Construction Of American Indian Cultural Center & Museum To Resume

Construction of the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum is expected to resume after a five-year lapse, because donors have come through with millions of dollars.

Construction of the 162,000 square-foot facility was put on hold when the state ran out of money.

11/30/16 Related Story: Progress Moving Forward At American Indian Cultural Center & Museum

Now donors have come up with $10.8 million; the amount needed for the state to give matching grants. The state has agreed to turn the museum over to Oklahoma City. The city is paying $9 million toward the completion of the project, so Executive Director Blake Wade says it’s all systems go. 

"The city and the state have worked out their agreement and now the city and the Chickasaw nation is working out their agreement,” said Wade.

Inside, there’s a lot of work to be done. Designers will return to draw up updated plans. A lot has changed in five years.

"You know LED lighting, no phone booths. All these things are going to be upgraded and updated and so maybe this is the way it was supposed to have happened,” said Wade.

Exhibit halls will have to be built. Artifacts will be brought in. Classrooms set up. And a museum designed with the hope that everyone who visits experiences something a little different.

"People will come and they will gain something very personal,” said Communications Director Shoshana Wasserman, “Not just about tribal knowledge but even at a more personalized individual level.  And so, kind of this ascension, and when you come back you would have had a changed perspective of some kind."

“Construction could begin in the fall, and the museum could be open to the public by 2020. I can tell everybody in Oklahoma this is going to happen, for sure,” said Wade.