Response from Supervisor Marcelia Nicholson - "Trust the Professionals"

When the public asks questions about the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), the answers we get all sound the same: trust the professionals.

Here’s a real example. In response to a community member’s inquiry, the Chairwoman of the County Board wrote:

“I always recommend first that residents reach out to their district County Supervisor, as your representative is the best point of contact for specific concerns or inquiries.”

She added that updates are provided through reference files and committee presentations, listing over a dozen file numbers (18-650, 19-55, 21-606, 22-454, 24-50) and suggested we:

“explore all of our public reports and materials related to the MPM project, which are available on the County Legislative Information Center (CLIC).”

Finally, we were directed back to MPM itself:

“We also encourage you and members of the public to visit the Milwaukee Public Museum information pages about the new museum and detailed explanations of planned exhibits and transitions: Future Museum | Milwaukee Public Museum.”

In other words: contact someone else, sift through years of committee files, and read the museum’s own PR.

But here’s the problem. Those glossy explanations don’t address what matters most—what will happen to beloved exhibits, why cost estimates ballooned by $120 million, or how $40 million in state taxpayer money was released “with no debate in a 45-second meeting segment”.

So while officials say, “I’d be happy to receive any information you may have, review it, and provide feedback or insights as needed,” what the public is left with is not clarity but a polite version of “trust us.”

The bottom line? Milwaukee County owns the largest municipally owned museum in the world. Yet when its citizens ask direct questions about its future, the only clear answer is that the people who own it—the public—are the last to know.