Milwaukee Public Museum officials seek changes in county lease to aid move to new home

Don Behm | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Public Museum officials are asking for changes to their building lease with Milwaukee County that would enable them to begin spending significant private donor dollars on plans for moving out and splitting the museum into two separate locations.

The quest for a new $100 million-plus natural history museum to be built on a full block in downtown Milwaukee was announced a year ago. Now, officials are pushing ahead with a separate effort to split off permanent storage space for most of the 4 million artifacts tucked into the current building's damp basement, museum President and CEO Dennis Kois said.

A 21st-century museum with new interactive technologies, digital presentations and less storage space will be half the size of the county-owned building on West Wells Street that it moved into in 1963, Kois said. No property has been purchased and no date has been set for groundbreaking though Kois would prefer to get that done in 2022.

To meet that timetable, the museum must be relieved of its lease commitment to set aside $5 million in cash and donor funds exclusively for repairs and improvements of the county-owned building, Kois said. Pumping all that money into the current home is at odds with plans to move, museum and county officials said.

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So Kois is asking the County Board to approve a revised lease that would commit the museum to target fund dollars on "urgent necessities," such as emergency or unexpected repairs, at the county building while allowing the museum to spend some of those donor funds on initial design plans and architectural drawings of a new building. An architect has not yet been hired.

Lease change backed

Amy Pechacek, deputy director of county administrative services, acknowledged the 2013 lease doesn't line up with the museum's long-term goal of moving out.

It would be "an unwise use" of donor funds and public tax dollars to continue to invest in major capital improvements at the West Wells Street building with a move pending, Pechacek said in a memo to County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr.

There would be no end in spending otherwise since the county faces more than $30 million in deferred maintenance there.

"We want to be partners with the museum to help them meet a goal of fiscal sustainability," Pechacek said in explaining her support for the lease change. The county would continue providing $3.5 million in annual operating support for the museum, as part of the revised lease.

Lipscomb has referred the museum's request for the lease change to the board's parks and finance committees for review before board action.

A museum two-year strategic plan lists making progress on both the museum and collections storage projects among the top six goals for 2019 and 2020.

After a new museum location is found and preliminary design work completed, the museum will launch a special campaign to raise private and public funds for the purchase of a downtown property and construction of the building, Kois said.

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Apart from that multiyear timetable for the museum's next home, it is facing a deadline of next year for committing to plans and a timeline to move the artifacts out of their damp basement confines and into safe storage.

Storage solution needed

The American Association of Museums begins its review of the museum's accreditation in 2019 and storage conditions will play a major role in the association's decision. It has been accredited since 1972 and gained approval most recently in 2007.

In addition to recurring problems from leaking water and wastewater pipes in the basement, there are no moisture barriers and no climate controls to eliminate seasonal swings in humidity, said Ellen Censky, the museum's senior vice president and academic dean.

Hardwood trays no longer meet minimal national standards for protecting the collection. Maple and oak trays release acidic gases that can damage straw baskets, pottery, fabric and other objects that are a few thousand years old.

"We will need a credible path forward" to present to the accreditation association, Kois said of the pressing demand for a storage solution.

Both preparing a digital inventory and moving the massive collections of fossils, minerals, plant and animal specimens as well as troves of anthropological and historical artifacts that include ancient carvings, pottery, baskets, crafts and other antiquities will take at least eight years, according to Censky.

Only 4 percent of the museum's artifacts are displayed in exhibits at this time and the remaining artifacts are not seen by the public, Censky said.

Apart from better protecting the county-owned and insured artifacts, the digital inventory and a specially designed storage facility also would offer greater access to the collections for museum staff, researchers and students, she said. The museum plans to incorporate more of the artifacts into public exhibits once it moves into the new home.