MPM Announces Permanent Exhibits at New Museum

The non-profit that operates the Milwaukee Public Museum announced names for five permanent exhibits that will be in the new $240 million museum being planned for the northeast corner of N. 6th Street and W. McKinley Avenue.

While the organization, MPM Inc., has not revealed what the exhibits will look like, on Wednesday it shared with the media descriptions of these five new exhibits being designed by Thinc Design, a New York-based agency. “The rollout of gallery themes and exhibit examples will take place over the course of 11 weeks and spotlight high-level concepts and focus areas for the Future Museum galleries, or groups of connected exhibits,” MPM said in a statement.

The five permanent exhibits will be spread across four floors and will be accompanied by a gallery space hosting rotating temporary exhibits. There will also be “mixing zones” that offer views of items from the museum’s research collections and “views into research labs and collections storage areas, the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium and the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium, where visitors can expect to once again find live butterflies and moths.”

There was a small public uproar when it was revealed that the Streets of Old Milwaukee would not be preserved and transferred to the new museum. But one of the permanent exhibits — called Milwaukee Revealed — appears to be the updated version of this beloved exhibit, based on the description offered by the museum.

MPM offered the following descriptions and timeline for the unveiling for the exhibits:

• Time Travel, March 7: “The Time Travel gallery is dedicated to exploring the deep past, including when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, through exhibits focused on three of the planet’s geological chapters: the Paleozoic Era, Mesozoic Era and Cenozoic Era.”
• Wisconsin Journey, March 23: “The Wisconsin Journey gallery is an entire exhibit floor focused on the geological wonders and strong and varied cultures of Wisconsin – from the Driftless Area to the Northwoods, the Apostle Islands, the Great Lakes and Wisconsin’s vast Prairielands.”
• Milwaukee Revealed, April 14: “Milwaukee Revealed will immerse visitors in city streetscapes they can explore to learn about the history of Milwaukee, the people who came to settle and live here and its interconnected systems, neighborhoods and ecologies (and where future generations of children can shop for a sweet treat).”
• Living in a Dynamic World and Mixing Zones, May 9: “In the Living in a Dynamic World gallery, visitors will take an unconventional journey to five distinct ecosystems across the globe and be immersed in the landscapes and cultures that occupy them. The Mixing Zones, including the Burke Foundation Mixing Zone, are two spaces that will showcase a rotating selection of collection items, offer spaces for public interaction and programming and turn the Museum “inside out” by providing behind-the-scenes views into the collections’ storage areas.”
• Rainforest, Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium and the Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace, May 23: “The Rainforest will take visitors to the tropics to learn about the biodiversity that flourishes in tropical rainforests and the life rainforest climates support. The Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium will welcome visitors into a warm, lush greenhouse thriving with real tropical plants and live butterflies flying freely throughout the space. The Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace will be a gathering space to reconnect visitors to the outdoors and natural world.”

“Each gallery, and the many exhibits that comprise them, will tell a story about the interconnectedness of nature and culture,” said Oronde Wright, the Thinc Design senior exhibition designer and a lead designer for the future museum.

The new museum is planned as a five-story, 200,000-square-foot facility and will replace the current museum at 800 W. Wells St.. Designs for the new building were released in July 2022. It’s intended to resemble Mill Bluff in Wisconsin’s Mill Bluff State Park, and the floor plan is based on the three rivers that make up the Milwaukee Estuary (Milwaukee, Kinnickinnic, Menomonee). The plan is to have the new museum built and open to the public by 2026.

The museum launched a public financing drive for the new home in July 2022. Since then it has raised $18 million toward its $240 million goal. Prior to the public launch of the campaign, the museum secured $40 million from the state, $45 million from Milwaukee County, and $25 million from private donors. Early fundraising has been buoyed by 20 gifts of $1 million or more from private individuals and major foundations. Altogether the museum has raised $128 million for the project.

“Our hope and belief is that the momentum started by these bold, early funding partners cascades into further support from partners all around Wisconsin who will now see, more tangibly, how the Future Museum will create a multi-generational impact as a world-class educational institution,” said Jay Williams, a former museum president and co-chair, with his wife Madonna, of the fundraising drive.