The Milwaukee Art Museum has selected Boelter + Lincoln Marketing Communications (B+L) to develop the museum’s new rebranding campaign, in conjunction with its major restoration and renovation project, which began earlier this fall.
The Collection Galleries in the Museum’s Saarinen and Kahler buildings have been taken off view for the next year for extensive restoration work. The museum, however, remains open and active. The collections will be re-installed in the fall of 2015, and the Museum will unveil easier wayfinding, a new lakeside entrance, redesigned galleries, and restrooms on every floor.
After two years of negotiations and planning, the Milwaukee Art Museum announced its Plan for the Future, a comprehensive public campaign to restore the War Memorial and Kahler buildings and reinstall the museum’s galleries. The Plan for the Future is part of the Museum’s $15 million commitment to the $25 million project in partnership with Milwaukee County.
The marketing campaign will launch shortly before the Collection Galleries and the new east entrance open, and will include print, broadcast and digital media.
The museum campus currently includes the War Memorial Center (1957) designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen; the Kahler Building (1975) by Milwaukee-based architect David Kahler; and the Quadracci Pavilion (2001) by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. With the renovation, the museum’s gallery space will increase by 10,000 square feet.
The museum houses a collection of more than 30,000 works, with strengths in 19th- and 20th-century American and European art, contemporary art, and American decorative arts. It is the world’s leading repository for work by untrained creators and has one of the largest collections of works by Georgia O’Keeffe.
“We’re excited to work with an international destination like the Milwaukee Art Museum,” said B+L president and chief executive officer Jill Brzeski. “The museum’s brand and image should reflect the bold improvements being made to its facility.”
