas’s sister Elizabeth. Art was the family business!
Q: And the chromolithographs?
A: I plan to do some research on the chromolithographs. The Gilcrease collection has several fine examples, such as Grand Cañon of the Colorado River, Arizona, 1892.
The Indigenous Painting Collection: Relationships Through Time and Territory
Gilcrease Museum’s Indigenous Paintings Collection spans more than 150 years and consists of more than 2,500 objects from hide paintings to ledger drawings, tempera paintings and contemporary art. During this virtual event, Jordan Poorman Cocker discussed collection-based research that focalizes the trajectory of 2D Indigenous paintings of Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). This project is made possible through a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Gilcrease Inside Out: Building Project Update
During this members-only webinar, Executive Director Susan Neal shared information about our special plans and events leading up to the closing date, including the museum’s spring concert series, as well as how the museum will remain active in the community during construction of the new museum. Susan Buchanan, Director of Collections, and Diana Folsom, Director of Digital Collections, discussed the logistics of moving about 200,000 objects of the museum’s collection as the first step in the process of closing the current museum building and preparing for construction of a new Gilcrease Museum.
Radical Remembrance: The Collections-Based Work of Yatika Starr Fields
This members-only virtual event explored the work of painter Yatika Starr Fields (Osage/Cherokee/Muscogee [Creek]). Fields created Half Moon Night, Medicine and Remembrance using Gilcrease’s collection of Native American Church materials for his subject matter. During this virtual event, Jack and Maxine Zarrow Curator for Indigenous Art and Culture Dr. Chelsea Herr discussed Half Moon Night, Medicine and Remembrance, acquired by Gilcrease Museum. Field’s piece, drawing on both his community’s and the museum’s histories, explores the complexity of collections practices and institutional responsibility to source communities.
Reflections on Being In the Studio with Shan Goshorn
In this video, we explored Phase II of Weaving History into Art: The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn. The exhibition, featuring 23 new Goshorn baskets, which is on display through Sunday, March 28. During this virtual event, Curator of History Mark Dolph spoke with Rose McCracken, Lorae Davis and Robin Green Tilly, each of whom spent time in the studio with Shan discussing concepts and watching her create several of the monumental baskets included in Phase II.
Artist Talk with Michael Scott
Painter Michael Scott creates powerful images of the American landscape, inspired by the 19th-century American painters Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, and other Hudson River School artists. Scott’s large-scale paintings in his “Preternatural” series portray the elemental forces of fire, ice, and water in the landscape. Landscapes on Fire: Paintings by Michael Scott was on display at Gilcrease Museum through February 21.
Members’ Virtual Happy Hour
In this virtual members happy hour, we bid a very fond farewell to 2020. Executive Director Susan Neal highlighted the museum’s accomplishments in 2020 and was joined by special guests Tulsa Public School Nutrition Instructor Liz Lazar, collectors Kerry and C. Betty Davis, and Gilcrease Council members Tom and Judy King.
#Gilcrease Now: Members Meeting
As part of the Vision project to develop a new Gilcrease Museum, we have reached out to a number of diverse groups to learn how we can better serve you and our community and sought input in an interactive forum. Jame Anderson, Director of Cultural Practice at SmithGroup in Washington, DC and lead for the Gilcrease Museum project, was on hand to share how museums are adapting to meet the needs of a changing world and museum industry.
Mexican Modernism and Diego Rivera: A Closer Look
On September 22, Alison Rossi, Director of Learning and Community Engagement and curator of “Mexican Modernism: Revolution & Reckoning,” hosted this members-only webinar. Rossi discussed how Diego Rivera shaped both Mexican culture and 20th century art and explored how the artist’s works featured in the exhibition shed light on his process and personal life.
Virtual Opening: Weaving History into Art
This virtual opening includes a first look at the exhibition Weaving History into Art: The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn with Curator of History Mark Dolph and Jack and Maxine Zarrow Curator for Indigenous Art and Culture Chelsea Herr. The event features appearances by the four contemporary artists whose work is presented in the exhibition, Anita Fields, Holly Wilson, Carole Emarthle-Douglas, Lisa Rutherford. The evening concluded with a reading by United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit arts.gov
Gilcrease Inside Out: Helmerich Center for American Research
During this members-only webinar, Assistant Director of Research Dr. William Smith, Research Fellow Dr. Travis Jeffres and newly-appointed Duane King Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Jenny Forsythe discuss their work, recent projects and some of the documents within the Gilcrease archives.
Tales from the Archive Gilcrease Museum’s Spanish Colonial Manuscripts Collection
In this members-only webinar, Dr. Travis Jeffres, Research Fellow at the Helmerich Center for American Research, explores the Spanish Colonial Manuscripts Collection — a 25,780-page collection of singular importance for the history and cultures of the Americas. Documents in this collection range from Europeans’ first arrival in Mexico in the early 16th century to the rise of Mexico as an Independent Nation in 1821.
Gilcrease Inside Out: July 28
View the recording of this members-only webinar with Executive Director Susan Neal. Get the inside scoop on the latest developments in the Vision project, and hear about what is in store now that the museum is reopening to the public. This webinar included a presentation followed by a question and answer session.
Weaving History into Art: The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn
Learn more about the highly anticipated exhibition, Weaving History into Art: The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn. This event included a presentation on the exhibition, followed by a question-and-answer session with curator of history Mark Dolph.
Master the Online Collections
Join us for a members-only webinar exploring the Gilcrease online collections website. In this webinar, you will learn tips and tricks to better navigate the online collection and increase your search success, followed by a live question-and-answer session with Imaging Services Manager and Piction Database Administrator, Joseph Carriger.
Looking Forward: A Members-Only Webinar
Get the inside scoop on the exciting future of Gilcrease, and learn more about recent accomplishments and developments in this webinar recording with Executive Director Susan Neal. This webinar includes a presentation followed by a question and answer session.
Revealing Revere
Our first members only virtual event took place Tuesday, May 12. In case you missed it, enjoy the recording below featuring the presenters’ audio and the accompanying presentation and question and answer session.
Want to learn more about Paul Revere? Take a look at these videos referenced in the presentation.
View the Paul Revere Certification online.