MILWAUKEE — A new chapter is set to begin for the Milwaukee Public Museum as the team prepares to move into its new building in April 2027. The “Future Museum” will be located on the corner of 6th and McKinley, right next to Deer District, and will be the largest cultural project in Wisconsin history.
The museum began its packaging just a few days before Tuesday but has been planning this move for a few years now. 23,000 glass and ceramics pieces were the first to be wrapped.
The Milwaukee Public Museum preparing to move a total of 4 million pieces to the “Future Museum” over the next few years!
— Juelz (@jujuelz_is) February 27, 2024
Here’s me reporting on the event today!@620wtmj pic.twitter.com/JsnfwuY32A
MPM Collections Move Project Manager Sara Podejko explained why they decided to start with the ceramic pieces of the more than four million total pieces they have in inventory.
“It’s made of inorganic material, so that means we don’t have to worry about pests… they can be a bit more forgiving in more fluctuating environments, and they’re less prone to damage,” she explained. “Because of that, they’re going to much safer to be in crates for more than a few months while we work on getting the museum ready.”
All of the items will be wrapped in acid-free tissue and padded in archival foam to protect it while transporting. The material is also dye-free.
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The museum is partnering with Wisconsin-based packaging company Orbis to assist in the move. Orbis is giving them 4-foot squared crates with adjustable internal dividers. They have named each of the crates as well with the first of many being called “Crate Expectations”.
Here’s some of the 23,000 glass and ceramics pieces being moved and packaged in the first step.
— Juelz (@jujuelz_is) February 27, 2024
A few Museum study grads are doing the packaging!
And the crates they’re being transported in also have names😂!
The first crate has been named “Crate Expectations”@620wtmj https://t.co/xQZ7ZljEBt pic.twitter.com/RzbTxp2tdS
Podejko told WTMJ that all the packaging materials are reusable.
“We’re using a lot of foam, tissue and twill tape, so our main purpose here is that this material can be reused as we pack other collections,” she said. “When this material transfers, we unpack it, put the glass and ceramics into new beautiful cabinetry. We will take our tissue and our ethafoam back and [reuse it] along with our reusable crates.”
They had to start packing now or else the yearslong process would not have gotten anywhere.
“Packing is really the last step in the process. There’s a lot of steps we have to do beforehand,” Podejko said. “We have started move processing for the past few years…. doing things like inventory, knowing where things are and what we have.”
Podejko said the packaging is being worked on by a few Museum Study graduates. One of them is Quinn Tahoe, who tells WTMJ he started working at the museum in July 2022, and back then, they were already starting to do inventory in preparation for the move.
Here’s Museum Study Grad Quinn Tahoe talking about how he got involved with the Milwaukee Public Museum!@620wtmj https://t.co/WVnRWmMa3h pic.twitter.com/Do0otGr7FH
— Julien Johnson (@jujuelz_is) February 27, 2024
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MPM’s Read Curator of History Collections, Jackie Schweitzer told WTMJ that every object moved had to be barcoded and logged digitally before being moved.
“We imported about 144,000 records… just for those digitization records… which then allowed us to move on to barcoding,” she said. “So that’s some of the preparation that’s going on behind the scenes.”
Podejko said most museums don’t barcode all of their items because of how time consuming the effort is, but they really wanted to be as meticulous as possible for this move.
“It’s something that I know we’re really proud of here. Because it’s really helping make sure we know where everything is in every step of this move. We can track it’s condition. We can track its location,” Podejko said. “There’s never going to be any mishaps that might happen when you’re dealing with paper or dealing with records like that.”
She told WTMJ that how they move this first set of items will determine how they move more items later, saying this move could still be in progress even after opening their new museum in early 2027.
Jackie Shweitzer also said this task is similar to a more typical task.
“It’s some ways it’s similar to moving your house,” she said. “It’s just a much bigger project.”
The groundbreaking for “Future Museum” will be in late spring.
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