The Milwaukee Public Museum has found the spot where its next home will be.
Chief Planning Officer Katie Sanders says around 150 sites were considered, and in the end they decided on the corner of West McKinley Avenue and North 6th Street, about five blocks north of their current location near Fiserv Forum.
“We’re really excited to be part of the same neighborhood we’ve been a part of for our entire history,” says Sanders. “We’ll be very close to where we are now, but really exciting corner to be on with all of the development that is going on over there with Fiserv Forum, the Deer District, American Family, etc.”
The location will also be the home of the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum.
Selection of the site is getting approval from Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. “The Milwaukee Public Museum is an important piece of Milwaukee County as it serves the most diverse clientele of any cultural institution in the county or the state. It is still early in this process, but I’m excited to work with the Milwaukee Public Museum on their plans to best serve our residents and make a new museum building a reality.”
It also has the support of Bartolotta & Associates, which owns one of the parcels of land where the museum will be located. “This is the right time for a new home for the Milwaukee Public Museum,” says President and Founder Jennifer Bartolotta, “and the right team at MPM is in place to make the new Museum a place where everyone will feel like they belong. I have learned that every once in a while, the stars seem to align and the right people show up in the same place at the same time with a vision, and magic happens. This will be a place that will ignite our community’s curiosity and will provoke us to remain engaged long after we leave the building.”
Sanders says selecting the site was the first part of their plan for their new home. What will come next is selecting an architect to design then space. “That will inform the design of the exhibits that will make up the content. So this is a multi-year process, and a lot of things still yet to be determined.”
Sanders adds a new space will help them come up with new ways to display the collections they have been taking care of for over 140 years. “We’re not going to be picking up exhibits exactly as they are and sort of cutting and pasting them into the new museum. Visitors will be able to experience recognizable pieces of MPM today, but in a new and different way.”
Another goal for Milwaukee Public Museum will be to figure out the cost for the new location. Sanders says fundraising for this has been for the planning stage so far, but they are shifting focus to the building. Actual costs will become clear once a design is finalized.
As for when the new museum could be ready for visitors, Sanders says it will be several years from now. “If all goes according to a perfect plan, we would be able to break ground in…late 2022, early 2023. Which means we would be able to open at the end of 2025 or early 2026.”