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Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone.
Welcome to Mid-Mornings on Civic Media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your host.
Buddy, your pal glad you're here today.
Hope you're having a wonderful morning.
If you're driving through the snow, I hope you're, you're driving at a reasonable rate, not way too slow, not way too fast.
And remember stop lights aren't a suggestion.
You should really hit them breaks if you're driving in that snow, but we're very happy to have you with us this morning along with sweet Cal B on the boards.
Calvin, how are you doing?
You had a, you had a bit of a morning coming in today.
Yeah.
Um,
I left about 10 minutes earlier than I normally do.
And I got here almost a half hour later than I normally
do.
Yeah.
I don't know if you're not, if you're not aware, if it's not hitting you right now down in southeastern Wisconsin, Racine, Kenosha area, there's a lot of snow coming down.
It's very blustery.
It's very in the way.
And on my drive in this morning, people were doing either 15 and a 55 or they were doing 70 and a 55 and
Trying to find that happy median of where do we all go so we can move forward?
But it was it was quite It took me about 40 minutes.
It usually takes me 50 minutes to get here.
It took me 40 so again drive carefully drive logically and just
Again, stop signs, stop lights.
They're not suggestions.
Hit those brakes.
But we have a great show ahead for you today.
After the 930 news coming up, we're going to be speaking with the Milwaukee Public Museum.
They're back and it's their last year here.
It's their last year.
at their current historical location on Wisconsin Avenue.
They'll be moving into a new home on MLK Boulevard in the next year.
And Madeline Anderson, who is the director of communications, will be here talking about what you can find in that final year.
Programs going on will be also speaking to their coordinator of informal education, but that's coming up after the 9 30 news.
Looking forward to that conversation.
Love having the museum here.
Love the museum.
So.
In the 10 o'clock hour, at the top of the 10 o'clock hour, we'll be speaking with the executive director of Serve Wisconsin.
Serve Wisconsin is basically the ones who take care of AmeriCorps.
We're going to talk about what they do, how they service, how they provide service and volunteer opportunities, as well as just the state of AmeriCorps in Wisconsin in the face of
proposed cuts.
And, uh, the fact that, you know, they, they got, they, they actually, they were proposed cuts.
They got to restored.
We want to talk more about that with Kyle clower, who is the executive director of circle Wisconsin.
That's at the top of the hour.
And then 10 35 very much looking forward to this look going to highlight a local business here in Wisconsin.
And today we're going.
Artistic, we're going rock and roll.
We're going to have some fun.
It's going to be Hellcat tattoo.
I spoke with the owners as well as the employees of Hellcat tattoo in Madison talking more about their shop, what they, what they love to do and you know, how they actually, how they also service the community because a lot of those small businesses
tattoo shops.
They do a lot of good, whether it's raising money, whether it's taking in canned foods.
We're going to talk to Hellcat tattoo at 1035 and then wrap the whole show up with this shouldn't be a thing.
Today it's the Monkeying around edition.
So don't go anywhere.
Lots of great programming still ahead.
If you want to be a part of the conversation, and I encourage you now especially because I want to talk to you all about something very important here.
You can leave a comment.
On the live stream, we are on Facebook, YouTube, the platform we call Twitter.
You can also call or text.
It's the same number, 855-752-4842-855-75CIVIC.
That is how you do it, and get that Civic Media app where you can call, text, leave a voice note, and listen and stream the shows live.
So great ways to stay in touch, but we're gonna be talking right now about healthcare, specifically the ACA, and this question goes out.
to anyone listening who participates in the ACA, have you enrolled for this year?
What are your increases looking like?
How is that affecting your kitchen table economy?
Let us know.
Text it in, you can call it in.
put it on the live stream.
I want to hear from you.
The reason why I'm asking is because in the Wisconsin examiner yesterday morning, Eric Gunn with the byline says enrollment in the Affordable Care Act health plans drop in Wisconsin as well as nationwide.
And it says opening up with premiums, with premium costs sharply increased and enhanced subsidies reduced them no reduced them no longer available.
The number of people signing up for healthcare in the federal marketplace is behind last year by more than 5%
according to a preliminary report.
Now in Wisconsin, that number is, uh, has fallen by 17,000.
That's a huge drop off nation.
That's, uh, that is below 2025 record enrollment, which top 300,000, uh, as of January 3rd, 289,000.
213 Wisconsin residents had enrolled in plans in 2026.
So that is a sharp drop.
And it is a reflection of the fact that the health care premiums are going up, period, regardless if you're on the ACA or not.
But if you were on the ACA, you were enjoying what's called premium tax credits, and those expired at the end of last year.
Now, the reason why I'm bringing this up is a few things.
One, I want to know how you're doing.
Have you enrolled in the ACA?
Have you decided that you can't?
What are you doing in the face of that decision?
Because again, this is about affordability.
This is about the kitchen table economy.
This is about what are you putting ahead of other things in order to just make sure your life's going forward and just living however you can.
And that is, it's important to me and I want to know from you and want to hear from you.
But the other reason why I bring it up is because this last week, the house,
the US Congress, the House, voted to extend those premium tax credits by three years.
After, you know, I would love to say it's after hearing from the constituents, after seeing the news reports, after all that's happened, you know, there was a lot of consternation between the GOP and the Democrats.
It's part of the reason why, you know, we had the government shutdown was the fact that didn't the Democrats wanted to extend these ACA premium tax credits and the GOP was bulking.
And to the credit of the GOP, when they said that they would have a conversation with the Democrats during the shutdown, I personally had a, okay, yeah, sure you're going to.
Well, they did because they passed a bipartisan bill through the House to extend these tax credits for three years.
Now, Democrats wanted to pass them indefinitely forever in perpetuity because, hey, if we're giving billionaires big old tax credits, why not give folks like yourselves
a nice tax credit to afford some health care.
But right now it's sitting in the Senate.
It is not been voted on yet.
And this is one of the reasons why I bring it up because if this is something that, you know, even if it doesn't affect you, ACA does not affect me personally.
I have health insurance through my wife's company.
It's great health insurance.
I'm very lucky and I'm grateful, but this is something still that affects all of us, even if you don't participate in the ACA.
And when we see drop offs like this,
There is a problem here, and this is where we need to step up and say something, have our voices be heard.
A decline of about 1.5 million people total in the United States are enrolling in the ACA.
So Wisconsin, about 17,000 total, the total enrollments down 1.5, those are 1.5 million people who aren't not, well,
I shouldn't, I don't know all the reasons why they're not taking it, but it seems like one of the major reasons, probably the major reason is because of the cost, because it going up so much.
When we spoke to Will Westmoreland, he's a, he's a farmer in Southwestern Missouri.
He said that his, his health insurance as a farmer, because remember ACA isn't just about near duels and freeloaders.
This is about folks.
In fact,
That is part of the conversation.
They want to take it in to make it seem like the ACA is no good.
Well, there are a lot of people take the ACA.
People like farmers, people like small business owners, people like who have full-time jobs, whose companies do not offer good health insurance or any health insurance.
So these are folks like you and me.
My point is when Will Westmoreland came onto the show, he talked about his premiums going
Way up in the new year and still having to find that way to pay for it and as a farmer in America That's not easy to do So are you participating in the ACA?
Have you decided to drop off?
What is your premium looking like and When we have this opportunity we have the GOP and the Democrats in the house coming together compromising and Working in a bipartisan fashion and the Senate right now looking at whether or not
to vote on this or how they are going to vote on this.
This is where you go to your computer and you look at my vote.wi.gov, look up your lawmakers, put in your information, all your representatives will come out, whether it's the president or the dog catcher, call up your senators, whether it's Senator Baldwin, Senator Johnson, both of them, call them up and tell them that you want them to vote on this and to vote yes for this because these are important.
tax subsidies for those regular working folks, more of us than there are of the billionaires.
And we, I'll say this, and I don't, and again, I do not participate in the ACA.
We deserve this because if billionaires and multimillionaires get these huge tax cuts that are in perpetuity forever, that allow them to write off whatever they want, including private planes, then I think a farmer
in Southeastern Missouri should be enjoying some tax cuts or tax credits that allow him and his family to afford health care.
They're not looking to buy a plane.
They're not looking to buy a fourth house.
They're looking to afford health care.
And I feel that this is a time to make your voice heard.
My vote.wi.gov.
Call up your representatives and also call up your congressman.
Thank them for their vote if they voted yes.
I think
Yeah, this was, this was a massively popular vote through the, through the GOP, unless you were Mike Johnson, Mike Johnson did not like this.
He's on record saying he did not like the fact that this was passed.
He said it was not good legislation.
I disagree, but that's between he and myself.
But call up your representatives, tell them that you want them to vote yes.
Thank them for voting yes.
If they did, and if they voted no, call up and say, Hey,
What's up?
Why don't you want us to be able to afford health insurance?
But I would love to hear from you if you are participating in the ACA and we are now seeing what is the exact thing we were talking about last year, which is people not signing up for healthcare because they just cannot afford it anymore.
And that to me is a tragedy and a complete misstep by our leaders in Washington who just simply can't see this as a necessity and something, as I said before, something they deserve.
They're on the ACA.
They should be getting these tax subsidies.
So yeah, I'd love to hear more from you on this.
Don't forget coming up after the 9 30 news, we're going to be speaking with the Milwaukee public museum about their last year on Wisconsin Avenue.
There's lots of great programming happening down at the museum.
So you don't want to miss it.
Those final, final months there as well as where they're going.
where they're going, the new location on MLK and how it's coming along.
If you live in that Milwaukee area, you've seen it's looking beautiful.
They put up the walls.
It looks amazing.
It's just as wonderful, weird.
curvy piece of architecture, architecture, but that is after the 9 30 news.
And then, uh, in the 10 o'clock hour talking to serve Wisconsin about volunteering as well as the AmeriCorps program here in Wisconsin, what they do and how they provide opportunities for all those looking to serve the community.
And then we're just going to have a really great show.
If you want to be part of the conversation, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic is the number.
You can also leave a comment on the live stream.
You can also stream us on the app and contact us through there.
But regardless, we're happy that you're here spending your time with us this morning.
Lots of great programming still ahead.
You are listening to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
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We're on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter coming up after the news break.
We're going to talk to the Milwaukee public museum about their last year on Wisconsin Avenue.
And then at 1035 this morning, highlighting local businesses, talking to Hellcat tattoo, all the owners and the employees of Hellcat tattoo in Madison.
about their shop, what made them want to open their own place and how they actually are part of the community as well, servicing the community, being great stewards to those in their, their neighbors.
So that coming up at 1035 and then serve Wisconsin at 10, 1006.
Still lots of great programming for you.
We were talking about the ACA.
We were talking about tax subsidies or premium tax credits being voted on in the house and possibly in the Senate.
I want to bring it to Madison now right now.
It's they are in session.
They are rifling through lots of bills to one bill and one constitutional amendment that I wanted to highlight one really great one.
This is going to be an anti slap lawsuit bill where what what it does it protects people protects defendants in slap suits from basically being allowed to
Petition for request to dismiss immediately.
So a slap lawsuit.
And we're going to, I want to talk to a lawyer about this.
I might speak to Jim Santel about it, but I'd like to bring someone in to discuss this specifically by the slap lawsuit.
Slap is an acronym which stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation.
Basically the one that I always point to is against the pilot and review here in Wisconsin, a local paper that was being sued by a, at the time, I believe they were, they were sitting.
Alderman and the paper had made a claim that was based in fact that was based with evidence and this person who had the ability was suing them and could have possibly shut the paper down.
That is a slapsuit.
We will have an expert on to go deeper into the points of it all, but essentially Wisconsin did not have any sort of legislation that protected defendants against slapsuits.
What this will do
is allowed defendants to petition judges to go for a quick dismissal in the face of how this suit is perceived on its face, whether it's just seen as, oh, this is frivolous.
This is with ill intent.
This is not about trying to seek justice or damages.
It's about trying to silence people.
So that's good.
That's wonderful.
We were one we were a state that did not have that and and and I'm really hope that's possibly up for a vote and committee today I hope that goes through because I think it needs to protect the people against a lot of times it's against big businesses or people who are very very rich who just want to use their money to silence individuals regular folks trying to do their job or trying to speak out but that is that is great a Wisconsin amendment or a cost a proposed constitutional amendment here in Wisconsin that passed with only Republican support
It was, it was saying that would improve fairness is to essentially get rid of DEI hiring practices in Wisconsin.
And again, this is something we have spoken about at length.
Uh, this is about, you know, the hire hiring practices, uh, for governmental entities, UW system, technical colleges, public schools, and every board commission.
or agency in between from discriminating against granting preferential treatment to anyone based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the public employment, education, contracting, or administration.
Now, I'm all about equity.
I'm all about fairness.
I'm all about merit.
What this seeks to do is based on a case coming out of Green Bay where a student was believed to be discriminated against because he is white.
When we treat DEI as a
Race-based which it almost always is nowadays in the past few years when they say DEI it's always about race-based hiring instead of merit-based hiring We are losing the narrative on what DEI actually is I've said it before and I will say it again if you hear DEI and you think immediately race-based Then you don't understand truly what it's about or it says a lot about your personal opinions DEI does not just service those people of color
who might need opportunities.
It services a lot of individuals who may need opportunities.
It's about marginalized individuals, whether it is people of color, whether it is women, also by the way, it's fun fact, look up who.
Who benefits the most from DEI hiring practices?
I'm gonna let you Google that one and let your mind be blown.
But it's not just people of color specifically in some of these stories about black individuals trying to get hired based on DEI policies.
It's about giving opportunities to individuals who need them.
And also another group that we don't talk about in DEI hiring practices are veterans.
Veterans can benefit and enjoy
opportunities for jobs based on DEI hiring practices, diversity, equity, inclusion, and the fact that we are trying to enshrine this into the Constitution of Wisconsin based on a lawsuit coming out of Green Bay that, in my opinion, is based, I don't know, it's...
We are once again trying to demonize this thing that we know very little about or let me rephrase that we're trying to demonize something that our lawmakers know very little about and again as they always do when they can't pass it by law they're gonna put it in the Constitution because that's the way they want to do it and as we spoke to Deb Crommiller many many times if you look at all the constitutional amendments on the Wisconsin all the Constitution and amendments for Wisconsin a Great deal of them are canceling out
old amendments that were seen as no longer valid or sought to improve the lives of Wisconsin or to as our flags as move us forward.
But that's just a couple of things we're talking about.
Remember, it's a short work year for the legislature in Madison.
Keep an eye on them.
do your best.
Wisconsin eyes shut down and they don't want you recording their meetings, but that's neither here nor there.
What's here now is after the 9 30 news, we're going to be speaking to the Milwaukee public museum about their last year on Wisconsin Avenue, all the programming, their greatest hits.
I cannot wait.
If you want to be part of the conversation, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic.
Don't go anywhere.
You're listening to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg box.
Stay tuned and stay close.
Welcome, welcome back to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal.
And I'm glad you were here this morning.
We are coming to you live from radio park in Racine.
You can always get in touch 855-752-484-2855-755 civic.
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We still call Twitter and you can always stream, comment, call, get in touch via the civic media app.
Wonderful ways to stay in touch.
Very happy you're spending your time with us today.
Still tons of programming I had this morning after the 10 AM news, we're going to be speaking with serve Wisconsin about AmeriCorps and service opportunities here in the state.
Hellcat tattoo conversation to 1035.
And then this shouldn't be a thing.
Monkeying around edition, closing out the show.
Calvin, I don't know if you know this about me.
I love museums.
Like, love, love museums.
I don't care what kind of museum it is.
It could be an art museum.
It could be a historical museum, a bobblehead museum.
I'm there.
I love museums.
I absolutely adore them.
And that's why I'm so excited to have back on the show.
from the Milwaukee Public Museum, which by the way is not located on Wisconsin Avenue.
My mistake, I was thinking the library.
I'm just full of educational need in my life.
But we have with us today Madeline Anderson and Steven Petrie here from the Museum.
Madeline is the Director of Communications and Steven is the Informal Education Coordinator at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
My apologies first and foremost for the incorrect address.
I apologize to the world.
I hope you can forgive me.
But welcome back, Madeline.
Welcome, Steven.
We're very happy to have you here this morning.
Thank you so much for having
us.
Excellent.
Well, we're very happy to talk about what's going on in at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
And it's last year on Wells Street.
Texture, my goodness.
All right.
It's your last year at that location, Madeline.
And I imagine there's no shortage of activities going on, but I want to start with what we saw in the press release you sent out last week, which is the first of five greatest hits exhibit celebration, ancient civilizations.
Yep.
So for our final year, 2026 in the current building, we are doing a big year long celebration called Greatest Hits where every other month we celebrate a fan favorite iconic exhibit.
So we're starting off with ancient civilizations as the theme with the spotlight on our crossroads of civilizations exhibit up on the third floor.
And this one, if you'll remember, explores ancient Egypt, Rome, Persia, and has
some very memorable pieces.
And they're from mummies to a recreation, a life-size recreation of King Tut, some small mini dioramas that showcase ancient infrastructure.
So again, an iconic fan favorite exhibit.
We are kicking off the greatest hit celebration with this one.
We just had a fun family theme day this past Saturday, but we have many more events coming up.
We have our educators on the exhibit floors between now and February 13th.
They have different stations set up, exploring different topics again, mummies, King Tut, the Maya, ancient foods, the history of tea.
Um,
and wait, Natalie, she said the history of tea tea.
Okay.
I thought I heard teeth at first.
I'm like, go on.
Okay.
The history.
Okay.
Go on.
The history of tea.
Sorry.
Maybe we should try that
one next.
Milwaukee public museum and the dental association, Wisconsin present the history of teeth.
Yes, and it's called Spilling the Tea on Teach.
I like that title.
And Stephen can go into more details about some of those different engagements, but we have that going on during the week, scavenger hunt, and then an adults only after hours event, which I am very excited for on January 29th about ancient cuisine.
And yes, it will include
food and wine samples.
And then we wrap it all up with a big closeout celebration on February 14th with again another theme day exploring mummies.
We have two mummies on display in our crossroads exhibit and other other.
educational stations that explore ancient cultures.
Now, Steven, Madeline said you could speak deeper into what's going on in these exhibits, but first of all, can you tell us what the informal education department, you are the coordinator of that.
What does that mean for your job?
What do you do at the museum on a daily basis?
That's a great question.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I mean a lot of things.
What it means for me is whenever you come to the museum and there's not
scheduled additional programming.
So it's free drop-in programming.
Those are the types of things that I help coordinate that I help oversee.
And that I helped teach.
So I teach all of the things that Madeleine was referring to, but I also helped to put together those same days she mentioned and make sure that our educators feel prepared to do each of those really fun hands on engagements throughout the greatest hits.
Now, what is that?
Like, so with the greatest hits, can you go deeper into like what, you know, Madeleine gave a great explanation of what's going on, but is there anything we should be on the lookout for specifically?
I heard a life size.
recreation of King Tut.
Now, whatever I hear life size, I think, Oh, is he the size of a planet?
But I can't imagine it's, it's, it's a statue of what King Tut looked like.
So it's just, you know, it's, it looks like a human, right?
It looks like a human.
I will say it is.
So that's part of our exhibit.
Yeah.
Um, so you can see that at any time, but it is not just King Tut, it's King Chut in his chariot.
So it's life size, but then a little bit bigger.
Okay.
And then our educators will bring out
a little bit more about King Dot on select days, including about talking about his dagger that came from outer space.
No, Stephen, you can't just stop there.
When you say a sentence like that, you must continue with more information.
Please go on.
I was just setting
you up to
ask another where from outer space.
Okay.
I'll bite.
I'll bite a dagger from outer space.
That sounds like the name of an album that I would listen to in high school, but he had a dagger from, I've never heard this before.
Yeah, so one of the things that's really interesting about King Tut is the fact that we actually found his tomb intact, which is one of the reasons he's really important.
We'd found Pharaoh's tombs before, but we haven't found all the objects.
And two of the thousands of objects we found in King Tut's tomb were two daggers, one made of gold and one made of iron.
Now normally you would think the gold digger, that's the really interesting one.
That's the unique one.
But he was a pharaoh.
He had a lot of gold.
But iron at the time of King Tut was not something that the Egyptians were working with yet.
So how did they get it?
well, from outer space.
Turns out that this dagger was made from iron that came from a meteorite that was so pure that they could kind of cold forge it that they didn't have to have the smelted techniques that they hadn't developed yet, which is why it was a unique dagger that was only good enough for the pharaohs.
So we have a replica of that dagger and we also have a piece of a different meteorite to talk a little bit about the science behind it.
May I go off in a King Tut question for a moment because this is something so growing up King Tut like when we spoke about like the pyramids when we spoke about mummies when we spoke about Archa Archaeology, it was always King Tut.
That was like the Is it because King Tut was found intact or intact?
mostly or was it because there was some lore before that like searching for this, you know mysterious temple or be mysterious You know burial place for this
King that we didn't know.
Why were we so interested in King Tut?
So it's a little bit of both.
So why he's important today and why it kind of continues on.
throughout our current memory is that we have so many objects from pharaoh toton common but why it initially was interesting is it was what you kind of mentioned it was this search for a pharaoh when they were accounting for different pharaohs they realized they didn't have a burial place for some and uh howard carter and a team of archaeologists spent years trying to look for it and eventually um
Egyptians on the team located the tomb in 1922 and that was the craze of the world.
It was worldwide news and from that it's always continued to be a story but it also continues to be a story because museums like us can rely on those objects those scans and talk a little bit more in detail because we have so many more objects that we wouldn't otherwise have to study.
I love it.
I love, I love the Milwaukee public museum.
I'm so coming to this.
If you're just joining us, I'm sorry.
I'm a big museum nerd.
So I apologize.
Like I'm just saying, go tell me more.
And Madeline's like, move it on, Greg, move it on.
We were speaking to Madeline Anderson.
We were speaking to Madeline Anderson, who was the director of communication and Steven Petrie, who was the, is an informal education coordinator at the Milwaukee public museum about their last year on well street and about their greatest hits exhibit.
Now.
We have the ancient civilizations.
Can you speak any bit on what's coming up throughout the year?
Or is that a surprise?
Or do you have a schedule that people can look at?
What are the other greatest hits that you are looking forward to?
Yeah, we do have a schedule up on our website, npm.edu.
So coming up next, March 14th through April 17th, we have Diorama Rama.
So we're going to be celebrating our very iconic dioramas that are all around the museum.
You know, we're not just going to be celebrating one, but all of them or many of them.
And going to the history too, I think about just the museum in general, because it's so intertwoven in our history.
In May, we do rainforest and butterflies.
We're tying those two together because the butterflies come from tropical areas like a rainforest.
Then in July, we do dino days of summer.
And this one we've actually been doing for the past couple of years where we celebrate our dino exhibits.
And we'll bring back some regular programming that we do there, like dino family trivia.
And then we end it all with Streets of Old Milwaukee and European Village.
from October through December through the end of 2026.
I
went to, I take my niece and my nephew to dino days of summer and they have a blast.
I have a blast too.
And I want to tell people, if you've never been to the Milwaukee public museum, one of the best things about it is going into the room with the butterflies, because of course you're going to see little kids running around, being little kids, just absolutely enamored with, which is so wonderful just for the soul.
It feels good, but to see adults who are like at their wits end with their children or just like, it's like I'm taking the kids museum, whatever, when they walk in that room and the butterfly starts surrounding, they turn into children as well.
They get excited.
It's such a fun time.
There is so much more to talk about with the two of you.
We got a couple of minutes left.
Is there anything else you want to talk about with regard to the Grace hits museum or Grace hits exhibit before we take a small break, grab some water and come on back.
But I mean, anything else we should be on the lookout for with Milwaukee public museum in this last year on well straight.
Yeah, Stephen, do you want to talk about our ancient appetites?
Belts only event we have coming up.
Sure, I can touch on it briefly.
So our ancient appetite event, like Madeline said on January 29th, is going to be a great event where our educators are going to have just a small sliver of talking about the history of different cuisines of different food sources from each continent.
And we'll have plenty of small bites to try.
And then also we have some great partners from UWM and Milwaukee Wine Academy.
It is an adults event.
after all, uh, to bring some of those alcohols inspired or based on old recipes that people can try as well.
Oh, so there's not going to be like 2000 year old wine there.
Nevermind.
All right.
Okay.
All right.
We're going to talk more about the museum, the new home, what's going on still at the, at the current location.
When we come back, we are speaking to Madeline Anderson, who is the director of communications, as well as Steven Petrie, who is an informal education coordinator at the Milwaukee public museum.
If you want to find out more MPM.edu, I tell you, go there.
Check out the butterflies.
Check it all out.
It's so wonderful.
But more coming up.
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Get a snack.
Get some water.
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Welcome.
Welcome back to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your buddy, your pal, your museum enthusiast, and I am happy you were here this morning, sharing time with us on civic media.
If you want to be part of the conversation, 855-752-4842-855-755 Civic.
Leave a comment on the live stream like PJ listening.
He was asking about we talked about this in the secret show.
By the way, if you watch the live stream, you can get in touch with the secret show because that's what happens between the commercials where we have.
Pretty much the same conversations.
It's still FCC compliant, but the point is
PJ asked a question of our guests, Madeleine Anderson and Steven Petrie of the Milwaukee Public Museum.
If the Schlamer automobile will be back in the new location and we are here to confirm breaking news, yes, it will be.
We'll talk more about that in a little bit as far as the new location on MLK Boulevard.
I've been, I drive past there a lot and I just to see the evolution of the building is beautiful and it's designed.
But before we move to the new house,
What's going on in the current location that you want to talk about besides the greatest hits exhibit?
Anything of interest, anything coming up that you like?
Come on down, check it out.
Besides everything.
Yeah, besides everything.
Well, I know you are a museum enthusiast.
So I wanted to plug museum days quickly, which is something organized by Visit Milwaukee every year.
And it kicks off.
January 22nd, where museums across the city in the area do discounted or free admission.
So MPM is doing 25% off general admission.
So come between January 22nd and February 1st, check out the exhibits at a discount.
And we're gonna have the ancient civilizations programming going on then as well.
We still have our streets of Milwaukee and European Village decorated for the holidays.
And then exciting, this is our final time in this building hosting Canstruction, the Canstruction exhibit.
So you can see the kickoff weekend of that.
This is a canned food sculpture.
exhibition, charity event, and, you know, friendly competition, where architecture, construction, engineering firms build sculptures made out of only canned and non-perishable foods.
And because it is our last year in this building, this is breaking news.
We haven't shared this yet.
The theme this year, because there's a different theme every year, is can't forget the magic.
And it is inspired by the magic of MPM.
So each sculpture will be inspired by one of our iconic exhibits.
Madeline from one admirer of a pun, apparently, to another.
Was that your idea?
Did you come up with that one?
Was that you?
No.
OK.
I was gonna say, director of communications, when it comes to like communications, that's where your brain lives is like, how can I make this wording work?
How can I do play?
How can I make a pun?
Well, that's fantastic.
And I would say this too, it's wonderful to visit the museum or these types of institutions, organizations on those discounted days, those free days, whether it's the art museum or the zoo, it's great to do that.
But when you go there, I want everyone to consider getting a membership too, because that's how these
places thrive.
It's by communities coming together and saying, we're investing in this place, the Milwaukee public museum with a family membership or personal members.
It goes far.
It's a lot of fun, but let that discounted experience be the first step to being a member of the museum.
So this is a kind of an open-ended question.
This is an open question for the both of you.
You have a new home opening up next year.
It's located on MLK Boulevard.
It is the nature and culture museum.
Tell us more about the construction.
I, you know, for a long time, it was just this open area and now the walls are up.
So I don't know what's going on inside.
So give us an update on what's happening with your new home that's coming open next year.
Well, I hate to call you out again on your streets, but
is it McKinley?
It's McKinley.
Yup.
Well, what's, okay.
All right.
All right.
All
right.
And McKinley and what's its cross street, Madeline?
What's its cross street?
Sixth and McKinley.
I know nothing.
WBA, you're listening.
I get no awards this year.
All right.
I first, well, I don't know why.
Okay.
Okay.
So Sixth and McKinley.
It's an M street name, but yes.
Thank
you.
The new building is coming along great.
Yeah, if you drive by, it almost looks like it's done
on the
outside.
We have all of the exterior panels on there, 670 total giant concrete panels.
They have been installed and now we are putting on the glass.
There aren't many windows in the building because our collections items are very sensitive to light, but we have
giant it's called curtain I think walls of glass that are above the entrances those span all stories so they're putting in that glass and doing drywall inside plumbing electrical a very cool monumental staircase that actually hangs from the fifth floor and goes all the way to the bottom of the museum instead of being built from the ground up it's
being hung from the top down, another very cool architectural feature of the building.
And, Steven, what are your thoughts on the new location located on 6th and McKinley?
Well, Madeline's probably heard this one a couple of times.
I'm just excited that the Education Office gets some of those couple of windows that we'll have in the building.
Currently, we're located under the butterfly variant.
It's a great space to work.
but unfortunately it is underground.
So I am going to love doing the same lovely things I get to do here, but in between when I'm taking meetings or when I'm working on things, I'm glad to have a little natural sunlight too.
And when is, what is the, is there a hard open on this?
Or is it like, when does the new location open up to the public?
So we have not determined a date
yet.
It's probably going to be sometime in the second quarter of 2027.
So this building, the current building will close January 3rd, 2027.
Then we have a few months to move our collections items and get the exhibits all set up in the new building.
And then probably spring of 2027 will be opening the new museum.
Well, I guess then that just means you have to come back.
You have to keep talking about this.
You must share all the information you have, break all the news, all the exhibits, anything you want to talk about here.
You're welcome always on mid mornings here.
I'm very happy to have you.
Madeline Anderson and Steven Petrie of the Milwaukee Public Museum.
Thank you so much for your time today.
I really look forward to coming down there in the last year at that location and enjoying everything you have to offer.
Thank you again for sharing time with us.
Absolutely.
Thanks for having us.
Thanks for having
us.
All right.
After the 10 o'clock news, we've got Kyle Clower, who is the executive director of Serve Wisconsin talking about AmeriCorps and what people can do to service their community through opportunities of volunteerism.
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