The future of the Milwaukee Public Museum hangs in the balance. Beloved exhibits that generations have grown up with face an uncertain fate. Learn what’s at stake before it’s too late.
Her Words, Not Ours
Dr. Ellen Censky, CEO of the private nonprofit now running the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Museum Board of Directors, are leading the demolition — not just of a beloved building, but of our city’s collective memory.
This isn’t preservation.
This isn’t stewardship.
It’s replacement.
And it’s being funded with $240 million in public and private money.
This is not “reimagining.” This is erasure.
“Nostalgia Won't Carry Us Forward.”
– Dr. Ellen Censky, CEO, MPM,
Milwaukee Magazine, 2020
These are Dr. Ellen Censky's words about our Milwaukee Public Museum. What will be our response?
History isn’t nostalgia.
It’s education. It’s culture. It’s identity.
The Milwaukee Public Museum belongs to the people.
Progress means building on our past — not erasing it.
Stand up. Speak out. Save our museum.
Photos courtesy of MPM.edu
Photos courtesy of MPM.edu
Photos courtesy of MPM.edu
Photos courtesy of MPM.edu
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Photos courtesy of MPM.edu
Photos courtesy of MPM.edu
A New York firm is designing our new museum.
Does this look like our museum?
Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Public Museum. Source: Annual Report & Public Records, https://www.mpm.edu/about/annual-report-public-records
What We Have
VS
What They Want
Dr. Ellen Censky public comments
Though beautifully crafted – painted prairie skies, taxidermized buffalo tipped onto their hind legs, the famous rattlesnake – the installation includes two nearly identical mannequins, both of which play on old stereotypes. “It’s so bad,” says Censky, who has served as museum president and CEO since June 2019. “The fact that they thought they could represent a whole people with the same two mannequins is not good.” Milwaukee Magazine article, 2020,
Dr. Ellen Censky public comments
Though beautifully crafted – painted prairie skies, taxidermized buffalo tipped onto their hind legs, the famous rattlesnake – the installation includes two nearly identical mannequins, both of which play on old stereotypes. “It’s so bad,” says Censky, who has served as museum president and CEO since June 2019. “The fact that they thought they could represent a whole people with the same two mannequins is not good.” Milwaukee Magazine article, 2020,
Though beautifully crafted – painted prairie skies, taxidermized buffalo tipped onto their hind legs, the famous rattlesnake – the installation includes two nearly identical mannequins, both of which play on old stereotypes. “It’s so bad,” says Censky, who has served as museum president and CEO since June 2019. “The fact that they thought they could represent a whole people with the same two mannequins is not good.” Milwaukee Magazine article, 2020,
Public Comment made by Dr. Ellen Censky
But Censky doesn’t want visitors to hold onto those ideas or expect to find those same exhibits in the new museum. “You won’t be walking in and just seeing the same exhibits,” says Censky.
"They will all be reimagined"
-Dr. Ellen Censky