MILWAUKEE, WI.- Throughout the past three months,
Milwaukee Public Museum and exhibit design partner, Thinc Design, have shared design concepts for the Future Museum’s five permanent galleries: Time Travel, Wisconsin Journey, Milwaukee Revealed, Living in a Dynamic World and We Energies Foundation Gallery: Rainforest as well as additional unique spaces like the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium, Nature and Culture Connectors and Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace.
The rollout of gallery themes and exhibit examples highlighted high-level concepts and focus areas for the Future Museum galleries, or groups of connected exhibits. Each announcement provided an inside look at a sampling of exhibits, collection items and features visitors can expect to encounter upon the Future Museum’s opening.
The Museum, Wisconsin’s natural history museum, will be relocating from its current location on Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee to a newly constructed building due to open in late 2026 or early 2027. The new building, designed by Ennead, was unveiled last fall.
Tom Hennes, Principal of Thinc Design said, "I'm so proud of the Thinc Design team for playing an integral role in developing and presenting the details of each gallery in the new Museum building. It's a privilege for us to be a part of this exciting journey with the Milwaukee Public Museum, and we are humbled by the support and anticipation we feel from the community."
PJ DiStefano, Board Chair, Milwaukee Public Museum added, “This was a fantastic undertaking by the MPM and Thinc Design teams to reveal details about the new Museum’s galleries and the positive reaction from the public has affirmed all of their hard work. This incredible support validates our vision of creating a world-class institution that not only celebrates our collections and local history but also engages, educates and captivates visitors of all ages. We are poised to create a museum that will inspire curiosity and foster a love for learning just as we are doing now.”
Overview
Thinc has designed five galleries across four exhibit floors. In addition to these galleries, the Museum will also include two flexible spaces – Nature and Culture Connectors – dedicated to showcasing a rotating selection of collections items with views into research labs and storage areas, as well as the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium and the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium, where visitors can expect to once again find live butterflies and moths.
● Time Travel
The Time Travel gallery is dedicated to exploring the deep past, including when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, through exhibits focused on three of the planet’s geological chapters: the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. It will include exhibits like the Hebior Mammoth Hunt and Torosaur Clash.
● Wisconsin Journey
The Wisconsin Journey gallery is an entire exhibit floor focused on the geological wonders and varied cultures of Wisconsin – from the Dells to the Driftless area, to the Northwoods, Apostle Islands, Great Lakes and Wisconsin’s vast prairielands. This gallery will include exhibits like the Lead Mine Look-In, Prairieland Bison Display and Hebior Mammoth Dig Site.
● Milwaukee Revealed
Milwaukee Revealed will immerse visitors in city streetscapes they can explore to learn about the history of Milwaukee, the people who came to settle and live here and its interconnected systems, neighborhoods and ecologies (and where future generations of children can stop for a sweet treat at the Haymarket Candy Shop). In addition to the neighborhood streetscape and several storefronts, Milwaukee Revealed will include the Mitchell Building and Schlitz Palm Garden as well as a pharmacy, dress shop and custard shop.
● Living in a Dynamic World
In Living in a Dynamic World, visitors will take an unconventional journey across the world and learn about five distinct landscapes: deserts, the Arctic, islands, grasslands and mountains. Each immersive landscape will include stories of distinct cultures—including a focused look at a specific individual or group of people and species who call the landscape home today—and will show visitors unique ways of life that have developed in continuous dialogue through generations with these landscapes.
● We Energies Foundation Gallery: Rainforest and Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium The We Energies Foundation Gallery: Rainforest will take visitors to the tropics to learn about the biodiversity that flourishes in rainforests and the life those climates support. Next to Rainforest, the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium will welcome visitors into a warm, lush garden thriving with real tropical plants and live butterflies flying freely throughout the space.
● Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace
The Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace will function as an outdoor classroom and observation area, allowing visitors to smell, touch and see the natural world nestled right into the Milwaukee skyline. Designed by landscape architects at GGN, gardens on the Terrace will include native Wisconsin plantings and be designed to shift with the seasons.
● Nature and Culture Connectors
The Connectors, including the Burke Foundation Nature Connector, are two special, flexible spaces that will allow Museum staff to rotate displays of collections items. With one Connector dedicated to research and science and the other focused on culture, each space will present visitors with new ways to look at and experience the 4 million collections items in the Museum’s care, offer space for public interaction and programming and turn the Museum “inside out” by providing behind-the-scenes views into the collections’ storage areas.
The gallery details shared throughout the spring represented only a sampling of the exhibits, collections items and experiences visitors will encounter in the Future Museum. Additional specific details about the full array of exhibits and collections items that will make up each gallery are still being determined and are subject to change as the design process progresses. More information about visitor amenities, including the lobby space, Museum store, café and programming, will also be shared in the future.
