Milwaukee Public Museum has been reaccredited. That's a key win in its efforts to raise money for a new building north of Fiserv Forum.
Milwaukee Public Museum has been reaccredited — a key win in its efforts to raise money for a new building north of Fiserv Forum.
The accreditation came from the American Alliance of Museums, which in 2021 delayed a decision on granting it because of significant problems with the current building.
Losing accreditation would have endangered the museum's ability to host traveling exhibits as well as seek federal government grants — two big revenue sources.
Of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums, 1,096 are accredited, according to the museum. Milwaukee Public Museum is one of 21 museums accredited in Wisconsin.
The board expedited that vote in part to provide a cushion ahead of a mid-April deadline to submit an accreditation report to the alliance.
“For MPM, accreditation is essential to securing the future of this beloved institution and maintaining our status and collections as we look to the future,” said Ellen Censky, museum president and chief executive officer.
The reaccreditation, the recent unveiling of the new museum's design and the launch of the next phase of its fundraising campaign "will continue our momentum toward a museum that future generations can enjoy," Censky said, in a statement released Monday.
The cost of designing and constructing the new museum and its exhibits is estimated at $190 million. Additional costs include $25 million for the museum's endowment, $20 million to move the collections and $5 million to pay for the fundraising campaign and project management.
Of that $240 million tab, $110 million has already been raised. Along with the county cash, that includes $40 million from the State of Wisconsin and $25 million in private donations.
The five-story museum, to open in 2026 at West McKinley Avenue and North Sixth Street, will be a primarily concrete and glass structure.
Its exterior design is reminiscent of the geological formations in Mill Bluff State Park, which overlooks Interstate 90 near Camp Douglas, in central Wisconsin.
Museum officials want to begin construction in late 2023.
The new 200,000-square-foot building will include exhibit space totaling 80,000 square feet.
It will be much more cost-effective to operate than the current museum — a 480,000-square-foot facility with around 150,000 square feet of exhibit space.
That building, which opened in 1963 at 800 W. Wells St., is too large, inefficient and in need of $70 million in deferred maintenance projects. It would cost $250 million to renovate.
The new facility, tentatively named the Wisconsin Museum of Nature and Culture, will include more culturally relevant exhibits, museum officials have said.
Which of the museum's current exhibits will be on public display in the new building is still being determined.
The alliance's 2021 decision to delay reaccreditation cited inadequate facilities due to deferred maintenance at the Wells Street site.
The alliance wanted the museum to show efforts toward improved long-term care for the museum's fossils and other collections.
The new development includes plans for a separate 50,000-square-foot off-site storage space to house additional collections.
Also, the museum has "instituted rigorous efforts to ensure the safety of the artifacts and specimens in MPM’s care while the institution remains in its current location – efforts which have protected the collections from any irreparable damage," according to a museum statement.
More: Here's a first look at the design of new Milwaukee Public Museum
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Public Museum reaccredited — a key win for raising cash
