Milwaukee Public Museum: Rainforest gallery, rooftop terrace revealed
MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and exhibit design partner Thinc Design unveiled on Tuesday, May 23 sketches of the Future Museum’s We Energies Foundation Gallery: Rainforest, the final of five permanent galleries to be revealed this spring, as well as the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium and Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace. Each gallery, or group of related exhibits, will focus on a specific overarching theme, and its many dioramas and individual features will help visitors learn about the interconnectedness of nature and culture tied to that larger concept.
We Energies Foundation Gallery: Rainforest
In Rainforest, visitors will be transported to one of the most biodiverse places on the planet: the tropics. Tropical rainforests along the equator are defined by their mazes of massive trees and vines, elements the gallery will leverage to conceal and reveal exhibits featuring a wealth of natural and cultural collections items.
Tropical Rainforest
The Rainforest gallery will be highly immersive. Visitors will experience a dimly lit space dressed with large tree trunks and thick vegetation, and a vibrant audioscape of gentle rainfall alongside the buzz of insects, birds and other rainforest residents will help set the tropical scene.
"Imagine you are hearing birds, hearing rain, the buzz of insects, this a fully multi sensory experience to take you into the rainforest," said Helen Divjak of Thinc Design. "Then you find yourself in this immersive lush gallery landscape."
In this exhibit, visitors will learn about traditions and practices common in rainforests, including how tropical rainforests support human health and healing through medicinal plants and provide raw materials for the creation of tools. Stories about venomous specimens, medical ceremonies as well as healing and adornment practices will also be explored.
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Throughout the gallery, exhibits will include specimens like beetles and birds of paradise alongside intricate beadwork and featherwork created in or inspired by rainforests.
Living Collections
In addition to preserved specimens and cultural items, some exhibits will even include living collections, potentially featuring poison dart frogs, tarantulas or other creatures that can be found in rainforests.
Beyond live specimens, current MPM fans may also recognize the hollowed-out tree from the current Rainforest exhibit repurposed in the Future Museum as well as the taxidermy howler monkey. Other familiar elements being brought to the new Rainforest gallery include a sloth, anaconda and oropendola nests.
Birds
A display of dozens of bird specimens and models mounted above visitors’ heads will connect the adjacent Wisconsin Journey gallery to the Rainforest gallery, evoking the annual mass migration toward the tropics that millions of species make each year to escape cooling northern climates.
Butterflies
Found in many tropical rainforests, butterflies have long sparked curiosity and inspired imaginations. In Rainforest, an exhibit will be dedicated to butterflies’ global and local diversity, widespread migration patterns and the differences between butterflies and their cousins, moths. It will also explore the ways in which butterflies have inspired myths and art around the world.
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Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium
Familiar to any fan of the Museum, a glass-walled live butterfly exhibit will be located in the Rainforest gallery and will once again immerse visitors in the tropics, thanks to a leadership gift from the Puelicher Foundation, which has added onto their original $3 million donation to maintain the Vivarium’s naming in perpetuity. A delightful, multi-sensory experience, the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium will be home to a diverse array of living butterflies, moths and plantlife.
In addition to observing the beautiful specimens fluttering freely around the space, visitors will be able to peer into an insect lab and pupae room, observing the lifecycle of the creatures fluttering around the Vivarium and learning more about the science behind the flora and fauna they are experiencing first hand.
Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace
Made possible by a $2.5 million gift from the Bucyrus Foundation, the Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace will reconnect visitors to the outdoors and the natural world after time spent losing themselves among the galleries and exhibits.
"We thought it would be only fitting to end our journey together on the building’s rooftop," said Ellen Censky, President and CEO of the Milwaukee Public Museum. "It’s not only to be a relaxing place, to enjoy the fresh air, but it will also function as an outdoor classroom."
Designed by landscape architects at GGN, gardens on the Terrace will include native Wisconsin plantings and be designed to shift with the seasons.
In addition to space to walk around and sit among the gardens, the Terrace will function as an outdoor classroom and observation area, allowing visitors to smell, touch and see the natural world nestled right into the City of Milwaukee skyline.
The Terrace will also be an attractive place for Wisconsinites to gather for special events. More details about event spaces at the Future Museum will be made available closer to the Museum opening in late 2026.
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"These exhibits are not only loved by visitors but they are also an important part of the museums legacy and history," Censky said.
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. Additional information about visitor amenities, including the lobby space, Museum store, café and programming, will also be shared in the future.