Welcome to TULSA

Tulsa is located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Oklahoma, USA. This city has a population of around 383,000 and is spread over an area of 384 sq km. The Native Americans mainly Lochapoka and Creek tribes were the first to settle in this area.

The River Arkansas divides the city into two parts and its landscape has several mountain peaks, forests, lakes and so forth. The economy of Tulsa is dependent primarily on finance, energy, telecommunication, technology and the export sector. Tulsa port is an important site for a lot of commercial activities.

Tulsa experiences a temperate climate where there are extremes of temperatures at times. The annual average temperature is around 16°C. Thunderstorms and hailstorms are quite common during summer and spring.

Art and Culture

Located in the former estate of oil pioneer Waite Phillips, Philbrook Museum is considered one of the top 50 fine art museums in the United States, and is one of five to offer a combination of historic home, gardens, and art collections. The collections of Thomas Gilcrease are housed at the Gilcrease Museum, which also holds the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art and artifacts of the American West. With remnants of the Holocaust and artifacts relevant to Judaism in Oklahoma, the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art preserves the largest collection of Judaica in the Southwest United States. Other museums, such as the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, and the Tulsa Geosciences Center, document histories of the region, while the Greenwood Cultural Center preserves the culture of the city's African American heritage, housing a collection of artifacts and photography that document the history of the Black Wall Street prior to the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

Since 1969, public displays of artwork in Tulsa have been funded by one percent of its annual city budget. Each year, a sculpture from a local artist is installed along the Arkansas River trail system, while other sculptures stand at local parks, such as an enlarged version of Cyrus Dallin's Appeal to the Great Spirit sculpture at Woodward Park. At the entrance to Oral Roberts University stands a large statue of praying hands, which, at 60 feet (18 m) high, is the largest bronze sculpture in the world. As a testament to the city's oil heritage, the 76-foot (23 m) Golden Driller guards the front entrance to the Tulsa County Fairgrounds.

Tulsa contains several permanent dance, theater, and concert groups, including the Tulsa Ballet, the Tulsa Opera, the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Light Opera Oklahoma, Tulsa Signature Symphony, the Heller Theatre and Theatre Tulsa, the oldest continuously operating community theatre company west of the Mississippi River. Tulsa also houses the Tulsa Spotlight Theater, which shows the longest-running play in America (The Drunkard) every Saturday night. Large performing arts complexes include the Tulsa Convention Center, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Expo Square Pavilion, the Mabee Center, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center for Education, and the River Parks Amphitheater. Beginning in 2008, the BOK Center will host large performing arts events as Tulsa's largest venue. Ten miles west of the city, an outdoor amphitheater called "Discoveryland!" holds the official title of the world performance headquarters for the musical Oklahoma!, while Cain's Ballroom, considered the birthplace of Western Swing, housed the performance headquarters of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys during the 1930s. The centerpiece of the downtown Brady Arts District, the Brady Theater, is the largest of the city's five operating performing arts venues that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city's film community hosts annual festivals such as the Tulsa United Film Festival and Tulsa Overground Film and Music Festival. The Blue Dome District is home to the annual Diversafest (DFest), an annual live event that showcases independent and emerging artists. Attendance at DFest in 2008 surpassed 60,000 people for the two days. DFest takes place in the last weekend of July.

Woodward Park

Woodward Park (34 acres) is a public park, botanical garden, and arboretum located between 21st Street and 24th Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. It is open to the public daily.

The park contains a number of specialty gardens, including those featuring spring flowers, tropical plants and cacti, the Tulsa Rose Garden, the Tulsa Garden Center, and the Tulsa Arboretum. The park is particularly known for its azaleas, as well as tulips, irises, dogwoods, and redbuds. The Rose Garden (established 1935) features over 9,000 roses of over 250 varieties.

Philbrook Museum of Art

The Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma is an art museum and former home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve (Elliott) Phillips. As of 2007, the museum has a staff of 60 and an operating budget of nearly $6 million.

An Italian Renaissance villa, the Philbrook was designed in 1926 by Kansas City architect Edward Buehler Delk. Construction on the mansion was begun the same year by the John Long Company of Kansas City and completed in 1927. Originally called Villa Philbrook, the home featured 72 rooms on 23 acres (93,000 m²) of grounds. The expansive grounds contain elaborate gardens inspired by Villa Lante, an Italian country estate north of Rome designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola in 1566. In 1938 the Villa Philbrook and surrounding gardens were given to the city of Tulsa by Waite Phillips in hopes that the estate would be used for art and cultural purposes. The immense house, with its spacious rooms, wide corridors and great halls, was a natural home for a museum and, due to its steel and concrete framework, minimal remodeling was required to transform the Villa into an art museum. In 1939 Villa Philbrook was opened to the public as The Philbrook Museum of Art. In 2009, after a rigorous two-year process, Philbrook achieved reaccreditation from the American Association of Museums (AAM). Of the nation's estimated 17,500 museums, 775 are currently accredited and less than one half (286)are art museums. Philbrook has maintained this national recognition since 1987, demonstrating adherence to the highest professional standards in preservation, exhibitions, education, and community programs.