With the start of the construction timeline for a new museum fast approaching, Milwaukee Public Museum’s President and CEO Ellen Censky told county officials on Tuesday that the museum has raised $80 million in private donations for the project – about $14 million more than the figure museum officials reported to the Committee on Parks and Culture in December.
In the planning stages for the better part of seven years, the $240 million project, has been promised $45 million in public funding from Milwaukee County and another $40 million from the State of Wisconsin. MPM is responsible for raising the remaining $150 million from private donors. Another $5 million in federal grants are also being pursued, which would get the project to the $240 million mark, but that money has not yet been awarded.
Construction of the building itself is approximately $200 million. The remaining funds for the project will cover the costs to move the collections from the existing building, provide millions for the museum’s endowment – money that would essentially go towards running the new museum – and to pay for project management and the ongoing fundraising campaign.
With $80 million in private donations now pledged to the project Censky told committee members on Tuesday that the museum is on track for a May groundbreaking ceremony, with actual construction of the museum to begin at Sixth and McKinley Streets in the Haymarket neighborhood near downtown Milwaukee this summer. The new museum is slated to open in 2027.
Although the museum still has $70 million to raise in private donations to meet its fundraising goals for the project, Censky said MPM officials felt confident about where they were in that process, considering that the institution is only two years into what is slated to be a five-year campaign.
“This campaign was designed in four phases and it kicked off in July of 2022. So we are in the second phase, the leadership phase, which will continue through till the beginning of construction,” Censky said. “And then there are two more phases that will occur after construction has started. … (When) combined with the public funding (the private donations put) us at $165 million. That means that we are 70% of the way to our total campaign goal and we still have three of the five years left to raise funds. What I’m more excited to report is that 283 donors have stepped forward thus far, including 34 who have made gifts of $1 million or more.”
Unlocking county funding
In order to unlock the county funding, and have enough cash on hand to start construction, the museum must raise 90% of the construction budget, or about $185 million, museum officials said. With the state and county funding representing $85 million, that means museum officials will need to have raised about $100 million in private donations before construction can begin in earnest.
Speaking to BizTimes Milwaukee last month Censky noted that what would typically be part of a “quiet phase” in any other major capital campaign, has had to be done out in the open, because of the museum’s relationship with the county and the public nature of the project.
“We’ve been in a very loud quiet phase,” she said.
The last publicly shared donation to the project was made in October, when MPM announced that the Culver family, owners of the Prairie du Sac-based Culver’s restaurant chain, were pledging $1 million for an exhibit exploring the state’s love for frozen custard.
News of the Culver family donation came just a few weeks after MPM announced a $10 million gift from the Kellogg Family Foundation for its Wisconsin Wonders campaign – the largest private donation to the museum project to date.
Packing up
Although the new museum won’t be opening at least early 2027, MPM still has tens of thousands of items in storage – items everyday visitors typically don’t see – that must be readied for their move to the future museum or an off-site storage facility
Kicking off that massive task, collections staff began carefully wrapping and packing the 23,000 items in MPM’s British ceramics collection late last month.
Censky told committee members on Tuesday that MPM hopes to have an off-site storage facility secured by the time construction of the new museum begins this summer.
Building support
As it works to raise funds for the project within the Milwaukee area and across the state, the development team has been working hard to share the details of the project, especially with those would-be donors who are averse to change or concerned about the loss of beloved exhibits like the Streets of Old Milwaukee.
“When we sit down and talk about what our plans are for the new museum and can share in detail what we’re doing, they become very, very comfortable,” Censky said last month. “In fact, we do have a donor that was very attached to the Streets of Old Milwaukee, and we sat them down with our exhibit designer, so they understood where his concerns were … What they’re telling us as we dig deeper is they want this immersive experience where they can be transported somewhere else in time and that is what our new Milwaukee Revealed exhibit will do.”
Described as the “spiritual successor” to the Streets of Old Milwaukee, Milwaukee Revealed will highlight both the city’s past and present through a series of immersive commercial and neighborhood exhibits.
Current fans of MPM’s Streets of Old Milwaukee will find many familiar, nostalgic elements in Milwaukee Revealed, including collections items like the penny-farthing bicycle and the one-of-a-kind Schloemer automobile. Another call back to the Streets of Old Milwaukee, the Haymarket Candy Shop exhibit, will be a functioning store where visitors can purchase sweet treats.
