Gilcrease Magazine – Fall 2019

GILCREASE MAGAZINE FA L L 2 019

DOROTHEA LANGE'S AMERICA Sept. 13 - Jan. 5, 2020 Discover the images that focused the nation on the trials and tribulations of the Great Depression.

IN THIS ISSUE

E X H I B I T I O N F E AT U R E

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DOROTHEA LANGE'S AMERICA Discover the images that focused the nation on the trials and tribulations of the Great Depression.

Like us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter and Instagram @GilcreaseMuseum.

Gilcrease Museum’s 2019 exhibition season is sponsored by William S. Smith.

Generous support is also provided by C.W. Titus Foundation, Robin F. Ballenger, Arts Alliance Tulsa and the Gilcrease Council.

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FELLOWSHIPS FURTHER SCHOLARSHIP Helmerich Center for American Research launches new opportunities.

GIFT FROM THE HEART Meet the woman behind the Zarrow collection. Learn how one family’s generosity will impact Gilcrease and Tulsa forever.

VOLUME 27, NUMBER 4 FALL 2019

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MEXICAN MODERNISM Witness a country in the midst of dynamic transformation in this new exhibition.

PROGRAMMED FOR THE COMMUNITY Learn about the philosophy behind our diverse offering of programs and events.

IN THE KNOW: MEMBERSHIP U P D AT E S Catch the latest about our new technology and how it will enhance the member experience.

Dorothea Lange, Five tenant farmers without farms, Hardeman County, Texas, 1938

Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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DIRECTOR'S REPORT

This summer was one for the record books.

In June, the Mayor’s Gilcrease Vision Task Force announced the architect-design team of SmithGroup and 1Architecture to lead our historic renovation and expansion, and in July announced Flintco as the construction manager. Bringing both global and local experience to the table, we couldn’t be more excited about these selections. With the architects now in place and our interpretive plan in hand, design will be underway this fall. With many variables still ahead, preliminary design will be completed in 2020.

In July, we received news from the Henry Luce Foundation that we were named the recipient of an $890,000 grant—the largest single grant from a national foundation in Gilcrease history! This award will result in focused research, conservation treatments and digital curation of two large collections—Thomas Moran and Mary Nimmo Moran, and Native American painting traditions in Oklahoma—providing access to more than 3,800 objects. With work slated to begin in early 2020, we will welcome new scholars and museum professionals to Gilcrease to delve into these collections as we take the first step in being able to exhibit them for the world.

This summer also saw large crowds due to popular exhibitions and diverse programming. Over the course of one week, more than 6,500 visitors flocked to the museum to view our copy of the Declaration of Independence. Additionally, Funday Sunday, Gilcrease After Hours and summer camp continued to attract new audiences to the museum keeping our galleries filled with inquiry, energy and enthusiasm.

As the tide continues to rise at Gilcrease, thank you for your continued support.

Your membership matters to us, and I always welcome your input and visits.

Sincerely,

Susan Neal Executive Director of Gilcrease Museum and Helmerich Center for American Research Vice President for Public Affairs, The University of Tulsa

Henry Luce Foundation Grant

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Summer Camp

Gilcrease After Hours

FRAMING THE FUTURE Combining international museum experience with local insight, the duo of SmithGroup and 1Architecture has teamed up for the historic renovation and expansion of Gilcrease. With more than 30 architecture firms from across the country and overseas applying for the job, these two firms exhibited extensive track records of success across a multitude of projects, including museums and cultural centers. Additionally, Tulsa’s own Flintco will serve as the construction manager working in partnership with both design firms.

With all the pieces now in place, the design process is officially underway.

A B O U T O U R PA R T N E R S SMITHGROUP

1ARCHITECTURE Locally-owned 1Architecture has developed a national reputation for sustainable design, urban revitalization, and culturally sensitive Native American work. With a focus on providing environmentally sensitive solutions, they are a full-service design firm offering architectural design, construction administration and consulting.

FLINTCO Tulsa company Flintco ranks among the largest commercial contractors in the nation. With offices across the country, it is their personal approach and community-first focus that separates them.

Working alongside SmithGroup, 1Architecture and Gallagher & Associates, they will utilize a Tulsa-based workforce to manage the project.

With 15 offices worldwide, integrated design firm SmithGroup has in-depth museum renovation and expansion expertise. While their portfolio includes development projects and healthcare, highereducation and workplace facilities, they are most widely known for their work with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Highlights of their museum experience includes the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Smithsonian), National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian), Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Museum of the Bible and International Spy Museum.

Museum of the Bible © Alex Fradkin, courtesy of SmithGroup

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture © Alan Karchmer / OTTO, courtesy of SmithGroup

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E X H I B I T I O N F E AT U R E

DOR0THEA LANGE’S

AMERICA

By Mark Dolph, Curator of History

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ctober 29, 2019, will mark 90 years since the onset of the Great Depression, the most devastating economic collapse in the history of not only the United States, but the industrialized world. To help remember and contextualize this tragic event, Gilcrease Museum presents Dorothea Lange’s America (Sept. 13, 2019 – Jan. 5, 2020).

While it may be cliché to suggest that art and suffering can be closely connected, it is nonetheless true that the Great Depression served as the catalyst for a

Dorothea Lange, Funeral cortege, end of an era in a small valley town, California, 1938 Dorothea Lange, Rural Landscape with "Grapes of Wrath" Billboard, California, 1940

tremendous outburst of creative energy in America's photographic community.

The devastation wreaked upon the country by the Depression inspired a host of socially conscious photographers to capture the many painful stories of the time. Dorothea Lange’s America presents those stories with 30 original lifetime prints of photographs by Lange, as well as 25 works by 11 other notable social documentarians who used their cameras to effect change: Mike Disfarmer, Arnold Eagle, Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Wright Morris, Arthur Rothstein,

Ben Shawn, Doris Ulmann, John Vachon, Willard Van Dyke and Marion Post Wolcott.

Pre-eminent among these photographers was Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). Her empathetic images of migrant workers, suffering families and tortured landscapes seared the wreckage of the Depression into America’s consciousness. Her most celebrated photographs of the era – Migrant Mother, White Angel Breadline and Migratory Cotton Picker – have become icons in American cultural history.

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Dorothea Lange, White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1933 Dorothea Lange, Girl with Mattress Springs, California, 1935 Dorothea Lange, Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona, 1940 Dorothea Lange, Woman in Trailer Camp, California, 1940

urban, native-born and immigrant.

Lange drew on her strength as a portrait photographer to bring the plight of America’s poorest and most forgotten people to the nation’s attention. Her photographs made the human cost of the Depression personal through images that documented the toll the Depression was taking on the nation. The evidence was seen in the long lines of desperate, jobless men, migrants searching for work, and impoverished families living in squalid conditions.

"She rejected her mother's choice of a teaching career, declaring—even before she had ever touched a camera—that she would be a photographer."

The importance of Lange’s Depressionera work was recognized almost immediately, and led to a long and fruitful collaboration with President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal's Farm Security Administration. After World War II, Lange was the first woman photographer to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, helped found Aperture magazine and was honored by the Museum of Modern Art with a career retrospective. But her most important achievement is that her photographs of the Great Depression helped to alleviate the suffering of the very people she chronicled by raising public awareness of the dire need for federal assistance and provided the evidence needed to convince Congress to provide it.

Like the people she documented for the Farm Security Administration, Lange knew adversity. Born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, at age seven she was stricken with polio, which left her with a lifetime limp. At age 12, her

father abandoned the family leaving an impoverished household in his wake.

Perhaps in defiance of the odds aligned against her, Lange’s life was marked by a consistent display of independence.

As a child, she skipped school, preferring instead to wander the ethnic neighborhoods of lower Manhattan.

She rejected her mother's choice of a teaching career, declaring—even before she had ever touched a camera—that she would be a photographer. Lange then headed west to San Francisco to make a living in her chosen field.

Within a few months of her move west she opened a thriving portrait studio that catered to San Francisco’s professional class and moneyed elite. But it was the onset of the Great Depression that led Lange to her true calling. In the midst of human misery, she took her large Graflex camera out of her studio and on the road to become a nomadic chronicler of the many faces of America: young and old, rural and

A unique addition to Dorothea Lange’s America, as presented at Gilcrease Museum, is a revealing focus on Lange’s photograph Migrant Mother, the defining example of her documentary style. A photographic masterwork, this portrait communicates not only the hardship and deprivation seen in the face of its subject, Florence Owens Thompson, but highlights Thompson’s resolute strength and dignity as well. This in-depth look at Migrant Mother promises to engage visitors by placing this masterwork into a new context.

Dorothea Lange’s America offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience the Great Depression through the photographs of Lange and her contemporaries, while considering the power of photography to transform America for the better. All works in this exhibition are drawn from the private collection of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg. The exhibition has been organized by art2art Circulating Exhibitions.

Migrant Mother: Art or Propaganda?

Sept. 20 | 1 p.m.

Hear from Curator of History Mark Dolph at the Gilcrease Forum as he leads an informative discussion on Lange’s masterpiece, Migrant Mother.

Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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FELLOWSHIPS FURTHER SCHOLARSHIP New work taking place at The University of Tulsa’s Helmerich Center for American Research (HCAR) at Gilcrease Museum is laying the foundation for expanding scholarship in the humanities. Academics are invited to participate in research fellowships, travel grants and post-doctoral fellowships.

Natalie Panther, assistant director of the Center from 2017-2019, said these recent additions present exciting research opportunities.

“The new research programs will bring in a diverse group of researchers and academics who are looking to use the vast resources here to further their

Research in TU's McFarlin Library 8

research projects,” said Panther. “Their work will in turn shine back on the wealth of unique assets housed here further enhancing our reputation as a nationally renowned research center.”

The research fellowships include five short-term fellowships for the 2019-20 academic year. These fellowships are available for pre- and post-doctoral research or independent research with a stipend of $2,500 and give fellows access to the Gilcrease Archives, which contain more than 100,000 rare books, documents, maps and unpublished work, along with the collection of The University of Tulsa's (TU) McFarlin Library.

The 2019 selection of fellows brought in scholars from across North America.

One such fellow, Michelle Martin, a doctoral candidate in the history department at the University of Mexico, worked on her project Dark Taboo: Kate and Douglas Bemo, Interracial Marriage, and the Power in the Indian Territory, 1870-1898 while in residence this summer.

Martin explained one appeal of the fellowship was the amount of exclusive information about her topic housed within HCAR. “The center was a fantastic wealth of information for me, and I knew I wanted to research here, but that was

Michelle Martin in the Reading Room

only made possible by the short-term fellowship,” said Martin. “The unique relationship between The University of Tulsa and the Gilcrease Museum gives researchers a fantastic opportunity to take advantage of two collections of research materials.”

According to Martin, whose project studies individuals from different races marrying in Indian Territories near the turn of the 20th century, her research is growing more relevant with each passing day.

“We’re becoming a more diverse society; people of different races, faiths and ethnicities are having families,” she said.

“By looking at the past, maybe we will be able to create better relationships for people from different ethnic groups in the future.”

While most of the fellowships last for two weeks to a month, the Duane H.

King Post-Doctoral Fellowship hosts scholars for a year. Fellows will not only research at HCAR, but also teach a fall and spring course at TU, giving them another opportunity to get involved with the Tulsa community and allowing students access to another accomplished intellectual voice.

Northern Michigan University and a freelance author and researcher from Pennsylvania.

The current Duane H. King PostDoctoral Fellow is Travis Jeffries of Colgate University. Jeffries is in residence from August 2019 to May 2020, working on The Mexican Indian Diaspora in the Greater Southwest, 15401680. He will share his knowledge in the American Republic class at TU this fall.

“Scholars from across the country and across humanities disciplines have the opportunity to delve into the research center’s extensive archival collections and participate in the intellectual life of the University of Tulsa. The Helmerich Center for American Research functions as a kind of incubator where ideas, conversations and people come together and benefit from a nurturing scholarly community in order to produce innovative and collaborative research.”

The travel grants, the third new research opportunity, will bring researchers to the Helmerich Center for on-site research for up to two weeks. The lineup of people receiving travel grants through 2020 include doctoral candidates, an anthropology professor from

Panther said that while the new opportunities will expand knowledge about HCAR, it will also work to strengthen the relationship between Gilcrease Museum and the university.

Meet the fellows at gilcrease.org/news/fellows.

Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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GIFT FROM THE HEART Gilcrease Museum has inspired thousands of visitors over the span of its 70-year history. While some arrive seeking to find a specific collection or piece, others arrive and discover a world they would have otherwise never known.

Maxine Zarrow is that rare example of someone whose life was changed by Gilcrease and who has, in turn, changed the life of the museum through her generosity. She credits her late husband, Jack, for making it possible.

“Jack was asked to join the museum board not long after the museum opened,” she recalled. “ I told him I

thought it was the greatest thing that could happen to either of us.”

Jack accepted the offer and by doing so, set them both on a path of discovery.

Neither had any experience collecting art, nor had ever considered it, according to Maxine. “For two people who really didn’t know much about art, it didn’t take long to find our interest.

We started with things that were around.

We’d read about different openings and galleries, and it just grew.”

And grow it did. Although Maxine doesn’t know exactly how many works of art she and Jack acquired over the

years, their office and home filled with numerous pieces by artists, many of them Native American.

In recent years, Maxine has shared the fruits of the couple’s lifelong collecting adventure for others to enjoy. She’s gifted more than 50 pieces to Gilcrease, including 20 in late 2018. These gifts ensure Maxine and Jack will forever remain a part of Gilcrease.

With family origins in Texas and Oklahoma, Maxine is proud of her family’s roots.

“My mother came to the U.S. at age 16,” she recalled. “My folks lived in Indian Territory and had a store in Valliant.”

Her father would end up meeting her mother at the store and eventually bought it. After living there for 15 years, they moved to Vernon, Texas. Maxine attended the University of Oklahoma then the University of Texas. Oklahoma and Texas were a part of her family for a long time.

As a result, much of the Zarrow collection reflects the land and people who also called this part of the country home. That sense of place prompted Maxine to continue her support of the museum after losing Jack in 2012.

“We loved Gilcrease. It was amazing.

It was a fun thing, too. It was not as sophisticated as it is now. Neither of us knew much about art. There were great people on the board; people that really loved the art. A lot of them collected at that time. It was wonderful,” she recalled.

With her latest collection gift, Maxine has again given back to the museum that gave her and her husband so many wonderful experiences and friends for more than 50 years. Without a doubt, the Zarrow collection will inspire a sense of pride in Gilcrease, and through the museum, a greater sense of pride in Tulsa and the people who call it home.

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QUOTED

Read what community leaders had to say about the Zarrows' impact on Gilcrease and Tulsa.

“The Zarrow family is one of Tulsa’s most generous families. Over the years, they have invested time and again in making life better for Tulsans. Maxine and her late husband, Jack, have had an enduring impact on Gilcrease Museum. I keep a portrait of Thomas Gilcrease in my office, along with other past leaders in our city. I’ve looked at that portrait repeatedly and I know Mr. Gilcrease would be astounded at the generosity Maxine and Jack have shown the museum and humbled that he helped inspire the life-long love of collecting that they shared.”

– Mayor G.T. Bynum, City of Tulsa

“Not long after I became President at TU, Maxine gave me a copy of the Thomas Gilcrease biography, saying ‘You’re going to want to read this.’ And, of course, I did. It was a crucial step in helping me formulate my thoughts about the future of Gilcrease and its relationship to TU. This is just another example of the giving spirit and supportive nature Maxine demonstrates every day.”

– Gerard Clancy, The University of Tulsa President

“With rare exception, there are few other Tulsans who have had a greater impact on Gilcrease Museum over the years than Maxine and Jack. Their generosity is matched only by their love for the museum’s collection.”

– Susan Neal, executive director of Gilcrease Museum

“It’s been a true pleasure to serve alongside Maxine – and Jack before her – on the Gilcrease Museum board for so many years. They have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to bettering Gilcrease and I am truly grateful for the many ways they have elevated the institution and enhanced its collection.”

– Hans Helmerich, Gilcrease National Advisory Board member

“When listing the ‘treasures of Gilcrease Museum,’ Maxine Zarrow must surely be included. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work for so many years alongside such a dedicated and generous person as Maxine.”

– Susie Jackson, Gilcrease National Advisory Board member

ARTWORKS FROM THE ZARROW COLLECTION

By Laura Fry, Senior Curator of Art On my first visit to Maxine Zarrow’s home, I was captivated by the vivid paintings covering her walls. Delicate lines in tempera on paper and bold brushstrokes in oil on canvas captured dancing figures, wind-swept landscapes, stampeding horses and geometric abstractions. With more than 50 years of paintings, these artworks presented a broad scope of Native American artists working in a variety of styles. Over the past five years, the Zarrow family has donated more than 50 artworks from this collection to Gilcrease, adding significant examples of 20th century Native American paintings to the Gilcrease collection.

The Zarrow donation includes works

by Native artists like T.C. Cannon, Joan Hill, Virginia Stroud and Pablita Velarde.

Additionally, it includes several works by Oklahoma’s own Brummett Echohawk.

Due to the Echohawk works gifted to the museum from the Zarrow collection, including works like his scratchboard portrait Ruling His Son, Pawnee Warrior and oil painting An Island of Redbuds on the Cimarron, Gilcrease has been able to shed light on the artistic range of this extraordinary artist.

With a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, Gilcrease Museum will conduct new research into Native American paintings in the Great Plains from the mid-19th century to the present. Recent donations from the Zarrow collection will support and augment these research efforts as they complement the permanent collection by filling in gaps that precede the time Mr. Gilcrease began collecting.

With considerable change on the horizon for the museum, this donation will continue to serve as an important resource for scholarship, exhibitions and education at Gilcrease.

An Island of Redbuds on the Cimarron Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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E X H I B I T I O N F E AT U R E

By Alison Rossi, exhibition curator, and director of learning and community engagement

collectors. While selections of these prints, drawings and paintings have been exhibited at Gilcrease over the years as supporting works or ethnographic objects in exhibitions with a cultural focus on Mexico, Mexican Modernism: Revolution and Reckoning aims to place these objects back in their cultural milieu. Through the eyes of artists featured in this exhibition, we see a Diego Rivera, Cabeza de Indio, 1937, oil painting GM 01.2022 country in a dynamic state of transformation between the exican Modernism: Revolution end of the Mexican Revolution and the and Reckoning, a yearlong conclusion of World War II. exhibition that features a This exhibition will feature many rotation of works representing a pivotal time in Mexico’s history, challenges us to recognizable names, especially those who rose to international fame, consider the role of artists and imagery in shaping public understanding and the including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino search for cultural roots as a means to Tamayo. Gilcrease is also fortunate to define national and individual identity. own the work of Mexican modernists Thomas Gilcrease visited Mexico a whose art is equally as stirring and number of times in the 1940s. During who are garnering some long-overdue these trips, he purchased works by recognition among scholars and a variety of contemporary Mexican museums in the U.S. Two vibrantlyartists like many other American art colored watercolor compositions

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by María Izquierdo, an artist who faced great professional and personal adversity, are imbued with imagination and surrealist influences. The bold prints of Leopoldo Méndez respond to the politics of post-revolutionary Mexico as well as the rise of fascism in Europe. Guillermo Meza and José Chávez Morado’s works interrogate Mexico’s Pre-Hispanic past, while Carlos Mérida’s prints celebrate the distinct indigenous and regional cultures of Mexico.

Many of the works in this exhibition reflect the shared commitment of early to mid-20th century Mexican artists to progressive social reform that benefited the masses. Paintings, drawings and prints dignify everyday people as they toil and recreate, and portraits honor the humanity in anonymous faces.

Over the course of one year, Mexican Modernism: Revolution and Reckoning will display close to 80 works. Of these, nearly 65 are comprised of works on paper and textiles that will rotate every four months. This fully bilingual exhibition of works drawn primarily from the Gilcrease collection remains

Revolution & Reckoning

José Clemente Orozco, Requiem, early-to-mid 20th century, lithograph GM 02.158

Miguel Covarrubias, Mexican Street Scene, 20th century, lithograph on paper GM 14.159

inextricably linked to time (1920-1950) and place (Mexico), yet resonates with themes across the Gilcrease collection. Andrew Grant Wood, Rutland professor of history at The University of Tulsa and a collaborator for the show, notes that this exhibition, “carefully chosen from the Gilcrease collection, reveals some truly artistic treasures that will no doubt resonate powerfully with contemporary viewers."

Furthermore, this exhibition corresponds with the opening of Dorothea Lange’s America and this fall’s symposium at the Helmerich Center for American Research centered on the museum’s collection of

Rufino Tamayo, Tomato vendor, watercolor, GM 02.1473

Spanish Colonial documents. Together, they provide inspiring dialogue about the power of socially-conscious art and the enduring legacy of colonialism in the Americas.  With special thanks to: Burt B. Holmes for generously lending works to this exhibition.

Andrew Grant Wood, Rutland Professor of History, and Bruce Dean Willis, Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, The University of Tulsa, for sharing their expertise.

Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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UNPRECEDE OPPORTUNI LUCE GRANT TO FUEL WORK WITH COLLECTIONS In the midst of preparation for an historic renovation and expansion, Gilcrease Museum has been presented an incredible opportunity to gain deeper insight into its collection thanks to a three-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation totaling $890,000.

This award from the foundation’s American Art Program will result in focused research, conservation treatments and digital curation of two large Gilcrease collections that will provide enhanced knowledge and access to more than 3,800 objects.

Established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the foundation seeks to enrich public discourse by promoting innovative scholarship, cultivating new leaders, and fostering international understanding in the fields of Asia, higher education, religion and theology, art and public policy. The grant is one of the largest Gilcrease has received from an organization outside of Oklahoma.

The relationship between Gilcrease and the Luce Foundation began nearly two years ago when Teresa Carbone, program director for the American Art Program, came to Tulsa for the Native American Art Scholars Association conference. While in

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Tulsa, Carbone visited Gilcrease and met with staff.

“We started talking about possible ideas, and she encouraged us to put together a proposal,” Senior Director of Development Frank Mulhern said.

“We came up with project ideas for three of our collections: the Moran collection, the Native American collection and our William Leigh collection.”

Of the three potential projects, the Luce Foundation awarded funding for two, which came as a welcome surprise.

“We hoped maybe we’d get approved for one of the three projects,” Mulhern stated.

The grant will support projects focused on two extensive collections of works on paper, including pieces

by Thomas Moran and Mary Nimmo Moran, and Native American narrative paintings. Rarely have the Morans’ works on paper been on view at Gilcrease or loaned to other institutions because of their fragility, yet Gilcrease boasts the largest, most comprehensive collection of the couple’s works (more than 2,300 combined). Additionally, the Gilcrease

collection of Native American narrative paintings spans more than 150 years and consists of more than 1,500 objects from hide paintings to ledger drawings, tempera paintings and contemporary art.

“We are honored to be the recipient of such a prestigious grant and are eager to begin the work ahead of us,” said Susan Neal, executive director of Gilcrease Museum. “The Luce Foundation’s support is a testament to the world-class collection we have and its ability to contribute to the larger American story. Awards like these afford us the opportunity to learn all that we can about key collections we hold — the first step in eventually being able to exhibit them for the world.”

With work getting underway in early 2020, the Luce Foundation grant will fund temporary positions for scholars and museum professionals in curatorial, conservation, digitization and collection management. In turn, Gilcrease will gain a deeper appreciation for these artists and their legacies, while contributing original scholarship to the field of American art.

According to Director of Collections and Chief Registrar Susan Buchanan,

ENTED ITY Kevin Red Star, Snapping Turtle - Crow Indian Man, late 20th century, acrylic on canvas, GM 01.2570.

who will manage this project for Gilcrease, the grant will have a profound impact on the museum’s, and eventually, the public’s, understanding of the treasures held in the Gilcrease collection.

“Through the support of the Luce Foundation, we can improve the physical care and access to these fragile, light sensitive, and largely unknown collection items,” Buchanan stated.

“Digitization and deeper cataloging of the items will provide researchers, students, source communities, and the public unprecedented access to these collections worldwide.”

Early Bliss Jr., Riders in the Storm, late 20th century, GM 01.2574

What stands out the most to the Gilcrease team is the foundation’s commitment to Gilcrease’s future.

“What’s truly significant about this award is not only the interest the Henry Luce Foundation has in the Gilcrease collection, but also their willingness to invest in the potential of our museum and help elevate it to a position of prominence in the American art community,” Mulhern said. “We are both excited and humbled.”

Learn more from Senior Curator Laura Fry at gilcrease.org/news/grant.

Mary Nimmo Moran, A California Forest, 1888, GM 142.102a-b

Thomas Moran, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, 1872, watercolor on paper, GM 02.1619 Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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Visit gilcrease.org/events for more community programs.

PROGRAMMED FOR

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THE COMMUNITY At Gilcrease, educational programming and events serve as portals through which many kinds of visitors can engage with our exhibitions, collections, grounds and most importantly, one another. Of paramount importance is the responsibility to offer a variety of programming to serve diverse audiences and to involve the communities we serve in our planning.

In addition to connecting with the needs and interests of a variety of visitors, we aim to develop programs that speak to visitors’ motivations.

People visit Gilcrease to relax and recharge, to connect with their own heritage and history, to deepen or expand their knowledge, and to

have social experiences. We aim to offer opportunities for all of the above. Programming also presents opportunities to attract those who haven’t yet visited Gilcrease. Visitors may enjoy Gilcrease After Hours, regular studio hours, a family-oriented festival or a discussion about current social issues, and discover that the museum truly has something for everyone.

At the core of the museum’s new interpretive plan is the theme of “Our Changing America.” Programming can forge meaningful links between the past and present, and nimbly tap into current national and local dialogue, as well as threads in popular

culture. Prioritizing relationships with communities in Tulsa is part of a museum-wide effort, and developing programs with and in response to communities is a great way to both initiate and sustain those relationships.

As we plan for the future, we look forward to building new relationships with community partners and deepening the connections we’ve already created. At the end of the day, our benchmark for success is creating positive social change and inspiring our visitors.

Alison Rossi Director of Learning and Community Engagement

Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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FALL SYMPOSIUM

RETHINKING COLONIALISM IN MEXICO AND THE AMERICAS P A S T, P R E S E N T AND FUTURE

November 1, 2019, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Helmerich Center for American Research Registration opens September 20.

Exactly 500 years ago, Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico with a dozen horses and 500 men. Within two years, Cortés and his men conquered Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire and what is now Mexico City. For the following 300 years, Mexico was under Spanish rule as New Spain.

Home to a collection of hundreds of key documents from the onset of the Spanish conquest through the colonial period, the Helmerich Center for American Research presents “Rethinking Colonialism in Mexico and the Americas: Past, Present and Future.”

The fall symposium will explore the Spanish Colonial Period from multiple perspectives and expand on historical narratives like those told in the Spanish Colonial Manuscript Collection. Featuring scholars and community leaders from across the nation, panelists will cover topics that will not only reexamine the past, but will also further the present-day dialogue about migration, immigration and cultural identities.

The Spanish Colonial Manuscript Collection was collected by G. R. G. Conway, an Englishman who lived in Mexico for many years. Thomas Gilcrease purchased 125 volumes, folders and documents directly

from Conway, while another 150 Spanish Colonial volumes, folders and documents were acquired later to enhance the collection.

The collection contains an estimated 26,000 pages of original documents from Mexico dating from 1512 to 1857, with one of the earliest being a letter written by the son of Christopher Columbus. Many of these records are three or four hundred pages in length. The records document blasphemy, misconduct in office, bigamy, astrology, theft, debt, personal lawsuits over property and inheritance, and some aim at securing a title of nobility by proving family descent.

Additional documents relate to lawsuits and civil trials, many specifically involving the family of Hernán Cortés, and accusations lodged against slaves and American Indians.

that occurred almost 500 years prior. Based on his examination of rare primary sources and overlooked accounts by conquistadors and Aztecs alike, Restall’s talk will explore Cortés’ and Montezuma’s legacies, reputations and will call into question the conventional view of the history of the Americas.

Join us as we explore the Spanish Colonial Period from multiple perspectives and expand on historical narratives like those told in the Spanish Colonial Manuscript Collection.

Keynote speaker Matthew Restall, the director of Latin American studies at Pennsylvania State University will explore the relationship between Hernán Cortés and Aztec emperor Montezuma in his talk “When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story Behind the Meeting that Changed History.” This lecture, based on Restall’s book by the same name, will revisit the meeting between Montezuma and Cortés Unknown, Portrait of Cortes, 16th century - 17th century, oil painting, GM 01.1969

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SYMPOSIUM PA N E L I S T S MATTHEW RESTALL, Ph.D. Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History and Anthropology and director of Latin American Studies at the Pennsylvania State University “When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story Behind the Meeting that Changed History”

JORGE CANIZARES-ESGUERRA, Ph.D. Alice Drysdale Sheffield Professor of History at University of Texas at Austin “Radical 16th Century Abolitionism: Indigenous Slaves and Spanish officials and the toppling of the Ancient Regime in Mexico and Peru”

MIGUEL VALERIO, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Spanish at Washington University in St. Louis “Black Conquistadors and the Question of Agency”

CRISTINA CRUZ GONZÁLEZ, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Art History at Oklahoma State University “Devotion and Sanctity in Colonial Mexico: Missionary Heroes”

ELENA DEANDA-CAMACHO, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Spanish and the Director of the Black Studies Program at Washington College “Inquisitions and the Archive: Mexico, Spain, and Ireland: Looking at Taboo Behavior”

PATRICIA NORBY, Ph.D., (Purépecha/Nde and Chicana) National Museum of the American Indian, New York “Visual Arts and Native Activism”

View highlights from past events at gilcrease.org/helmerich-center/symposia.

Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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MEMBERSHIP U P D AT E S Gilcrease is launching new technology to improve your museum experience and integrate our departments. From the front desk to the store and restaurant, we are making it easier than ever to visit Gilcrease.

What’s first? In the coming weeks, you will receive an email with step-by-step instructions on how to set up your new online account. Once your account and login are created, you will be able to register for programs, renew your membership, update your member preferences and more all in one, easy-to-access location.

Not sure we have the right email on file?

Please contact us at 918-596-2758 so we can verify or update your email address.

Never provided us with your email? Please sign up at gilcrease.org/update.

Next, be on the lookout for your new membership cards, which will arrive in the mail by November 1. These cards will serve as your gateway to all things Gilcrease. We will scan them upon entry for museum check-in, and in the store and restaurant to apply discounts and special member pricing. Additionally, upon renewing your membership your account will be updated instantaneously, allowing you immediate access to membership benefits for another year. This new system will allow Gilcrease to save resources by reducing annual paper and printing costs while providing you the convenience of one permanent card.

As we roll out the new technology and enhanced customer service capabilities, we promise to make the transition as seamless as possible. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to contact the Membership Office with questions.

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New Look, Same Benefits

THE LAST WORD

with Patrick Gallagher

Gilcrease Museum represents one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of art and artifacts of the American West. As a museum planner and designer working in the field for over 30 years, Gilcrease represents not just a new project for me; it’s a oncein-a-career opportunity to establish the art museum of the future. I invite you to join me as we embark on the rich opportunity to paint a new vision for Gilcrease, and a new model for art museums worldwide.

Over the last two years, we have worked with an extremely talented team of Gilcrease staff, curators and designers to think critically about what it means to be a museum for the next generation.

How can we take a collection as diverse and as extensive as Gilcrease’s, and create an entirely new language for interaction and engagement?

It is my firm belief that each visitor coming to Gilcrease is uniquely and distinctly different. Visitors are looking for a personal connection that will open their hearts and minds to innovative ideas and new forms of engagement.

At Gilcrease, we must create a visitor model that allows people to experience emotional storytelling in a profound way. We have the chance to use this collection to create a voice of engagement and form a distinct lens through which people understand our history and how it’s been interpreted through the arts.

While it is critical to interpret the often-complex stories of America’s heritage, this new museum is committed to creating an experience that uses the past to shine a light on our current communities, people and events. Rather than only looking back, we will offer the

chance for young people — and, really, all people — to relate to these stories and the greater context they hold within today’s world.

By focusing the lens on three primary themes — Our American Landscape, Identities and Communities, and Encounters and Interactions — the collections themselves will tell the stories of our history and establish connections and relevance to our lives today. Think of it as a beautiful marriage between art and history.

These powerful themes will allow the museum to speak to the most diverse national and international audiences — through stories that capture each visitor, no matter their personal perspective.

Nowhere in this country is a museum taking such a bold step to redefine the guest experience. Gilcrease is using new media in careful balance with the collections to make an experience that

is multi-dimensional, multi-layered in its content and allows people to be extremely selective in how they choose to interact and engage with the collection. Down the line, this will form the basis for a new virtual museum where Gilcrease can engage audiences beyond Tulsa and across the globe.

As your partner, I look forward to the exciting journey we are taking together.

And I know, someday soon, the museum industry is going to look to Gilcrease Museum as the standard for best practice and best visitor experience, setting a vision for the future. I already see the strokes on that blank canvas coming into focus.

Patrick Gallagher President & Owner, Gallagher & Associates

Gilcrease Museum Magazine / Fall 2019

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1400 N. GILCREASE MUSEUM ROAD TULSA, OK 74127-2100

A University of Tulsa/City of Tulsa Partnership The University of Tulsa does not discriminate on the basis of personal status or group characteristics including but not limited to the classes protected under federal and state law in its programs, services, aids, or benefits. Inquiries regarding implementation of this policy may be addressed to the Office of Human Resources, 800 South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104-9700, 918-631-2616. Requests for accommodation of disabilities may be addressed to the University’s 504 Coordinator, Dr. Tawny Rigsby, 918-631-2315.

To ensure availability of an interpreter, five to seven days notice is needed; 48 hours is recommended for all other accommodations. TU#19248

S AV E T H E D AT E S Mark your calendar for the following events.

• September 17: Jazz Night • November 7: Dorothea Lange's America Exhibition Wine Dinner • November 22-24: Bronze Sale (30% off) • December 17: Jazz Night

MAIN NUMBER.......................... 918-596-2700

MUSEUM STORE........................ 918-596-2725

gilcrease.org

TOURS........................................ 918-596-2782

MUSEUM RESTAURANT............ 918-596-2720

©2019, Gilcrease Museum