Oklahoma Museum

What Oklahoma Museum does

OKPOP (Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture) is a forthcoming non-profit museum located in the Tulsa Arts District at 422 N. Bob Wills Main Street, directly across from the legendary Cain's Ballroom. Operated as a division of the Oklahoma Historical Society (a 130-year-old state agency) with fundraising support from the OKPOP Foundation (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit), the project is purpose-built to preserve and showcase the influence of Oklahomans on global popular culture across music, film, television, radio, comics, animation, and literature. The 60,000-square-foot, three-story building will feature the free first-floor "Crossroads of Creativity," ticketed second-floor "Imagined Worlds," and third-floor "Musical Journeys," supported by a vault of 40,000+ collection items, 50+ named collections from marquee Oklahoma creatives, and ~700 oral-history video interviews.

The core technology stack is an immersive experiential museum platform integrating AV systems, interactive hardware/software, RFID/NFC-enabled POPWATCH wrist devices for gamified discovery, digital media content production, and physical exhibit fabrication across the three themed floors. The supporting product surface includes the Pop Shop retail store, Listening Lounge Cafe and Bar, 50-seat Oklahoma! Theater, Imaginarium gallery, Merch Lab, Recording Studio, and Wildwoods Red Dirt Road trail. The Oklahoma! Theater and second/third floors are designed for ticketed admission and special-event rentals, while the first floor remains free to the public.

The business model is a pre-opening non-profit capital project. The $36 million build-out budget is fully committed via an $18 million private Heart & Soul donation campaign (matched 1:1 by Oklahoma state appropriations under SB 1155/HB 2673) plus $3.7M in City of Tulsa and Tulsa County ARPA funds, with additional support from tribal nations (Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw), institutional foundations (George Kaiser Family Foundation, Tulsa Community Foundation, BOK Financial), family foundations, and a celebrity-amplified donor cabinet chaired by Honorary Chair Blake Shelton. Future operating revenue streams are planned but undisclosed: ticketed admission to upper floors, Pop Shop merchandise, cafe/bar sales, theater and event rentals, and ongoing donor cultivation. Grand opening is targeted for Spring 2028 in alignment with the Route 66 centennial.

Name

Oklahoma Museum

Legal name

Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture (OKPOP)

Website

https://okpop.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

OKPOP (Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture) is a forthcoming non-profit museum in Tulsa's Arts District, operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society, dedicated to preserving and showcasing Oklahomans' contributions to global popular culture across music, film, TV, comics, and literature.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Museum

NAICS

Amusement and Theme Parks (71311)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Children’s & Youth Educational Entertainment (Edutainment) (EDAGALAK)

Keywords

• Pop culture museum
• Cultural preservation
• Interactive exhibits
• Arts education
• Community programming

Headquarters

HQ city

Tulsa

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Private Donations & Heart & Soul Campaign Pledges: Charitable donations to OKPOP Foundation (501(c)(3)) from individuals, corporations, and foundations; the Heart & Soul Campaign raised an $18M match with binding multi-year pledges eligible under HB 2673; donations are tax-deductible and eligible for a 1:1 state match.
2. State Matching Funds (Appropriations): State of Oklahoma legislative appropriations (originally via Senate Bill 1155 establishing $18M revolving fund) plus state bond funds; awarded through Oklahoma Historical Society management; dependent on private matching raise before release.
3. Founding Memberships & Naming Opportunities: Founding memberships and major-donor naming opportunities at exhibit and donor-wall levels; donor names will be displayed across the museum creating a public wall of recognition; managed by Foundation Managing Director.
4. Municipal & County Government Funding: Direct appropriations and ARPA funds from City of Tulsa ($1M ARPA + $2.7M), Tulsa County ($2M), and other municipal contributions supporting completion and operations.
5. Future On-Site Revenue (Planned): Planned first-day museum revenue streams include Listening Lounge Cafe and Bar, Pop Shop museum store (merchandise, tees, tunes, toys), Oklahoma! Theater rentals, and special event screenings and programs (second-floor 50-seat theater).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

OKPOP is a forthcoming three-story, 60,000-square-foot museum in Tulsa's Arts District that will collect, preserve, and exhibit artifacts of Oklahoma's influence on global pop culture across music, film, TV, radio, comics, animation, and literature. The museum is anchored by three themed exhibit floors (Crossroads of Creativity, Imagined Worlds, Musical Journeys) integrating immersive technology, the POPWATCH interactive wrist device, a 40,000+ item collection, and 700+ oral history interviews, supported by the OKPOP Foundation 501(c)(3) fundraising arm and OKPOP Media digital content platform.

Product overview

OKPOP (Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture) is a forthcoming single physical museum venue with a platform-plus-modules architecture comprising three immersive exhibit floors: First Floor 'Crossroads of Creativity,' Second Floor 'Imagined Worlds,' and Third Floor 'Musical Journeys.' These three core floor modules are anchored by a digital media platform (OKPOP Media) that distributes OKPOP Productions video content and the OKPOP Radio Hour podcast series, including the recurring 'From the Vault' sub-series. Supporting products include the Pop Shop retail store, Listening Lounge Cafe and Bar, the 50-seat Oklahoma! Theater, the Imaginarium gallery, the Merch Lab, OKPOP Recording Studio, and the Wildwoods Red Dirt Road trail. The OKPOP Foundation 501(c)(3) operates the Heart & Soul Campaign and OKPOP-IN Scavenger Hunt events, while the OKPOP Vault (40,000+ items) houses the Collections Manager-led archival facility that feeds all three exhibit floors. The POPWATCH interactive wrist device ties the visitor experience together across floors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• OKPOP Foundation: 501(c)(3) nonprofit fundraising arm created to support OKPOP Museum.
• OKPOP Media
• OKPOP Experience

Products and services

• OKPOP Museum (Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture) A forthcoming three-story, 60,000-square-foot museum in the Tulsa Arts District across from Cain's Ballroom, operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society with the OKPOP Foundation as its 501(c)(3) fundraising arm. Designed to inspire and empower new generations of creatives by showcasing the legacy of Oklahomans and their influence on popular culture across music, film, TV, radio, comics, animation, and literature.
• Crossroads of Creativity (First Floor) Free-to-the-public first floor experience featuring a Will Rogers tribute, an homage to Oklahoma's broadcast radio and television history, the Pop-Up Expo, a Listening Lounge, the Pop Shop, Bob Wills' fully-restored 1948 tour bus, and the interactive POPWATCH scavenger-hunt device.
• Imagined Worlds (Second Floor) Second-floor ticketed exhibit exploring Oklahoma's influence across Pop Culture storytelling genres (Action, Fantasy, Comedy, Western, Science Fiction) through immersive genre-based worlds with interactive creation stations, the Imaginarium gallery, oral histories, and the 50-seat Oklahoma! Theater.
• Musical Journeys (Third Floor) Third-floor ethereal soundscape exhibit tracing 150 years of Oklahoma music across genres, featuring Musical Inspirations, Life on the Road experiences, the Wildwoods Red Dirt Road trail, a Merch Lab for designing branded merchandise, and OKPOP's Recording Studio.
• OKPOP Foundation The 501(c)(3) nonprofit fundraising arm that supports the OKPOP Museum, leading the Heart & Soul Campaign to raise $18 million in private donations to unlock $18 million in matching state funds. Managed by Managing Director Abby Kurin with oversight from an interim board chaired by Tom Evans.
• OKPOP Media Digital media hub aggregating OKPOP's video, podcast, news, and editorial content, including OKPOP Productions videos, OKPOP Radio Hour podcasts, and category-filterable editorial posts across Music, News, OKPOP Productions Video, Personnel, Podcast, Editorial, and Pop Culture tags.
• OKPOP Radio Hour Weekly podcast hosted by Meg Charron and Garrett Weindorf, featuring interviews with Oklahoma creatives, conducted at Griffin Studios near OKPOP, also broadcast as live events at Cain's Ballroom.
• OKPOP Productions A video production series featuring long-form interviews and short documentary clips with Oklahoma creatives. Includes 'Oklahoma Pop Culture Mysteries' (Mister Ed), feature interviews, and 'From the Vault' behind-the-scenes collection episodes distributed on YouTube and the OKPOP website.
• Pop Shop Over-the-top retail store on the first floor selling exclusive OKPOP gear, tunes, toys, and tees. Doubles as the prize redemption point for POPWATCH scavenger-hunt quests.
• Listening Lounge Cafe and Bar A first-floor groovy listening lounge themed around the venues where the Tulsa Sound was born; serves coffee during the day and acoustic performances at night.
• Heart & Soul Campaign Public fundraising campaign chaired by Honorary Chair Blake Shelton, leveraging $1-for-$1 state matching to raise $18 million in private donations to unlock $18 million in Oklahoma state funds for OKPOP Museum completion.
• OKPOP-IN Scavenger Hunt Recurring public scavenger hunt event in the Tulsa Arts District where visitors use a Scavenger Hunt Map to collect stickers at OKPOP collection-themed stops and enter a $100 Ida Red Gift Card drawing at OKPOP, with free tours every Friday 5-9 PM.

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Blake SheltonflagshipGTM or Marketing Partner · 31 May 2023Country music superstar and Honorary Campaign Chairperson for the OKPOP Foundation, leading public-facing awareness and donor recruitment. Shelton lends his name and amplifies peer/fellow-Oklahoman involvement to raise $30M (later refined to $18M match) needed to complete exhibit design, construction, and installation.
• Oklahoma Historical SocietyflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerOKPOP operates under the direction of the Oklahoma Historical Society as a division of the 130-year-old state agency. Trait Thompson serves as OHS Executive Director; OHS broke ground on the 60,000-sq-ft museum in fall 2019 with $25M in original state bond funds, owns the land and building, and oversees archival preservation of OKPOP's 40,000+ items and oral histories.
• Cain's BallroomcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLegendary 100-year-old music venue directly across the street from OKPOP that anchors the museum's exterior narrative. Ryan Allen describes Cain's as "artifact No. 1" — the museum is designed to showcase Cain's from multiple viewpoints and the building is intentionally sited as a "dynamic duo" anchor tenant with the venue to transform downtown Tulsa.
• OKPOP FoundationflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner501(c)(3) nonprofit fundraising arm created to support OKPOP, governed by an independent board chaired (interim) by Tom Evans. Led by Managing Director Abby Kurin, the Foundation runs the Heart & Soul Campaign, identifies funding sources, executes donor cultivation, and supports acquisitions and preservation.
• Nabholz Construction CorporationcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerConstruction-industry partner combining construction services with philanthropic support; listed as leading donor with Nabholz Charitable Foundation.
• Flywheel Events (Philip Kaiser)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerBoard Vice Chair and Marketing & Fundraising Committee Chair providing event and marketing expertise; also a named leading donor.
• GableGotwals (Trent Shores)coreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerLaw firm partner with Trent Shores serving on the OKPOP Foundation Board, providing legal counsel and governance support.
• OSU Tulsa (Craig Freeman)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNominating & Governance Committee Chair; academic partnership supporting governance and educational programming connections.
• Twenty20 Management (William Tisdale)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMusic industry management partner providing entertainment industry expertise on OKPOP Foundation Board.
• Oak View GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGlobal venue-management partner; listed as a leading donor to OKPOP's Heart & Soul Campaign.
• Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell (State of Oklahoma)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerCampaign Cabinet member championing OKPOP at the state level, framing fundraising as a 77-county statewide operation and tying it to the Route 66 centennial.
• Tulsa Economic Development Corporation (Rose Washington-Jones)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCampaign Cabinet member representing economic development alignment between OKPOP and Tulsa's broader revitalization strategy.
• Ripley's Farm + Studio (Charlene Ripley)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCampaign Cabinet member; widow of Steve Ripley, OKPOP early champion; provides ongoing family-loan collection access and storytelling partnership (Steve Ripley Collection display).

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP): Seattle-based non-profit pop-culture museum founded by Paul Allen, focused on music, sci-fi, and pop-culture artifacts with immersive interactive exhibits. Closely comparable to OKPOP in mission (pop-culture storytelling), exhibit model (immersive/interactive rather than traditional white-walled), and non-profit funding structure.
• Bob Dylan Center: Tulsa Arts District archive and experiential museum dedicated to a single Oklahoma-adjacent creative's body of work. Directly comparable as a co-located cultural anchor sharing walkable tourism traffic and donor overlap with OKPOP.
• Woody Guthrie Center: Tulsa Arts District museum dedicated to Oklahoma folk musician Woody Guthrie. Closely comparable in scope (single-state creative legacy), funding model (501(c)(3) nonprofit), and physical cluster dynamics with OKPOP.
• Greenwood Rising: Tulsa Arts District museum dedicated to the Black Wall Street history. Comparable as a co-located, recently-opened Tulsa cultural anchor sharing donor coalition and foot-traffic cluster with OKPOP.

Broad incumbents

• Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum: Nashville-based major music-heritage museum and Hall of Fame with state-level political backing, immersive exhibits, and Oklahoma-roots collection overlap (Bob Wills, etc.). A scaled comparable for OKPOP's third-floor Musical Journeys ambition.
• Grammy Museum: Los Angeles-based music-heritage museum operated by the Recording Academy with rotating exhibits, interactive recording experiences, and oral histories. Directly comparable on the Music Journeys-style third floor and Recording Studio interactive concept.
• Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Cleveland-based music and pop-culture Hall of Fame museum with state-backed financing model and immersive exhibits. Comparable as a national-scale analog for OKPOP's pop-culture storytelling ambitions across film, TV, and music.
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History: Federal cultural institution with deep artifact collections, oral-history programs, and immersive exhibit design. Comparable on archival/preservation methodology and visitor-experience ambition at scale.

Regional players

• National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum: Oklahoma City-based museum dedicated to Western heritage with deep Oklahoma institutional roots. Comparable as an Oklahoma state-scale museum with similar state/foundation funding mix and target school/family audience.
• Outsiders House Museum: Tulsa-based experiential museum dedicated to S.E. Hinton's 'The Outsiders.' Comparable as a smaller-scale Tulsa pop-culture museum built around a specific Oklahoma creative legacy.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/OKPOPTulsa
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@OKPOPTulsa
• Facebookfacebook.com/OKPOPTulsa
• Instagraminstagram.com/OKPOPTulsa
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/okpop

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Oklahoma Museum