The Prairie du Sac-based and family-owned Culver’s restaurant chain and members of the Culver family will donate $1 million to create an exhibit at the future Milwaukee Public Museum dedicated to the state’s longtime passion for frozen custard.
Located in the “Milwaukee Revealed” gallery – a sort of reimagining of the Streets of Old Milwaukee – the exhibit will look like a custard shop storefront with an exhibit inside that details how Wisconsin’s natural resources and dairy industry fueled Milwaukee’s love for frozen custard and its custard shops.
Visitors will be able to enter the exhibit, where they’ll smell the sweet scent of freshly baked waffle cones and find a mix of vibrant graphics and historic photographs that give an overview of the creation of frozen custard, according to MPM. Visitors will also be able to take their turn operating a custard machine that serves an endless loop of faux custard.
“We are grateful for Culver’s generous gift to the future museum that will support our efforts to share more about the land-based processes used to make frozen custard—from cow to cone,” said Milwaukee Public Museum president and CEO Ellen Censky. “Culver’s dedication to the prosperity of the state’s dairy industry and hometown hospitality exemplifies the interconnectedness of nature and culture that we aim to weave throughout all galleries in the future museum.”
As previously announced, the “Milwaukee Revealed” gallery will give visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves wholly into Milwaukee’s industries, neighborhoods and ecologies, and discover something unexpected about the city with each visit, a press release states.
The custard shop will reveal stories about how Wisconsin’s dairy farmers help supply the ingredients for Milwaukee’s frozen custard, how flavors are naturally derived and how local traditions and materials connect to the rest of the world.
Announcement
During an in-person announcement Tuesday morning at a Culver’s franchise in Glendale, brothers Craig and Curt Culver talked about why they wanted to be a part of the museum project.
Curt Culver, current Non-Executive Chairman and former CEO of the MGIC Investment Corporation and a Milwaukee-area resident, said Censky and Julie Quinlan Brame, senior vice president of development for MPM reached out to him about having the Culver’s Family get involved in the custard shop exhibit.
“I said: ‘let me talk to Craig.’ And frankly we were both so excited given what (frozen) custard has meant to our state and to our business, so we took it to our board,” Curt said.
Craig Culver, who co-founded Culver’s with parents and former wife Lea, back in 1984 in Prairie du Sac, and now serves as chairman of the Culver Franchising System, LLC, said it was important for the company to be involved.
“Milwaukee is the home of frozen custard. Yes, there are a few places around the country and state (where its popular) but when you talk about Milwaukee, you’re talking about frozen custard, and we’re in the custard business so it’s very important for us to be involved and pay homage to our fellow custard competitors and they’re great competitors,” he said.
Milwaukee Revealed
MPM unveiled sketches of the “Milwaukee Revealed” gallery in April, which it describes as the “spiritual successor” to the Streets of Old Milwaukee.
Designed by New York City-based Thinc Design, Milwaukee Revealed will highlight both the city’s past and present through a series of immersive commercial and neighborhood exhibits. It will also include exhibits dedicated to Milwaukee’s relationship with its rivers and Lake Michigan. The existing Streets of Old Milwaukee and European Village exhibits are slated to “live on” through a virtual-reality experience as part of the new Milwaukee Revealed Gallery.
Current fans of MPM’s Streets of Old Milwaukee will find many familiar, nostalgic elements in Milwaukee Revealed, including collections items like the penny-farthing bicycle and the one-of-a-kind Schloemer automobile, Censky said in April.
Another call back to the Streets of Old Milwaukee, the Haymarket Candy Shop exhibit will be a functioning store where visitors can purchase sweet treats.
Fundraising efforts
News of the Culver’s family donation comes just a few weeks after the MPM announced a $10 million gift from the Kellogg Family Foundation for its Wisconsin Wonders campaign. That money – the largest private donation to the Wisconsin Wonders effort to date – will primarily go toward the construction of the new museum building.
The fundraising campaign for the construction effort itself has brought in close to $150 million, including $64 million in private donations, $45 million from Milwaukee County and $40 million from the State of Wisconsin. The project’s private fundraising goal is $150 million.
Slated to open in 2027, the new museum is planned for a 2.4-acre site at the corner of Sixth and McKinley Streets in the Haymarket neighborhood adjacent to the downtown Deer District. Details about additional gifts to the capital campaign will be announced in the coming weeks.
