The Boss and the troubadour

A Springsteen exhibit lands at the museum dedicated to his idol

There’s a video on YouTube that shows Bruce Springsteen in jeans and a black t-shirt, performing “This Land is Your Land” at SXSW in 2012. He sang. Nothing fancy, but still triumphant, like Woody’s sing-alongs. A Rolling Stone article posted a Springsteen quote from 1996, “There was always some spiritual center amid Woody’s songs. He always projected a sense of good times in face of it all. He always got you thinking about the next guy.”

This April, Springsteen will be settling in Tulsa—at least, photos of him will be—at the Woody Guthrie Center, 102 E. M.B. Brady Street.

The red-bricked WGC—across the street from Guthrie Green, where Tulsans flock to lounge on the lawn and to get free concerts from local, present-day troubadours—memorializes musicians who picked and grinned their way through music history. The April 29 opening of the exhibit initiates the WGC one-year-anniversary, followed by six days of celebration. A film screening of Springsteen’s music and history, a panel discussion with performers such as John Fullbright and Hanson, a benefit concert, and free concerts at Guthrie Green mark the agenda.

“We wanted to bring something really special to the Woody Guthrie Center for their upcoming anniversary. We wanted a relevant show with a connection to Woody,” said Ali Stuebner, curator of the traveling Springsteen exhibit.

The south gallery will open with several photos of the artist in performance, to “set the stage,” Stuebner said. The remaining 41 images will center on candid and intimate photography. Stuebner wants the selection of work to walk viewers through a revelation of “who he is and who he is not—the iconic American rock and roll icon.”

Many camera slingers shot Springsteen, but the work of photographers Danny Clinch, Ed Gallucci, Eric Meola, Pamela Springsteen and Frank Stefanko, when on exhibit together, represents not only the chronology of The Boss’ career, but also of his life and times. Stuebner said each photographer had a distinct connection with the musician. Clinch captured images of Springsteen as the rock and roller in the limelight, but “you can see the intimacy between the two of them,” said Stuebner.

GRAMMY Museum director Bob Santelli will moderate a roundtable conversation with the photographers whose work is featured in the exhibition on its opening night, April 29, 6 p.m. A book signing follows the talk. Tickets are $25.

Admission to the center is typically free of charge on the Brady District’s First Friday events, when the neighborhood art galleries throw open their doors to the crowds of art crawlers that now fill the sidewalks there on the first Friday of each month. The cost to get in at the Guthrie Center isn’t waived for the May event, though. In fact, the Springsteen show, running through April 2015, is available for viewing only with paid admissions and will be closed during art crawls. Deana McCloud, the museum’s executive director, said all admission fees collected goes towards funding musical performances and educational programs offered by the Center.

Tweets to confirm whether Springsteen himself will visit the show, though, were not immediately returned.