New London reviews museum plans

Christine Cross, director of the New London Public Museum, updated city officials about museum expansion plans.

She spoke at a Nov. 20 meeting of the New London Committee of the Whole.

“For over 100 years, this community has embraced and supported the museum. We want to honor and build on that commitment as we continually look forward,” Cross said. “The idea is to take an historic building and create a high performance, dynamic museum that invites everyone to discover something new.”

Museum facts

The New London Public Museum was founded in 1917. The Carnegie Library was built in 1914, while the museum building was built in 1932. In 1986, the buildings were connected and the museum moved to the lower level.

With the New London Public Library moving out to its new location, the museum will occupy the entire building, expanding its space from 3,000 square feet to 12,500 square feet. The exhibits and program spaces will double, with the collections preservation spaces increasing from 800 to 5,300 square feet.

The expansion project will take place in phases over the next seven to nine years to ensure fundraising keeps pace.

Expansion plan

Cross said the museum expansion plan includes community collaboration. This is being accomplished by allowing input from the community through the expansion process.

“This spirit of collaboration will continue, and the opportunities for a broad spectrum of involvement with the project will grow,” Cross said.

The Friends of the New London Public Museum, which was established in 2008, and received its 501c3 non-profit status in 2011, has supported the museum over the years, including with $80,000 in grants, Cross said.

“They are fired up, and can’t wait to start working on the expansion project,” Cross said.

Cross told the committee that the New London Public Museum is one of only five public, multi-topic museums in the entire state of Wisconsin.

Cross said each phase of the expansion project will include “fundraising benchmarks and the flexibility to change our plan.”
“We will work hard to work within our financial boundaries, while still taking care of the artifacts entrusted to us, and giving the community an amazing museum,” Cross said.

With the approval of the Library Museum Board, Cross said she assembled a Museum Expansion Committee that represented all the involved stakeholders.

“The idea is that this advisory committee oversees planning, communicates through me with the Library Museum Board, making recommendations and suggestions,” Cross said.

In 2016, Cross said the city of New London financed a master plan for the expansion of the museum into the building. The city hired Alex Ramsey from Engberg Anderson architectural firm to create the master plan n. This included a full assessment of the condition of the building, upgrades to the building systems, and a plan for using the space to create an “engaging museum.”

In 2022, a collections assessment for preservation was made possible because of a grant from the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Cross said.

“This assessment allowed us to hire professionals to look at the condition of the collection and building,” Cross said.

The city of New London provided more funds to update the masterplan in 2023. This involved Engberg Anderson to update and phase the masterplan.

“All of this melded into a vision for the future of the museum – honoring the past, and being forward thinking, taking an historic building and making it high-performance all while involving our community,” Cross said.

Through working with Engberg Anderson, updates to the masterplan have continued.

“The updated master plan takes two historic buildings, used for two purposes, and creates a cohesive, single use efficient structure,” Cross said.

Cross added that the master plan gives the committee “guidance and a road map” for the expansion.

“But even before we start to refine and work with the master plan, we know that we need some time,” Cross said. “We need to make sure that what looks good as a thought on paper, actually works for us.”

The group working on fundraising for the expansion project will create a plan that includes a traditional and grassroots capital campaign and public funding requests.

“We are approaching it this way in order for you to plan what works in the larger city picture, and for us to plan how to accomplish our goals, all while maintaining the transparency and trust the public-private partnership requires,” Cross said.