Crowley, Nicholson Sign Museum Deal

County officials gathered at the Milwaukee Public Museum Monday morning for the ceremonial signing of legislation that commits the county to borrowing $45 million to help pay for the public museum’s replacement.

Or, as Sup. Jason Haas put it at the signing, “what will be our next museum.”

The Milwaukee Public Museum’s current county-owned building is in very poor condition, with more than $50 million worth of deferred maintenance, according to MPM Inc., the nonprofit that operates the museum. 

This is putting the museum collections at risk, and it caused a national museum accrediting organization to pause the museum’s accreditation until a plan was formulated to secure the safety of the collections. Without accreditation, the museum would lose access to major sources of funding and likely go down a path to eventual closure, according to MPM and county officials.

That plan is a $240 million project to build a new 230,000-square-foot facility at the northeast corner of W. McKinley Ave. and N. 6th St. MPM officials recently said this facility will be called the Milwaukee Museum Complex, and it will house the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum and the future Wisconsin Museum of Nature and Culture, or what is currently known as the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The county’s $45 million will go toward the estimated $190 million construction cost for the new facility, which will no longer be publicly owned and will instead be owned by a new private entity incorporated to operate the museum. The county board approved the funding deal a week before the signing ceremony.

The state of Wisconsin is also contributing to the project, having included $40 million in funding for the new museum in its biennial budget passed in summer 2021.

Dr. Ellen Censky, president and CEO of MPM Inc., said the deal between her organization and the county, inked Monday by County Executive David Crowley and County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson ensures the preservation of the county-owned collections entrusted to MPM Inc. and exhibited in the museum while also ensuring it remains an accredited institution.

County Executive Crowley said, “I believe that this museum is not only crucial to being an educational resource to everyone in this community and all of our residents, but it is a significant piece of our county’s cultural identity.”

“And I speak to that personally from the impact this museum has had on me as a young person,” Crowley said, adding that he thinks it’s important that his own daughters, and future generations, can continue to experience the museum.

Chairwoman Nicholson, a former Milwaukee Public Schools teacher, noted the museum’s importance as an educational resource for schools and students. She said the public museum field trip was the one her students always looked forward to.

“Milwaukee Public Museum is special to me,” she said, “as a little girl growing up in the 53206 zip code, it was a place where I could open my eyes and expand my horizons and see that there was more than this small community that I grew up in.”

Sup. Haas, chair of the board’s finance committee, said, “This institution is being renewed and reimagined and reenvisioned for future generations of Milwaukee and Wisconsin.”