Public Museum Begins Building New Exhibits

Construction has started on the exhibits for the new public museum.

The new, 200,000-square-foot museum will have five permanent galleries spread across four floors of the five-story building being constructed at the corner of N. 6th Street and W. McKinley Avenue. It will provide a new home for the Milwaukee Public Museum, which has occupied a sprawling building at 800 W. Wells St. — near the courthouse and the Milwaukee Central Library — since 1962.

The new exhibits are being fabricated by Kubik Maltbie, a New Jersey-based exhibit production company. The firm, which has also produced exhibits for the Harley-Davidson Museum, came out on top during a “competitive request for proposal process, evaluating national and international candidates for their expertise in building world-class exhibits,” according to MPM.

The firm has also created exhibits for notable institutions like the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the American Museum of Natural History, the Empire State Building and Griffith Observatory.

“Building an entire museum and creating all of the exhibits from the ground up is a unique undertaking across the world. Museums elsewhere have added new wings or renovated existing spaces, but constructing a new home for a natural history museum is rare,” said Ellen Censky, MPM president and CEO. “To bring this vision to life in time for our new home to open in early 2027, we needed a fabricator with the expertise to honor our mission and deliver high-quality, diorama-style exhibits. After a thorough evaluation, it was clear that Kubik Maltbie is the ideal partner.”

Fabrication is occurring off-site. Construction of all five stories of the new museum has not been completed, but is on track to finish by the end of this year. The exhibitions will be installed in 2026 once the interior of the new museum is finished.

MPM reports that the project remains on schedule to finish in time for an early 2027 opening. The nonprofit continues to fundraise for the $240 million project, and has reported that it has raised $191 million, which includes the $40 million from state taxpayers and $45 million from Milwaukee County taxpayers.

Kubik Maltbie is building out the designs created by Thinc Design, the New York-based agency that designed the galleries for the new museum. In 2023, the museum released the conceptual designs for five of the six new galleries going into the museum.

Time Travel

The “Time Travel” Gallery will feature several of the popular pre-historic items and exhibits in the current museum. It will be arranged into three exhibit halls named for three geological time periods: The Paleozoic Hall, The Mesozoic Hall and The Cenozoic Hall.

Wisconsin Journey

The “Wisconsin Journey” gallery will feature a series of exhibits designed to showcase some of the unique natural and cultural features of the state.

Milwaukee Revealed

“Milwaukee Revealed” will create an immersive Milwaukee streetscape lit to resemble Milwaukee at dusk, with exhibits based on the city’s commercial history and neighborhoods, among other things. The gallery will provide an experience similar to the “Streets of Old Milwaukee,” which is not moving over to the new museum.

Living in a Dynamic World

“Living in a Dynamic World” will present five different landscapes around the world: desert, arctic, islands, grasslands and mountains.

Rainforest Gallery and Butterfly Vivarium

The “We Energies Foundation Gallery: Rainforest” will replace the popular Rainforest exhibit at the existing museum. The gallery will include space for the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium.

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