MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Public Museum is celebrating this 414 Day by giving Milwaukeeans a sneak peek at the new Milwaukee Revealed gallery, which will replace the current Streets of Milwaukee exhibit.
The gallery is one of five coming to the new museum. MPM said it will be releasing renderingsand details on the new exhibits over the next few months, with the third set of renderings released Friday.
The museum shared the renderings on Twitter saying with this exhibit, visitors will experience immersive streetscapes with storefronts, buildings, houses, and waterways.
Visitors will be able to open doors, peer through windows, and press buttons to reveal hidden details and stories. MPM said the gallery will take people back in time, but also behind the scenes of "the here and now." In a Youtube video, the team noted that Milwaukee Revealed will cover a 300 year time period of Milwaukee versus the 10 year time period depicted in the Streets of Old Milwaukee.
According to a news release from the museum, there will be two exhibits within the Milwaukee Revealed gallery: Commercial and Neighborhoods.
Getting our first look at “Milwaukee Revealed,” the successor to the MPM’s Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit. Design team says it’ll be an immersive experience that tells the city’s history while “peeling back the layers” and showing the ties to the natural environment. pic.twitter.com/shouiJSotI
— Mary Jo Ola (@MaryJoOlaTV) April 14, 2023
Commercial
"The biggest thing we found is people love this feeling of being immersed into the city and being taken to a different place and time. We wanted to make sure that we capture that," President and CEO of MPM Ellen Censky said.
The Commercial district exhibit will have a mix of historic and modern city landmarks. The Mitchell Building will be featured, along with storefronts, the Schlitz Palm Garden, Cream City Medical Society, Lapham House, and the Waterfront.
The storefronts will give a glimpse into the industries that shaped Milwaukee, while the Waterfront area will allow visitors to see what's underneath the surface of the Milwaukee River.
Neighborhoods
Community Streetscape is one of two areas within the Neighborhoods exhibit. According to the museum, it will "recreate a quintessential Milwaukee neighborhood street, mimicking domestic architecture commonly found in the city."
Also included in the Neighborhoods exhibit: the Haymarket Candy Shop!
Previous coverage:
- Milwaukee Public Museum releases renderings of new Time Travel gallery
- First look at the Wisconsin Journey gallery in the new Milwaukee Public Museum
- New exhibits for a new museum: Milwaukee Public Museum gives first look at revamped galleries
The Milwaukee Revealed gallery comes after fans of the Streets of Milwaukee expressed disappointment online that the current exhibit wasn't moving to the new location.
A public petition was created to save the old exhibit.
The petition says, "join fellow Milwaukee residents in OPPOSING the dismantlement and removal of one of the city's most beloved, meaningful, and culturally significant exhibits -- The Streets of Old Milwaukee."
However, MPM provided clarity on what was really happening to the exhibit.
"Most of our exhibits, like the Streets of Old Milwaukee, have elements that are built into the current facility," MPM tweeted. "Deconstructing those in a way that won’t damage them and using those exact same materials to reconstruct them in a differently-shaped building would be nearly impossible, not to mention excessively expensive and time-consuming."
That's why MPM is going with a new gallery, with a similar experience.
On Twitter, MPM said, "Considered the spiritual successor to MPM's Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit, the Milwaukee Revealed gallery will evoke a similar feeling of nostalgia and whimsy, while also offering new, surprising, and often overlooked perspectives about the city for visitors to discover."
The new exhibit will come to the new MPM location expected to open in 2026.
Previous coverage
The new building will be five stories tall with about 200,000 square feet of space. The museum says the outside texture will be reminiscent of the ancient sea stacks at Mill Bluff State Park in Camp Douglass.
The first floor will feature an open commons atrium inspired by the coming together of the Milwaukee, Kinnickinnic and Menomonee rivers.
In addition to the new building, the museum will have a 50,000-square-foot storage facility for additional collections not on display.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for late 2023. Residents will be able to go inside in 2026, the museum says.
The museum's current building is at 800 W. Wells St.
Key donors noted by the museum are:
- Anonymous donors,
- JoAnn & Richard Beightol,
- Lynn & Douglas Brengel,
- Bucyrus Foundation,
- Melitta S. & Joan M. Pick Charitable Trust
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