{"id":2171,"date":"2023-04-14T22:53:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T22:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=2171"},"modified":"2023-04-14T23:00:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T23:00:30","slug":"milwaukee-public-museum-admits-its-abolishing-european-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=2171","title":{"rendered":"Milwaukee Public Museum Admits It\u2019s Abolishing European Village"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/milwaukee-public-museum-admits-its-abolishing-european-village\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Read our stories exploring the new Milwaukee Public Museum <\/strong><\/em>here.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Milwaukee Public Museum has admitted: It is getting rid of the beloved European village exhibit as part of its new $240 million museum.<\/p>\n

The revelation came via a Facebook comment the museum made to a concerned person on April 13, 2023. A woman asked the museum, \u201cI love these ideas, but I\u2019m also wondering whether you\u2019ll be representing a larger variety of the immigrants that settled Milwaukee (like the European Village does in the current museum). Will there be something similar to that, where various immigrant cultures can display their Christmas traditions? That\u2019s my favorite part of the current museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum responded, \u201cEuropean history and heritage will be explored throughout the museum, but not exclusively in one village-style exhibit.<\/strong> We should note, however: While some of these storylines are established, the exhibit design process is long, and many exhibit plans are still in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum is still<\/a> $112 million short of the $240 million price tag for the new museum, with groundbreaking expected in December.\u00a0 The museum has received millions of dollars in taxpayer money. Yet officials are plowing ahead. The Milwaukee media have largely functioned as boosters for the new museum project, failing to ask tough questions or scrutinize the finances.<\/p>\n

\"european<\/p>\n

Two petition drives<\/a> started by concerned citizens are seeking to save the Streets of Old Milwaukee and its related exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum, the European Village.<\/p>\n

We previously reported that Milwaukee County Public Museum officials tacked on<\/a> an additional $80-90 million<\/strong> to renovation cost estimates for updating exhibits in the current facility after saying that racial and equity concerns were not being met, according to internal documents and videos obtained by Wisconsin Right Now.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s officials have repeatedly told the public that it would cost $240 million to build a new museum and $250 million to renovate the current building instead. Yet the new museum will be much smaller.<\/p>\n

The European Village is a nostalgic exhibit for many, especially at Christmas time. Some people confuse it with the Streets of Old Milwaukee; Streets is the portion of the exhibit with businesses and the candy shop. The European Village is next to it; it\u2019s the exhibit where you can peer into the homes of immigrants from various ethnic traditions, from Polish to Irish.<\/p>\n

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The new museum and the streets of old milwaukee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alexandra Hahnfeld and her sisters created the petition<\/a> to save the European Village; their grandfather Dr. Lazar Brkich was a Serbian immigrant to Chicago and then Milwaukee, who became the lead curator and director of the European Village exhibit in 1973.<\/p>\n

They said his work included meeting with cultural groups and traveling to Europe to find artifacts to include in the houses. He also included artifacts from their family and his personal trips.<\/p>\n

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Dr lazar brkich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We asked Alexandra Hahnfeld about the museum\u2019s latest comments. \u201cIt\u2019s a cop out answer and the public isn\u2019t stupid. I know a PR comment when I see one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason an exhibit that received an award of excellence shouldn\u2019t be included in the new museum. The village means a lot to the European community in Milwaukee, not just myself and my family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe museum is not reaching out to my family and me after our pleadings to save our grandfather\u2019s work. They have no empathy, and that should speak volumes to people. I wish someone from MPM could imagine being in my and my family\u2019s shoes and understand the pain we are enduring from all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cThere are items donated from my family in the Serbian house, including a cloth my grandmother embroidered in her teens when she was in a displaced persons\u2019 camp. There are items in there that are of no real monetary value to them but mean everything to my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum has not explained what it will do with the historic exhibits when it moves or the many historic murals and other pieces of artwork. They\u2019ve said before that much of them can\u2019t be moved, though.<\/p>\n

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