The Mustard Museum, currently located in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, is moving to Middleton, a suburb of Madison, the state capitol. This is somewhat big news for south-central Wisconsin, since the museum has achieved a sort of iconic status for this small rural community.
The museum draws up to 30,000 visitors a year, but the dwindling number of antique stores, the recession and last summer's spike in gas prices reduced tourist traffic and squeezed the museum, which is free for most visitors and is operated as a small business...The museum is a private venture and the owner is free to do as he wishes, but to some locals the transfer of the museum to a big-city suburb feels like the New York Yankees outbidding a smaller club for a talented player.
As his collection grew, Levenson, then a lawyer for the state, decided to share it. He opened a small museum here in 1992 and moved to its current leased building in 2000...
Besides approving relocation support, the Middleton City Council voted to give $1.4 million in aid to the owner of the downtown building that will house the museum. "We did it because we wanted the increased traffic downtown," Middleton Mayor Kurt Sonnentag says.
Via Neatorama. Photo credit to kmel.
No comments:
Post a Comment