Editorial: We want the OKPOP museum to be built with the state’s help
OKPOP Museum located across from the historic Cain’s Ballroom would be a state tourism attraction. It should not fall to the donor class to finish the facility, especially considering the state’s more than $88 million in contributions to Oklahoma City’s First Americans Museum.
Anyone been to Philbrook Museum of Art? Crystal Bridges? Anyone you know come and visit and mention wanting to go to either of those places?
We have, too. Tulsa is lucky to have Philbrook. And, Bentonville, Arkansas, has been transformed by Crystal Bridges that opened just 13 years ago. The small town used to be known as the birthplace of Walmart. Now, it’s home to a museum that makes road-trip itineraries bend toward it.
We have that same chance with a different focus in Tulsa — just across the street from the historic Cain’s Ballroom — with the Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture.
Politics played a role in moving from its original spot on Archer Street and delayed its opening. It’s still largely empty, waiting to be completed, which is making a lot of people question the idea of it.
But we believe in OKPOP. We believe in world-class museums embedded in the heart of cities and the great possibilities those present to develop surrounding real estate.
Just as a traditional mall used to look for an anchor tenant, Tulsa has the chance for a dynamic duo of OKPOP and Cain’s Ballroom as anchor tenants that could change forever that part of downtown. So many local developers and businesses have invested.
Why won’t the state finish what it started and help the second-largest city create a museum to join its incredible roster?
What we need are leaders who understand that for cities to grow, there has to be investment. Tulsans know this and put their money behind a new Gilcrease Museum in the last city tax package.
The proof doesn’t end there. Tulsa boasts Philbrook, Greenwood Rising, Tulsa Air & Space Museum, The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, the Bob Dylan Center, the Woody Guthrie Center, the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum and Church Studio.
Don’t forget the Outsiders Museum, which proves that no matter how focused a place is, people come from all around, even the celebrities, to check it out.
Think what is possible when tapping into the rich archives of pop culture created by Oklahomans and created in Oklahoma? It’s a place where people who don’t like museums will want to go.
We don’t see an argument for not supporting and investing in OKPOP at the state level to get it open. We are all for private funding, but we should not have gotten to this point. We shouldn’t have to ask the donor class to complete something that will be a state attraction boasted by the government’s tourism department.
The state Legislature chipped in more than $88 million to Oklahoma City’s First Americans Museum through bonds and direct funding. OKPOP is certainly as worthy.
The lights are on, the archive of possible exhibits is full and everyone with a ticket to a Cain’s show will park early so they can see the latest exhibit, displaying the creativity and the imagination of Oklahomans and telling a story of those who created pop culture throughout the years, from S.E. Hinton to Ralph Ellison, from Leon Russell to Ernie Fields, from Brad Pitt to Alfre Woodard.
It’s time for the state to support a museum in Tulsa that is built.
