Tulsa's Philbrook Museum Of Art Adds Brady District Location

After four and a half years of planning, the Philbrook Museum of Art is expanding to the Downtown area.

"This space is going to be a really wonderful addition to our collection," Philbrook Director of Communications Tricia Milford-Hyot said.

The Philbrook Museum of Art will soon have an additional location in the old Tulsa Paper Company Building.

"We're going to really be able to show a lot of pieces of art that we have currently not had out on display for a long time," Milford-Hyot said.

The area will be 30,000 square feet.

It'll be home to a large American Indian collection and also many modern contemporary art and design collections.

"In a historic home like we are now in midtown, it's a little bit small to put some of those pieces and so having a large beautiful space where we can really celebrate that area of art is going to be a wonderful addition to Philbrook and what we do," Milford-Hyot said.

Museum goers say this expansion project brings a different level of professionalism to downtown Tulsa.

"I like the idea," supporter Dale Gillman said. "I think unless we have a diversification of interest of all the people who want to go downtown or many different people have a reason to go downtown that downtown will be slower to cultivate and to succeed, so I'm very much in favor of it."

The 90-year-old building is in the Brady District between Cincinnati and Boston.

"It's not just important that we are in a building in downtown, it's that we're in this building downtown," Milford-Hoyt said. "It's going to be right in the heart of our wonderful expansion with ONEOK Field at one end and BOK Center at the other.

While the George Kaiser Family Foundation is responsible for turning this dream into a reality, this weekend, the museum held a fundraiser and brought in $30,000 dollars in ticket sales.

That money will go toward continuing education and operational programs.

Right now, the interior of the building is in the "under construction" phase.

The downtown gallery will open early next year.

Check on the progress in rebuilding Tulsa's Brady Arts District by visiting NewsOn6.com's special page.