Milwaukee Public Museum Begins Exhibit Fabrication Process for Future Home

MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) today announced the start of the exhibit fabrication process with Kubik Maltbie as the lead exhibit fabricator for the Future Museum. This selection marks the most recent milestone in the development of the largest cultural project in Wisconsin’s history, ensuring that visitors will experience engaging, immersive and educational exhibits for generations to come.

MPM selected Kubik Maltbie through a competitive request for proposal process, evaluating national and international candidates for their expertise in building world-class exhibits. Kubik Maltbie has created exhibits for prestigious institutions, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the American Museum of Natural History, the Empire State Building and Griffith Observatory. Locally, they have also supported fabrication of exhibits in the Harley-Davidson Museum. Their extensive experience in creating engaging and iconic exhibits will ensure that MPM’s new museum meets the highest standards of quality and innovation.

“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 MPM President & CEO Dr. Ellen Censky. “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.”

Kubik Maltbie will support the construction of the exhibits, including collections cases, scenery and dioramas, bringing to life the designs and narratives crafted by MPM curators and designed with the Museum exhibition design partner, Thinc. The team selected the collections items that will be on display in collaboration with global community stakeholders, educators, Tribal partners from Wisconsin’s First Nations, scientists and others.

“Kubik Maltbie is thrilled to have been selected as the exhibit fabricator for the Future Museum. We look forward to joining the Museum team and Thinc Design to help create and produce the new world-class exhibits and dynamic visitor experiences for the current and future generations from the city of Milwaukee and the entire state of Wisconsin,” said Kubik Maltbie Vice President of Business Development Curt Cederquist.

The Future Museum will feature six galleries across four exhibit floors, including a temporary gallery space for rotating special or traveling exhibitions and five permanent galleries: Milwaukee Revealed, Winifred & Spencer Kellogg Gallery: Wisconsin Journey, Living in a Dynamic World, Time Travel and We Energies Foundation Gallery: Rainforest. In addition to these galleries, the Future Museum will also include two flexible spaces—the Burke Foundation Culture Connector and the Nature Connector— dedicated to showcasing a rotating selection of collections items with views into research labs and storage areas. Other highlights include the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium and the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium, where visitors can expect to once again find live butterflies and moths.

The team will construct display cases and platforms integrated into the exhibits, produce graphics explaining each collection and incorporate lighting and sensory components such as sound, tactile elements, visual projections and even scents. Additional partners, including COST of Wisconsin, based in Jackson, and Clearwing, based in Milwaukee, will contribute to the exhibit fabrication process.

Most exhibit components will be fabricated offsite and then transported and installed in the Future Museum in 2026 when construction manager Mortenson completes interior work on the building. Exterior construction is expected to be finished by the end of 2025. The Future Museum remains on track to open in early 2027.

More information about the galleries and some of the exhibits planned for the Future Museum is available online at mpm.edu/future.

About the Milwaukee Public Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum is Wisconsin’s natural history museum, welcoming visitors from all 72 Wisconsin counties, all 50 states, and from many countries around the globe. Located in downtown Milwaukee, the Museum was chartered in 1882, opened to the public in 1884, and currently houses more than 4 million objects in its collections. MPM has three floors of exhibits that encompass life-size dioramas, walk-through villages, world cultures, dinosaurs, a rainforest, and a live butterfly garden, as well as the Daniel M. Soref Dome Theater & Planetarium. MPM is operated by Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc., a private, non-profit company, housed in a county-owned facility with collections that are held in trust and supported by Milwaukee County for the benefit of the public.

About the Future Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin’s natural history museum, will be relocating from its current location on Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee to a newly constructed building due to open in early 2027.

To be located on a 2.4-acre site at the corner of Sixth and McKinley Streets in the Haymarket neighborhood adjacent to the city’s Deer District, the Future Museum will be the largest cultural project in Wisconsin history. Heavily influenced by the ecological histories of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, the design of the new Museum will be reminiscent of the geological formations in Mill Bluff State Park, emblematic of the region’s diversity of landscapes formed by the movements of water through time. The building will be approximately 200,000 square feet, including five stories, with an additional 50,000-square-foot collections storage building.

To learn more about the Future Museum, visit mpm.edu/future.

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.