In case you missed it, the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) will close on January 3, 2027. The new, currently under-construction museum, the Nature & Culture Museum of Wisconsin (NCMW), will open at 1310 N. 6th St. later in 2027.
That means you have less than a year left to enjoy MPM! It also means more and more stuff in MPM will soon be “deinstalled.” MPM announced the latest deinstallations—and temporary exhibit closures—on Thursday. They are:
• The Torosaurus skeleton at the entrance of The Third Planet gallery on the first floor, along with the Ice Age bestiary fossils at the end of the gallery (pictured above), will be deinstalled in February. “These fossils, which contain real bones of dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals, need to undergo significant cleaning, potential repairs, and, in some cases, repositioning to get them ready for display in the Nature & Culture Museum of Wisconsin’s Time Travel gallery,” MPM says. Portions of The Third Planet gallery will be closed February 9-20 for these deinstallations.
• The Haida boat replica that hangs above the Sense of Wonder exhibit on the first floor will be deinstalled in February. “This boat will go on display in NCMW and needs to be moved into the new building before the glass for the windows is installed during the first quarter of 2026,” MPM says. “The object is too large to fit through the doors of the new Museum and cannot be taken apart. The Haida boat will be stored at MPM in the Butterflies Alive! play area for a few weeks, until crews are ready to safely transport it to the new building. As a result, the play area will be temporarily closed beginning February 9. It is expected to reopen sometime in March.”
• Finally, two Egyptian mummies in the Crossroads of Civilization exhibit on the third floor will be deinstalled, beginning February 17. “The coffins require a thorough condition assessment so that they can be stabilized and cleaned before future display in NCMW,” MPM says. “Items of this nature are intrinsically delicate and require significant time to properly conserve.”
MPM notes that while more deinstallations and temporary closures are expected in 2026, “the vast majority of object deinstallations will take place after MPM’s last day of operation on January 3, 2027.”
Find more information HERE. And find out what will happen to stuff MPM doesn’t want HERE.
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