Tulsa, Okla. – September 28, 2026 -- The Gilcrease Museum will reopen to the public in March 2027 inside a newly built facility, more than 75 years after its founding in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A New Building Designed to Hold 300,000 Works

The museum, founded by Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen and collector Thomas Gilcrease, houses more than 300,000 works and cultural materials spanning 12,000 years of history across the Americas. The new facility was designed by SmithGroup, with exhibition design handled by G&A.

Brian Lee Whisenhunt, executive director and CEO of Gilcrease, said the original founder envisioned a space where Indigenous and settler art and culture could be in conversation with one another. He said the new building is intended to give that vision room to fully take shape.

Tribal Partnerships Shape Collection Stewardship

Gilcrease maintains ongoing relationships with tribal nations that inform decisions on collection stewardship, repatriation, exhibitions and interpretation. The museum operates the only dedicated conservation department in Oklahoma, positioning it as a center for preservation and academic research.

Through its Helmerich Center for American Research, the museum provides academics, students and communities access to archival resources tied to the collection.

City-Owned, University-Managed Since Early 2000s

Gilcrease was established in 1949 and is owned by the City of Tulsa. The University of Tulsa has stewarded the museum for nearly two decades under a public-private partnership, overseeing collection care and expanding the institution's reach.

The museum said additional details on exhibitions, programs, new hiking and biking trails, and opening celebrations will be announced in the coming months ahead of the March 2027 public reopening.