Museum Leaders Sidestep Exhibit Questions at County Hearing

Source: Milwaukee County Legistar – Parks & Culture Committee, Sept. 2, 2025 (Video available at: milwaukeecounty.legistar.com, File ID 14742968, GUID 0CC2C9EE-98A3-4D27-99AF-A248513F0CDE).

“We have about 140 unique dioramas, murals, and taxidermy that people love about the museum, and we have no idea what is going to be happening to those.”

On September 2, 2025, the Milwaukee County Board’s Parks and Culture Committee took up the question that many residents have been asking for months: what will happen to the dioramas, murals, and immersive exhibits that define the Milwaukee Public Museum?

Museum leadership emphasized repeatedly that the collections—the accessioned fossils, taxidermy, and artifacts—will move to the new facility. But when supervisors pressed for details on the exhibits themselves, the answers grew vague.

Supervisor Jack Eckblad shared concerns from families who donated items to the Streets of Old Milwaukee:“Is it accurate that there are actually family heirlooms as part of these artifacts? And is there a plan for disposition of those?”

CEO Ellen Censky responded with an anecdote:“I know there were families who reached out about things like a loaf of bread… that loaf of bread was not likely accepted into the collection.”

For many watching, it was an unsatisfying answer. The concern was about heirlooms; the answer was about bread.

Supervisor Steve Taylor pushed further, asking why the museum could not publish exhibit-level inventories:“Why can’t those examples—like the ones you’ve already done—just be posted online as a public record? People want to know what’s happening to each of these beloved scenes.”

Censky replied that such a process would be “long and tedious” and that staff were already stretched thin. Yet the museum has acknowledged in its own planning documents that the exhibit designs for the new museum are already complete.

Public testimony underscored the gap between museum assurances and community sentiment. One speaker put it plainly:“We have about 140 unique dioramas, murals, and taxidermy that people love about the museum, and we have no idea what is going to be happening to those.”

Despite repeated claims of transparency, the public left with more questions than answers. The “collections” may be preserved, but for now the fate of the exhibits that generations of Milwaukeeans grew up with remains unresolved.