New exhibit ‘Thin Wild Mercury: Dylan 1966’ coming to the Bob Dylan Center in July

A new exhibit exploring Bob Dylan’s career the year after he went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival is set to open this summer at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Thin Wild Mercury: Dylan 1966 is described as an immersive multimedia exhibition that features never-before-seen manuscripts, photographs and newly restored film footage from the era. It will cover the period in Dylan’s career where he was recording Blonde on Blonde, touring with the musicians that later became The Band and hanging with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Andy Warhol and others.

Items on display will include the original lyrics from Blonde on Blonde tracks “I Want You” and “One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later),” original drafts of Dylan’s first book Tarantula, previously unseen photos, documents and footage from Dylan’s 1966 world tour and more.

“The year following Newport is one of the most visually and musically exciting periods of Dylan’s long career,” exhibition curator Mark Davidson says in a statement. “With his wild hair, impenetrable sunglasses, and hip tailored suits, Dylan was unequaled in style and attitude. And yet, he bristled at being called a pop star, sparring with the press and audiences alike. It was Dylan and The Band against the world.”

During this period of Dylan’s career, he filmed two seldom seen screen tests with Andy Warhol. Visitors will now get a chance to make their own screen test using an interactive screen test machine, loaned to the Bob Dylan Center by Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum.

Thin Wild Mercury: Dylan 1966 is set to open July 18 at the center’s Parker Brothers Gallery and will run through Jan. 31, 2027. More info can be found BobDylanCenter.com.