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Ethical Concerns: Milwaukee Public Museum’s Deaccessioning and Institutional Redirection

Dear AAM Leadership:

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I am writing to raise serious concerns about the current trajectory of the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) under Executive Director Dr. Ellen Censky. A foundational institution in the American museum landscape is being redefined in ways that raise deep ethical, curatorial, and public trust issues.

Dr. Censky has publicly declared that MPM is “not a history museum” and has dismissed longstanding public sentiment by stating, “Nostalgia won’t carry us forward.” This framing has been used to justify the dismantling of landmark exhibits such as the Streets of Old Milwaukee, European Village, and irreplaceable murals. She has paraphrased ICOM’s 2019 Guidelines on Deaccessioning to support this approach, referring to deaccessioning as evidence of a “healthy, evolving collection” and insisting it is “not sustainable” to maintain all collections in perpetuity.


Perhaps more concerning is Dr. Censky’s prior role in rewriting the museum’s own collections oversight mechanisms. As Chair of the MPM Board in 2016, she led a revision of the Collections Policy that raised the threshold for required public oversight from $1,000 to $5,000—effectively removing Milwaukee County Board review over the deaccessioning of thousands of objects. She also shifted proceeds from a county-controlled trust fund to internal museum oversight, consolidating power over public assets under MPM leadership.


With a new, privately managed museum now underway—at one-third the size of the original facility—there is no clear plan for what will be retained, stored, or eliminated. This is more than a matter of collection refinement; it is a structural redefinition of public stewardship.


I respectfully urge AAM to examine whether these actions and justifications adhere to the profession’s ethical standards around transparency, governance, and community trust.

Sincerely,


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