FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Anna Story, Mueller Communications
(414) 390-5500
astory@muellercommunications.com
MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM PROVIDES FIRST LOOK AT FUTURE MUSEUM EXHIBIT CONCEPTS, TIME TRAVEL GALLERY
Dinosaurs, Silurian Reef and other beloved elements to be present in Future Museum exhibits in reimagined ways
MILWAUKEE —
Today, Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and exhibit design partner Thinc Design unveiled sketches of the Future Museum’s Time Travel gallery, the first of five permanent galleries to be revealed through the coming months. 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.
“The Time Travel gallery will trace the distinct origins and adaptations of life on our ever-changing planet and prompt visitors to wonder what life on Earth looked like millions of years ago,” said MPM President & CEO Dr. Ellen Censky. “Full of familiar, reimagined features as well as exhibits with new-to-visitors collections items or concepts, Time Travel will focus on three of our planet’s geological chapters: the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras.”
Gallery sketches and exhibit previews
The gallery and exhibit details shared below and in the enclosed sketches represent only a fraction of what visitors can expect in the Future Museum’s Time Travel gallery. The final gallery will include many more exhibits, collections items and opportunities to learn.
The Paleozoic Hall
An exploration of the deep past, the Paleozoic Hall of the gallery will include exhibits that investigate the unique planetary conditions that supported evolving life between 540 and 250 million years ago and demonstrate how that life impacted the planet. Here, visitors will learn about some of the earliest life on the planet, the process of fossilization and the ways in which the Earth’s landscape has changed through plate tectonics, the impact of water and more. The following are two examples of the exhibits that will be on display in this area:
Silurian Reef
At the Silurian Reef, a key immersive exhibit in the Paleozoic Hall, exhibit visitors will feel submerged into the tranquil, shallow waters of the Silurian seas, which covered the land that would eventually become Milwaukee when it was located near the equator 425 million years ago. The exhibit will be influenced by the more than 122,000 Silurian fossils in the collections and will teach visitors about the evolution and diversification of marine life through a multi-sensory approach, complete with a soothing wave soundscape, aquatic models that float above the visitor space and an interactive, tactile tabletop where visitors will be able to touch replicas of ancient sea creatures, including coral.
Cambrian Trackway
Among the many collection items to be on display in Time Travel’s Paleozoic Hall will be the Cambrian Diplichnites fossil, or Cambrian Trackway – a 2,600-pound slab of sandstone discovered in central Wisconsin containing animal tracks that are half a billion years old.
“The Cambrian Trackway is one of the earliest pieces of evidence demonstrating how and when animal species moved from water to land – and for years, it has been sitting in the basement of MPM with no place to be put on permanent display,” said Dr. Censky. “For the first time since 2017, Future Museum visitors will be able to examine this massive, influential fossil and learn how its discovery impacted human understanding of science and natural history.”
The Mesozoic Hall
The Mesozoic Hall in the Time Travel gallery will look at a time when dinosaurs dominated the Earth alongside other marvels of the era and the legacy that continues to capture our imaginations today.
Mesozoic Hall exhibits will also evaluate the unique planetary conditions that supported the ever-changing Mesozoic life as well as humans’ shifting understandings of the era. In the Mesozoic Hall, visitors can expect to find familiar exhibit elements in new, reimagined contexts.
Torosaur Clash
A favorite feature among current MPM visitors, dinosaurs will loom large at the Future Museum in exhibits that will demonstrate what scientists have discovered about the creatures and environment of the era.
The Future Museum will showcase a diorama of two Torosaurs locked in a ferocious battle – one depicted using the fossilized skeleton currently on display at MPM and the other, a model indicating the size and might of a fully fleshed dinosaur. Visitors will encounter this larger-than-life battle scene and feel as if they are part of the clash.
“The Torosaur Clash is a dramatic scene and a prime example of how scientific research and discovery by MPM experts informs what we know about science and history,” said Oronde Wright, Senior Exhibition Designer at Thinc Design and a lead designer on the Future Museum project. “The exhibit is inspired by a puncture wound on the Torosaur skeleton that, through scientific research, was determined to be caused by another Torosaur. Because of that wound, we can better understand the behavior of the species of the Cretaceous period – like how they fought over resources or mates – and what they left behind.”
Visitors will find many exciting surprises in keeping with the spirit of the current MPM. For example, the famous T. rex will make an appearance in the Torosaur Clash, this time lurking around a bend, possibly waiting for its next meal.
The Curtis L. & Jean E. Carter Cenozoic Hall
During the more recent Cenozoic era, Earth became the planet we recognize as home today. In the Curtis L. & Jean E. Carter Cenozoic Hall, visitors can explore the evolution of mammals through fossils of saber-toothed cats and other creatures of the era, see the impact of the arrival of the first humans and take a closer look at how our changing planet responds to and influences human behaviors.
Hebior Mammoth Hunt
At center stage of this area of Time Travel will be the Hebior Mammoth Hunt exhibit – an iconic MPM scene shown from a new perspective. Visitors will come face to face with the imposing skeleton of a woolly mammoth. Perched above it on the edge of a bluff, a stealthy group of human hunters prepare to strike.
“It’s a story of predator/prey dynamics, coevolution, adaptation and human ingenuity,” said Dr. Censky.
Providing context for artifacts and telling robust stories detailing how humans know what they do about history has been a priority in the exhibit-planning process. In the Hebior Mammoth hunt scene, a mini diorama will explain how humans butchered the mammoth they hunted and how scientists determined their methods by studying marks left on the mammoth’s bones.
“Exhibits are about more than the display of objects – they are about sharing the knowledge of how we know what we know,” said Helen Divjak, Senior Curator, Experience and Interpretation at Thinc Design and a lead designer on the Future Museum project. “How do we interpret what we know? By looking really closely at that artifact and looking at the clues and the evidence."
A dramatic audioscape will further propel visitors into this scene and many others throughout the Future Museum, creating a truly immersive experience.
Future announcements
Milwaukee Public Museum and its exhibit design partners at Thinc Design will be rolling out previews of each gallery from now until May 23. Each announcement will provide an inside look at a sampling of exhibits, collections items and features visitors can expect to encounter upon the Future Museum’s opening in late 2026 as the design team continues its work to identify each collections item and exhibit that will be on display. Below is a list of upcoming announcements. Additional details about announcement news conferences will be distributed in advance of each event.
Gallery announcement schedule
-
March 23: Wisconsin Journey
The Wisconsin Journey gallery is an entire exhibit floor focused on the geological wonders and strong and varied cultures of Wisconsin – from the Driftless region to the Northwoods, the Apostle Islands, the Great Lakes and Wisconsin’s vast Prairielands.
-
April 14: 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 shop for a sweet treat).
-
May 9: Living in a Dynamic World and Mixing Zones
In the Living in a Dynamic World gallery, visitors will take an unconventional journey to five distinct ecosystems across the globe and be immersed in the landscapes and cultures that occupy them. The Mixing Zones, including the Burke Foundation Mixing Zone, are two spaces in the Museum that will provide rare, behind-the scenes views into the collections’ storage areas and turn the Museum “inside out.”
-
May 23: Rainforest, Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium and the Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace
The Rainforest will take visitors to the tropics to learn about the biodiversity that flourishes in tropical rainforests and the life rainforest climates support. The Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium will welcome visitors into a warm, lush greenhouse thriving with real tropical plants and live butterflies flying freely throughout the space. The Bucyrus Rooftop Terrace will be a gathering space to reconnect visitors to the outdoors and natural world.
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.
More information about the Future Museum, including architectural renderings and a project timeline, is available on the MPM website.
About the Milwaukee Public Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum is Wisconsin’s natural history museum, welcoming over half a million visitors annually. Located in downtown Milwaukee, the Museum was chartered in 1882, opened to the public in 1884, and currently houses more than 4 million objects in its collections. MPM has three floors of exhibits that encompass life-size dioramas, walk-through villages, world cultures, dinosaurs, a rainforest, and a live butterfly garden, as well as the Daniel M. Soref Dome Theater & Planetarium. MPM is operated by Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc., a private, non-profit company, housed in a county-owned facility with collections that are held in trust and supported by Milwaukee County for the benefit of the public.
About the Future Museum
The Milwaukee Public 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. To be located on a 2.4-acre site at the corner of Sixth and McKinley Streets in the Haymarket neighborhood adjacent to the city’s Deer District, the Future Museum will be the largest cultural project in Wisconsin history. Heavily influenced by the ecological histories of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, the design of the new Museum will be reminiscent of the geological formations in Mill Bluff State Park, emblematic of the region’s diversity of landscapes formed by the movements of water through time.
The building will be approximately 200,000 square feet, including five stories, with an additional 50,000-square-foot collections storage building. Groundbreaking for the building is slated for late 2023, with Mortenson and ALLCON overseeing construction. The Milwaukee Public Museum’s current home will remain open until the new space is finished.
About Thinc
Located in New York, Thinc is a global design firm serving clients in North America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. For nearly 30 years, Thinc has designed projects for a wide range of clients, including museums, science centers, aquariums, zoos, theme parks, corporations, and governments. Notable projects include the re-envisioned Empire State Building Observatory (TripAdvisor’s 2022 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best as the #1 National and #3 Top World Attraction), the National September 11 Memorial Museum; the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences; The Freedom Park in Pretoria, South Africa; The Jordan Museum; the USA Pavilion at the 2015 World Expo; and Terra, the Sustainability Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai. The firm has been the recipient of numerous prestigious international awards including the Red Dot Award, World Design Award, Core77 Design Award, Global Future Award, and many more. Founded by Tom Hennes in 1992 as an outgrowth of a successful, 15-year theatrical design practice, the firm has evolved into a dynamic and multi-disciplinary studio that transforms how people think about the world and each other. Showstoppers! represents a joyous return to those theatrical roots. To learn more visit thincdesign.com.
###