Museum Studies

The mission of the Milwaukee Public Museum is to inspire curiosity, excite minds, and increase desire to preserve and protect our world's natural and cultural diversity through exhibitions, educational programs, collections, and research.

The Field Museum fuels a journey of discovery across time to enable solutions for a brighter future rich in nature and culture.

Every year Shedd Aquarium welcomes 2 million guests for unforgettable encounters with belugas and bluegills, stingrays and sturgeons. But Shedd is more than just a destination. With partners in Chicago and around the globe, we’re also protecting endangered species and their habitats and rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife in need.

The Milwaukee County Zoo will be a zoo of renown with a reputation as a leader in animal management, conservation, research and education within a wholesome recreational environment enjoying the admiration of the citizens of Milwaukee County as well as all zoo guests and other zoos of the world.

The Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, better known as The Domes, is a living museum filled with plants from across the globe.

Our vision is to inspire generations to build environmental curiosity, understanding, and respect. We restore hope and heal our urban natural world, neighborhood by neighborhood.

For over 160 years, the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum has served a unique role in the city of Chicago connecting children of all ages to nature and science through immersive exhibits, fun family events, important conservation research and in-depth education programs, inspiring the wonder in all of us.

The Wisconsin Historical Society connects people to the past by collecting, preserving, and sharing stories.

The Milwaukee County Historical Society was founded in 1935 and has become the place for people to learn about and to celebrate Milwaukee.
Through education programs, exhibitions, the research library, our historic sites, and special events, MCHS offers Milwaukeeans and visitors to Milwaukee a chance to connect with the heritage of Milwaukee.

ABHM builds public awareness of the harmful legacies of slavery and Jim Crow in America and promotes racial repair, reconciliation, and healing. ABHM is a museum dedicated to both history and ongoing commemoration. History museums study, exhibit, and interpret objects of historical value. Memorial museums are dedicated to contextualizing and commemorating past events of mass suffering.

Jewish Museum Milwaukee is dedicated to cultivating awareness of the past and preserving our Jewish heritage for future generations.

Based on the premise that a people who know their history will grow to love and appreciate themselves more, the Society is striving to create a bright future out of a heart breaking past. The mission of the Wisconsin Black Historical Society/Museum is to document and preserve the historical heritage of African descent in Wisconsin. The Museum exhibits, collects and disseminates materials depicting this heritage. Serving as a resource center for all people interested in Wisconsin’s rich African American heritage, the Museum’s purpose is to encourage and promote family community and cultural activities. The Wisconsin Black Historical Society/Museum (WBHS/M) is the only institution dedicated in the State dedicated to the business of preserving Wisconsin’s African American History. The Society is also an affiliated member of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

The North Point Lighthouse Museum offers a wide variety of artifacts about Milwaukee’s famous lighthouse and its keepers. Visitors can also see exhibits about the heritage, culture and role that Milwaukee has played in the regional maritime activities of the Great Lakes. The Museum has a diverse collection of artwork, artifacts, documents and educational materials.

Discover culture and history through stories and interactive exhibits that celebrate expression, camaraderie and love for the sport. With an unrivaled collection of Harley-Davidson® motorcycles and memorabilia, a 20-acre, park-like campus, and a calendar full of activities, the H-D Museum is one of Milwaukee’s top tourist destinations for visitors from around the globe.

The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum seeks to provide access to the world’s largest collection of Bobbleheads, to advance an understanding of the historical role Bobbleheads play in American culture, and to celebrate the fun and quirky side of collecting.

Discovery World is Milwaukee’s premier, non-profit science and technology center for the whole family. Our center offers fun and educational experiences and features interactive exhibits, the Reiman Aquarium, tall ship (and Wisconsin’s Flagship) the Sailing Vessel (S/V) Denis Sullivan, educational labs and programs, and other exciting activities.

The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago—one of the largest science museums in the world—is home to more than 400,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits designed to spark scientific inquiry and creativity.

The Adler Planetarium connects people to the universe and each other. The museum typically hosts more than half a million visitors each year and reaches millions more through youth STEAM programs, neighborhood skywatching events, online citizen science, and other outreach efforts.

The UWM Planetarium connects the community to the beautCenter for Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysicsy of the night sky and the wonders of the cosmos through live, interactive programs that engage audiences in entertaining, innovative, and accessible ways. By bringing people together, we spark curiosity and share science in a welcoming atmosphere for all.

The Thomas A. Greene Geological Museum contains the fossil and mineral collection of Thomas A. Greene, an amateur geologist that lived in Milwaukee in the late 1800’s. At the time of his death in 1894, Greene’s fossil and mineral collection was considered the most valuable of its kind west of Philadelphia. Believing that this world-class collection should remain in its locality of origin, Greene’s heirs, Mrs. H.A.J. Upham and Mr. Howard Greene, entrusted the collection to Milwaukee-Downer College, which later became part of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The International Museum of Surgical Science, a division of the International College of Surgeons (ICS), maintains over 10,000 square feet of public galleries committed to the history of surgery, and an exquisite permanent collection of art and artifacts from the history of Medicine. The Museum supports its Mission through medically themed exhibitions and programs, in addition to a strong contemporary art exhibition program.

The Charles Allis Art Museum enriches Milwaukee’s quality of life by creating opportunities for residents and visitors to experience history, culture, and the arts, in particular by offering vibrant exhibitions and performances in a stately and intimate urban mansion, which permanently houses the art collection of early 20th-century industrialist Charles Allis.

The Pabst Mansion is a vital house museum that preserves the legacy of the Pabst family and their impact on the citizens, history, and culture of the Greater Milwaukee community.

The Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum enriches Milwaukee’s quality of life by creating opportunities for residents and visitors to experience history, culture, and the arts, in particular by offering vibrant exhibitions and performances in the grand yet intimate setting of the Lloyd Smith family’s lakefront Renaissance villa and garden.

Between 1915 and 1917 Wright designed a series of standardized "system-built" homes, known today as the American System-Built Homes. The site of the American System-Built Homes was "the edge of town" for Milwaukee circa 1917.

The Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery is home to the UWM Art Collection. The Gallery is located on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus in Mitchell Hall 170. Gallery exhibitions serve both the campus and greater Milwaukee community by providing access to the UWM Art Collection.

The Milwaukee Art Museum’s Collection includes over 31,000 works from antiquity to the present, encompassing painting, drawing, sculpture, decorative arts, prints, video art and installations, and textiles. The Museum’s collections of American decorative arts, German Expressionist prints and paintings, folk and Haitian art, and American art after 1960 are among the nation’s finest.

The Grohmann Museum Collection is comprised of more than 1,500 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from 1580 to the present. They reflect a variety of artistic styles and subjects that document the evolution of organized work—from farming and mining to trades as glassblowing and seaweed gathering. Later, it is machines and men embodying the paradoxes of industrialism– dark factory interiors with glowing molten metal juxtaposed with workers.

The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) explores the art and culture of Wisconsin. Founded in 1961, MOWA is one of the top museums of regional art in the United States, with over 5,000 works of contemporary and historic art by more than 350 artists. Through rotating exhibitions and educational programs, MOWA provides an innovative forum for the culturally engaged.

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a contemporary art museum and performing arts complex located in downtown Sheboygan.

When the Chazen Museum of Art opened in the fall of 1970 as the Elvehjem Art Center, the collection of 1,600 paintings and works on paper had been acquired by the UW–Madison since 1885. Today, there are over 23,000 works of art in the museum’s collections. These holdings represent the entire spectrum of art history across culture, period, media, and genre.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art is an independent organization that exhibits, collects, and preserves modern and contemporary art to provide transformative experiences that educate, reflect, and inspire us as individuals and a community. The collection includes nearly 6,000 objects, comprising one of the nation’s finest collections of Chicago Imagism as well as significant holdings in Mexican Modernist prints, Wisconsin-based artists, and contemporary photography.

Located in downtown Chicago, the Art Institute is one of the world’s great art museums, housing a collection that spans centuries and the globe.

The Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, located just east of historic downtown Cedarburg, Wisconsin, is dedicated to educating the public about the artistic, cultural, historic and social importance of quilts and fiber arts. We also seek to increase the awareness of historic structure preservation.

Intuit is a premier museum of outsider and self-taught art, defined as work created by artists who faced marginalization, overcame personal odds to make their artwork, or who did not, or sometimes could not, follow a traditional path of art making, often using materials at hand to realize their artistic vision. By presenting a diversity of artistic voices, Intuit builds a bridge from art to audience.