Milwaukee County owns the world’s largest municipally owned museum, yet the public has little say in its future. Museum leaders insist the new facility is “not a history museum,” dismiss concerns as mere “public pushback,” and vow to transform our museum to fit "political and cultural trends.” These remarks fuel fears that beloved exhibits like the Streets of Old Milwaukee and the European Village are being erased rather than preserved.
2013 Lease Definition (Protected)
"The Collection" shall mean all artifacts, objects, works of art, specimens, documents, and other tangible items… owned by Milwaukee County and held in trust for the public.
Who Owns The Milwaukee
Public Museum?
2024 Redefinition (Stripped Protection)
"Components" refers to non-collection items and exhibit materials not defined as part of the permanent Collection, and therefore under the management and disposition of MPM, Inc.
It is not what is best, but who gets to decide what is best.
-Thomas Sowell
The Community Responds
MPM claims to have a “mandate” from the public for its project. Yet as their vision for the new museum has come into view, both MPM and the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors have faced steady objections from the very public they say they represent.
Thank you, to all the concerned , dedicated people who are fighting for our history . I am not giving up hope . It just astounds me why the museum board of directors would choose to discard the many exhibits that mean so much to so many . Re - locating is one thing , but discarding what is our history does not make any sense . I'm terribly saddened that the citizens of Milwaukee had no say in this.
Facebook Community Commentator
They are in breach of their duty IMO. Dismantling cherished exhibits with no transparency of what is happening to the works of art and donated pieces seems like robbery to me. The Milwaukee County board is asleep at the wheel.
Social Media Commentator
I feel like the current Museum board is like a mad ships' crew running full speed ahead into an Ice berg field loaded with mines. And the passengers are locked out of the pilot house.
Facebook Community Commentator
Don’t believe the propaganda. Our beloved museum is being destroyed in favor of flavor of the day ideology. When the museum management tells us that everything is moving over, that is bs. Not everything. The artifacts yes. However, most of artifacts will be stored. The murals painted by notable artists and dioramas will be left behind and destroyed.
Community Member
$45M from the County, $20M more in long-term support, and $40M from the State. Yet the new building won’t be public property. The State secured an ownership stake for its $40M. The County didn’t for its $65M.
We paid to preserve—not to disappear.
2013
2021
2022
The 2013 Lease and Management Agreement is the contract still in force between Milwaukee County and MPM, Inc., a private nonprofit. This agreement makes clear what belongs to the public: the building, the site, and the collections are owned by Milwaukee County and, by extension, the taxpayers. MPM, Inc. is only the steward and manager of those collections—not their owner. The ownership is ours. The stewardship is theirs.
Motion 84, passed by the Legislature in 2021, released $40 million in state funds for the new museum, contingent on private fundraising benchmarks. This motion gave the State of Wisconsin a direct stake and ownership interest in the new facility—while Milwaukee County taxpayers remain the largest funders without retaining ownership or control. The state has a stake. We do not.
File No. 22-454 is the 2022 contract that locked Milwaukee County into giving $45 million in taxpayer money for the new museum. This contract is at the heart of the public’s concern: it commits money without securing public input on what will be lost or how the museum will change.
2024
The December 2024 Financial and Management Agreement (FMA) is set to replace the 2013 lease. It commits Milwaukee County to an additional $20 million over 20 years and, to our knowledge, was not approved by the County Board of Supervisors but signed only by the County Executive. The justification cited was File No. 22-454—approved nearly three years earlier—leaving the public without a voice in this new financial deal with a new private entity, the Wisconsin Museum of Nature and Culture.
2025
The Milwaukee Public Museum is the largest municipally owned museum in the world, yet the public has almost no idea what is happening to its exhibits. Despite repeated calls for transparency, our questions remain unanswered. This is our latest request for information to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors: honor the public’s right to know what will be preserved, what will be altered, and what will be lost.
For more letters see our blog on PreserveMKE.org
This isn’t about a few artifacts—it’s about environments that hold our shared memory: the Streets of Old Milwaukee, the European Village, WPA murals, dioramas.
Once dismantled, they’re gone forever.
This isn’t nostalgia or resistance to change—it’s about our right to decide the museum’s future.
If it’s not a history museum, where does Milwaukee’s history live?
The strategy has been to move fast—start demolition, spend the money, and tell the public it’s too late. But speed isn’t consent.
MPM does not have a mandate to erase our history.
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Every day, more of Milwaukee’s heritage is at risk. Act now before it disappears behind closed doors.