It’s the smallest piece of the funding package for the Milwaukee Public Museum’s new building, but it might be the most endangered.
The museum’s $240 million construction budget has long included $5 million in federal cash, to supplement $150 million from private donors, $45 million from Milwaukee County and $40 million from the state.
But it’s not clear if the project will ever get that $5 million, now that President Trump’s administration is trying to shut down most functions of the main federal agency responsible for funding museums and libraries. And massive funding cuts are rocking every other federal source that MPM is considering.
Tell us who you’d pick to be a Betty this year!
The Milwaukee County Historical Society also is feeling the heat from the sudden cutbacks at the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Historical Society President Ben Barbera says his institution applied for a “six-figure” grant to help put together a major exhibit on immigration for the nation’s 250th birthday next year.
Although the IMLS is a relatively small agency largely unknown to the public, it awarded $180 million in grants to museums and libraries nationwide in the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That included $4.6 million to Wisconsin institutions, ranging from the state’s largest university to its smallest tribal libraries.
As part of the government-chopping DOGE effort led by far-right billionaire Elon Musk, Trump signed a March 14 executive order reducing IMLS to its legally required minimum functions. Two weeks later, the agency placed 85% of its staff on administrative leave, a move that their union says will halt processing of grant applications and endanger administration of grants already awarded.
Because IMLS grants are paid out after recipients provide receipts, cutting back on grant administration would mean that museums and libraries may not be reimbursed for expenses that were supposed to be covered by their grants.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined a 21-state lawsuit seeking to block the gutting of the IMLS and several other federal agencies. Over the past 15 years, IMLS has handed out a total of $70 million to libraries and museums statewide, according to a joint statement from the Madison Public Library and the Madison Children’s Museum.
The Milwaukee museum first tried to obtain federal funding for its new building through congressional appropriations. When that didn’t work, it started looking for grants from various federal agencies, including IMLS, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
But it has yet to land any grants from any of those agencies, and all of those prospects are looking pretty bleak right now.
Wisconsin Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has announced that it’s shutting down after the NEH canceled all previously awarded grants, including operating funds for Wisconsin Humanities and 2024 grants to at least three Milwaukee-area organizations: the Lynden Sculpture Garden in River Hills and the James Cameron Legacy Foundation and the Bronzeville Histories Institute, both on Milwaukee’s north side. The NEH also has placed 80% of its staff on administrative leave.
The National Science Foundation has fired 10% of its employees and its grants have dropped 50% since Trump took office in January, according to a recent analysis. In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023, the NSF awarded $144.7 million in grants to Wisconsin organizations, including $117.9 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, $6.3 million to UW-Milwaukee and $4.4 million to Marquette University, the foundation’s website shows. Of those grants, 87% went to research and 13% went to support education in science, technology, engineering and math.
And the EPA has cut hundreds of employees and canceled $1.7 billion in environmental justice grants. Although the agency has taken down grant information from its website, previous announcements indicate it has awarded at least $26.8 million to Wisconsin communities in recent years to clean up contaminated sites, including $16.7 million to the Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority and $6 million to West Allis.
Through a spokesperson, Public Museum President Ellen Censky said her institution “will continue to evaluate all funding sources.”
A potential hole in federal funding could add more pressure on the museum after some Milwaukee County supervisors questioned the pace of the project’s fundraising. Museum officials announced last month that they have raised $105 million of their $150 million private donations goal.
The museum also has obtained another $1 million in public cash, which a spokesperson says is a mixture of funding from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, the statewide Focus on Energy program, the city and its Redevelopment Authority, and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.
Yet, as grim as the outlook seems for federal grants, the chair of the County Board’s Parks and Culture Committee remains optimistic.
“I would not bet against Dr. Censky,” Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman says. “I think she’s up to the challenges. … Smart people find a way to make things happen.”
Wasserman praised Censky’s fundraising prowess and speculated she might be able to put together bipartisan support to obtain federal dollars.
Museum officials have promised that they won’t seek more money from the county. But with construction under way and moving preparations in progress for a 2027 opening, they never have said what they will do if their fundraising falls short of their goals.
By contrast, the historical society is always prepared to scale back its projects to match available funding, Barbera says. And that might be what it will have to do if it can’t put together enough money for its original vision of the immigration exhibit, he says.
In its grant application, the museum outlined plans for a “top-notch” three-year exhibit on Milwaukee immigration, naturalization and citizenship, combining material from its archives with oral histories. The main exhibit would be supplemented by traveling exhibits.
Barbera concedes the theme might not be popular with the Trump administration, which is facing multiple legal challenges to its efforts to deport both documented and undocumented immigrants and to end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. But “it certainly wasn’t a concern when we submitted the application” in November, he says.
The historical society previously received a $17,223 IMLS grant, starting in the 2021 federal fiscal year, to help digitize its holdings, particularly photos. That money paid for a consultant and for equipment the society otherwise might not have been able to afford, Barbera says.
In addition to his experience as a grant applicant and recipient, Barbera is in his third year as an outside reviewer, helping IMLS judge the merits of grant applications from a wide variety of museums and libraries nationwide. “Almost all of the projects I see are worthwhile,” even though only about one-third of applications are funded, he says.
Losing IMLS funding opportunities will “be tough on organizations” and likely will increase competition for other funding sources, such as foundations, Barbera says.
According to the IMLS website, the institute provided $27.1 million to Wisconsin museums and libraries over the past six federal fiscal years, including $16 million to the state Department of Public Instruction.
Most of the DPI grants support statewide library programs, but about one-quarter is distributed to regional library federations, which in the 2023 federal fiscal year included $65,497 to the Prairie Lakes Library System (covering Racine, Walworth and Rock counties), $17,000 to the Milwaukee County Federated Library System, $6,714 to the Kenosha County Library System and $3,000 each to the Bridges Library System (covering Waukesha and Jefferson counties) and the Monarch Library System (covering Ozaukee, Washington, Dodge and Sheboygan counties).
Direct Milwaukee-area grants totaled $1.3 million for the six-year period. Besides the historical society, local recipients included:
UWM: The School of Information Studies won $695,631 to develop ways to help blind and visually impaired people use online library collections. The program has continued since the grant was awarded in the 2022 fiscal year, with no word that funding has changed, UWM spokesman John Schumacher says.
Milwaukee Art Museum: A $247,840 grant supported digitizing artwork by or about members of “traditionally marginalized communities,” such as women and people of color, starting in fiscal 2021. Although MAM doesn’t have any current grants pending or at risk from IMLS, NEH or the National Endowment for the Arts, a museum spokesperson says, “We have benefited greatly from their support (and) are hopeful about securing federal funding in the future.”
Riveredge Nature Center: The center landed a $169,541 grant to add permanent exhibits on its Newburg property and “interactive experiences” online, starting in fiscal 2020.
Milwaukee Public Library: Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the library used federal funding to create restorative justice circles to teach communication and conflict resolution skills to youth. The program spent only $17,234 of the $50,000 awarded in fiscal 2022, library spokesperson Melissa Howard says.
Marquette: Aided by a $23,279 grant, the university’s Raynor Memorial Libraries partnered with Milwaukee’s Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, starting in fiscal 2022, to improve digital literacy among Hispanic students and help close education gaps that widened during the pandemic.
Racine area: A total of $115,766 went to the Racine Zoo, Racine Art Museum and Waterford-based Lakeshores Library System (now part of the three-county Prairie Lakes Library System).
Elsewhere in Wisconsin, IMLS grants have provided:
- $4.4 million to Madison institutions, including $1.2 million to the state Historical Society and about $1.1 million each to UW-Madison and the Madison Children’s Museum.
- $3 million to tribal libraries and museums.
- $2.4 million to other libraries, museums and related programs around the state.
“President Trump and Elon Musk’s reckless, illegal cuts are hurting folks across our country, including families, libraries, communities, and campuses right here in Wisconsin, gutting programs and services that folks depend on and care about,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a news release about Kaul’s litigation. “These actions are wrongheaded, they’re bad for Wisconsin, and we’re suing to stop them.”
