A NEW Milwaukee Public Museum? Officials explore whether new building should be built

MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee Public Museum officials said Tuesday, March 7th they're "investigating" whether to construct a new building. The president of the Milwaukee Public Museum stressed no plans have been finalized at this point. They are looking to either renovate the current building -- or move on.

"We ultimately need to think about how are we going to be the museum the city needs 100 or 200 years from now?" Dennis Kois, president and CEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum said.

According to a news release from MPM officials, an investigation is underway to determine whether a new building should be constructed to replace the failing Milwaukee County-owned building near 8th and Wells. The current building was built in 1963.

"We can renovate this museum, or ultimately we might have to find a path to consider building a new museum elsewhere in the city. That study is still underway. That work is still ongoing," Kois said.

Museum officials said the evaluation has been underway for the past two years and has involved Gallagher & Associates, a museum consultancy in Washington, DC, along with extensive community input. Kois said a decision would be based on protecting the four million items and collections inside the museum, while enhancing each guest's visit.

"We need to have a great experience for our visitors," Kois said.

Museum officials also announced a "staffing restructure" intended to "strengthen the financial position of the Museum and prepare it for changes ahead."

The Milwaukee Public Museum will be reducing its staff by 15 positions, while also creating several new positions. Overall, the staffing changes will reduce MPM’s expenses by more than $1 million dollars, or 8%, officials said in the release. The staffing changes will impact positions ranging from senior management to front line staff. The new positions will be added in areas such as collections digitization, collections and research, and digital media design over the coming year.

The staffing restructure comes as the Milwaukee Public Museum is seeing an increase in revenue, attendance, fundraising and membership.

According to MPM officials, since 2014, the Milwaukee Public Museum has seen a 33% increase in attendance, a 101% increase in attendance to the Planetarium/theater, a 38% increase in admissions, a 21% increase in membership, a 41% increase in retail revenue and a 13% increase in unrestricted fundraising.

Despite that success, however, officials said the Museum needs to align its staffing and expenses for future needs.

"Ultimately, we're still a non-profit and we're a charitable organization. We just need to make sure we're being prudent and responsible. Anything we might do here in the future would have to be able to top that experience -- whether we do it here or somewhere else," Kois said.

According to Museum officials, for 2017, MPM’s operating budget is $14.2 million and the Museum currently has 141 staff (prior to these reductions).

Kois said a decision as to the Milwaukee Public Museum's future will be made sometime this year. Exactly how much a new building would cost hasn't yet been determined.

Meanwhile, as it relates to the staffing restructure, officials with AFSCME Local 526 issued this statement:

The union has planned a picket for Wednesday, March 8th at 5:00 p.m. at MPM.