Don Behm

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee Public Museum will move to a new downtown location within the next decade rather than renovate its current county-owned building, MPM President and CEO Dennis Kois said.

The decision to find a new home for the state's largest museum follows a two-year study that confirmed each of the two options would cost more than $100 million, Kois said. And renovation of the 400,000-square-foot museum would not resolve a separate problem: the need to move 4.5 million artifacts out of the leaky basement to better protect the collection.

After 53 years at its Wells St. home, the museum's plan to move sets off a search for a new location at the same time officials organize fundraising efforts and consider financing strategies. "The path forward is to find a way to create a new museum downtown," Kois said.

It will take five to 10 years for all those pieces to fall into place, he said. One thing for sure, the popular dome theater and planetarium will be included in any new building.

More details on the transformation will be released later this year, according to Kois. The museum's current lease with the county runs through Dec. 31, 2022.

In one early step down that path, Kois announced Tuesday that he is cutting 15 jobs this month as part of a larger restructuring of the museum's staff of 141 employees. The reorganization will bring the staff in a better alignment with the natural and human history museum's scientific mission, he said.

Both union and nonunion workers, including senior management staff, are targeted and those employees have been notified, he said.

"It's unfortunate we have to make choices like this," he said. "It is imperative that we position ourselves for what the museum will look like in the future."

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Three new positions related to digital media design, collections and research will be created later this year for a net loss of 12 jobs in 2017, according to Kois.

Restructuring will reduce operating costs by $1 million and strengthen the financial position of the museum, he said. The savings includes a voluntary, five-figure pay cut taken by Kois, as well as voluntary pay cuts taken by four vice presidents in the administration, according to a museum spokesman.

Salaries and benefits made up 57% of museum expenses in 2016. Its operating budget last year amounted to $14.27 million.

Spending was held to $14.2 million in the 2017 budget. Milwaukee County taxpayers contributed $3.5 million this year to museum operating costs.

"In order to secure MPM's future, we must ensure we are fiscally sustainable in the here and now," Kois said in a statement. "While MPM has been having great success recently — with attendance, revenue, membership and fundraising all up from 2014 to present — we must ensure we have the resources needed to invest in our future."

Attendance has increased 33% since 2014 to more than 548,000 visitors last year, he said.

County Executive Chris Abele did not comment directly on the proposed move.

"Our community's commitment to education and culture is part of what people love the most about Milwaukee," Abele said in a statement. "I know MPM leadership shares the county's values and I appreciate their responsible choices to prepare for a sustainable future."

The museum moved into its fourth home, the county-owned building at 800 W. Wells St., in 1963. A growing list of deferred maintenance there is estimated to cost more than $30 million.

And then there is the basement with leaking water and wastewater pipes. Not even its storage systems, including old hardwood trays, meet current minimal national standards for protecting the collection, said Kois. At risk are Depression-era quilts, pottery, straw baskets, ancient stone carvings and crafts that are a few thousand years old.

Also at risk: the museum's accreditation with the American Association of Museums. It has been accredited since 1972 and gained approval most recently in 2007. It is up for renewal in 2020 and the review begins in 2018.

Well-formed plans for a new location, and new artifact storage, will help in that review, Kois said.

The history of the museum begins in 1882 when it was chartered by the city as a natural history museum. The first location was a few rooms in the old German Academy building.

The museum moved in 1884 to the Industrial Exposition Building, which had been built on Kilbourn Ave. between 5th and 6th streets.

In moved out in 1899 and relocated to the Milwaukee Central Library at 814 W. Wisconsin Ave.

In 2015, the museum board approved hiring a Washington, D.C-based consulting firm, Gallagher & Associates, to recommend either renovation of the Wells St. building or constructing a new home as part of a multiyear strategic plan.

Don Behm can be reached at don.behm@jrn.com and twitter.com/conserve.