It’s time to get some of our favorite exhibit items ready for the new museum! Our team has already packed hundreds of thousands of items from our storage areas—a process that will continue. But we also need to begin packing some of the artifacts and specimens on display. We’re going to start small with only a few hundred items. There should be little impact on visitors and still plenty to see during your next visit! Beginning April 7, 2025, the Asia gallery on the Third Floor will temporarily close to be used as a staging area while staff deinstall a small percentage of items on exhibit throughout the Museum. The artifacts and specimens that are removed will be on display in the new museum’s exhibit gallery Living in a Dynamic World—an entire floor full of immersive scenes that depict people, plants, and animals found across different landscapes. Additionally, the Pre-Columbian America Mezzanine above the Third Floor will be permanently closed for full exhibit deinstallation. Several of the items from the Mezzanine will also be on display in the Living in a Dynamic World gallery. We invite visitors to explore these exhibit galleries now through Sunday, April 6, before they close. If you’re unable to visit prior to the closures, you can take a virtual tour of the Asia gallery and the Mezzanine on our website: Asia Gallery: https://mobileapps.mpm.edu/3dtours/asia/ Third Floor Mezzanine: https://mobileapps.mpm.edu/3dtours/precolumbian/ During this first round of object deinstallation, we will gain crucial information that will improve future processes and help us better determine timelines for other exhibit closures. This will ensure that our guests have advanced notice so they can visit other cherished exhibits in the current Museum before the new museum opens in 2027. Check out the FAQ page on our website for more information about this next phase of packing: https://www.mpm.edu/future/apr25/exhibit-update (fb)

With work well underway on the fourth floor of our new museum in downtown Milwaukee, the building's exterior is taking shape in Germantown in the form of 670 individual panels of concrete. Stonecast Products, Inc., is developing these spectacular pieces–some standing 35 feet tall and weighing more than 30,000 lbs.–that will be transported to and installed onto the new building later this summer. Using precast (concrete poured into a mold and cured offsite), Stonecast is able to create a variety of curved and ridged concrete panels that mimic the unique rock formations in central Wisconsin that inspired the architectural design of the building. Learn more about the project here: https://www.mpm.edu/future/news (fb)