The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, will present “Going Electric: Bob Dylan ’65,” a groundbreaking exhibition that will open on July 24 and close in the spring of 2026.
Presented by Bob Dylan Center founding members Bob and Debbie Russell, the exhibit offers an immersive, multimedia exploration of one of the most transformative years in Dylan’s career and the cultural upheaval that followed.
The exhibit traces the lead-up to Dylan’s infamous “going electric” set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival — one of the most controversial and influential moments in the history of popular music. Through never-before-seen original manuscripts, film footage and rare artifacts from the Bob Dylan Archive as well as numerous loans from private collectors, “Going Electric” places visitors at the heart of Dylan’s evolution from acoustic folk hero to trailblazing rock ’n’ roll icon.
“Dylan’s Newport moment is widely regarded as one of the most pivotal moments in the history of 20th-century popular music,” Mark Davidson, curator of the exhibit and senior director of archives and exhibitions at American Song Archives, said in a release. “But there’s much more to the story. Drawing upon our considerable archival collections, this exhibit cuts through the myths to present a dynamic, kaleidoscopic portrait of an artist in a way that only the Bob Dylan Center can.”
The exhibit will feature never-before-displayed manuscripts from “Bringing It All Back Home” and “Highway 61 Revisited” and a recently discovered series of typescript drafts with handwritten edits of Dylan’s landmark song “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
