Elitists Are Destroying Art at the Milwaukee Public Museum—Scott Bush, Vice President, PreserveMKE

I have walked the halls of the Milwaukee Public Museum hundreds of times over the years. This time it felt different. This time, I counted. I counted the murals. The paintings. The artwork embedded in the dioramas. I counted roughly 140 works—pieces that have shaped how generations of Milwaukeeans understand history, culture, and place.

These works are not disposable props. They are art. They are history. Yet museum leadership is presiding over their removal.

In 2019, the public was told the museum building was beyond repair. We were told it was unsafe. We were told replacing it would be cheaper than fixing it. We were told the price tag was $240 million. That claim never passed the smell test.

The building is only 62 years old. Many structures in Milwaukee are far older and remain fully functional. The cost estimate raised eyebrows and launched public scrutiny. That scrutiny revealed something else entirely.

This is not just about a building. It is about ideology.

The Milwaukee Public Museum is a natural history museum. The new institution will redefine itself as the Wisconsin Museum of Nature and Culture. Museum leadership insists this is progress. But progress for whom?

Dr. Ellen Censky has described the existing museum as “culturally incompetent.” She has dismissed public concern as “pushback.” She has publicly stated that the Milwaukee Public Museum is “not a history museum.”

Those statements matter. They signal a fundamental shift in mission—one the public was never clearly told about when millions in taxpayer dollars were approved.

If county supervisors had been told plainly that beloved exhibits like the Streets of Old Milwaukee would be dismantled and abandoned, the vote might have gone very differently.

The Streets is not nostalgia. It is a life-sized, walk-through diorama depicting Milwaukee at the turn of the 20th century. It captures working-class life. Immigrant neighborhoods. Everyday commerce. It is history you can walk through.

And it is being erased.

Art professionals recognize what is being lost. Illinois art educator Stuart Stefany examined the works slated for destruction and described them as “technically excellent and artistically sophisticated. The harmony between painting, sculpture, and environment is not replicable. Once destroyed, it is gone forever.”

This is a “burn the ships” approach to collections management. Once dismantled, there is no turning back.

Milwaukee County owns these collections. The public paid for them. Yet a private nonprofit now has broad authority to decide their fate. Proceeds from sales of surplus property will stay with the museum, not the public. The new building will not be county-owned, despite $45 million in county funding. Public money. Private control.

Dr. Censky has said, “It’s harder and it’s messier… but we’re committed to doing this because it’s the right thing to do.” Right for whom? Not for the public.
Not for thousands of museum members.
Not for the generations who built and loved this institution.

The public deserves honesty.
The public deserves transparency.
The public deserves a say.

This is not about resisting change.
If Milwaukee loses these exhibits, it will not be because they could not be saved.
It will be because someone decided they should not be.

That decision should never be made without public consent.

To learn more, visit www.PreserveMKE.org.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.