The Neville Public Museum in downtown Green Bay. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Two Brown County supervisors are recommending exploring options to make the Neville Public Museum more of a children’s museum.
The supervisors say it’s about gaining more revenue from the museum, but others believe it’s in retaliation for an LGBTQ exhibit from last year.
Museum officials fear it’s a step toward the county no longer funding the museum.
For 98 years, the Neville Public Museum has been a source of historic preservation in Green Bay. It’s also been a monthly source of fun for Maria Golden’s young children.
“We just learned today that ice was harvested in Green Bay,” said Golden. “We never knew that. I think that aspect is great how it is now.”
Hearing there’s an interest in gearing the Neville more towards children gives Golden mixed feelings.
“Children’s museums are beneficial, but I think this is beneficial too,” said Golden.
Brown County Supervisor Dixon Wolfe believes a shift to a children’s museum model would be beneficial to the bottom line.
“We need the museum to be more profitable,” said Wolfe. “This would be a step forward in doing that. From what I see, the growth in attendance has become stagnant, so this solution to providing more opportunity for children to interact with the Neville would bring more people in.”
Admission revenue brought in $152,374 for Brown County last year. That compares to about $1 million the county provides annually — less than 1% of the county’s overall budget.
“I want the museum to rely less on the taxpayer levy,” said Wolfe.
Kevin Kuehn, chair of the museum’s governing board, believes this request is a direct response to the LGBTQ exhibit the museum had early last year.
Kuehn also believes county board pushback over that exhibit is why the museum’s director recently left her position.
“Everybody is all up in arms that we’re trying to make people gay and that this is not for families to see,” said Kuehn. “It was just ridiculous. That is when the pressure on Beth [Kowalski] came. That is when the pressure came on me as well, and I’m a volunteer.”
But, Wolfe says the LGBTQ exhibit has nothing to do with his request.
“This is about making sure the museum is sustainable long-term. That we are bringing more people into the museum and making it more worthwhile for the taxpayers,” said Wolfe.
“You either fund a museum or you don’t,” said Kuehn. “But you don’t get to pick. A committee or an organization should pick, not a county board that doesn’t understand the first thing about what a museum does or how you run it.”
Kuehn says Wolfe should have brought his proposal to the museum governing board and its foundation.
Kuehn believes the county board could choose to no longer provide any funding for the museum, forcing it to try to rely solely on its foundation, which currently contributes to exhibits and programs.
“A museum is not going to make money,” said Kuehn. “That’s not what it does. It educates the community, and it’s a tourist attraction and a place where people can just look at this and say, ‘We have this.’”
“That’s not what I want to see personally, but we have to do what’s best for the taxpayers in the long run,” said Wolfe. “I would rather find solutions before just saying, ‘This museum is not to be funded.’”
The county board will be taking up its annual budget over the next few weeks.
A county committee is scheduled to take up Wolfe’s children’s museum recommendation Thursday evening.
Devon Coonen is the other supervisor who submitted the children’s museum recommendation, along with Wolfe.
Kuehn is advising people to contact their supervisor if they believe the county should fund the museum.
Green Bay does have an existing children’s museum on Bay Beach Road.
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