- The $100 million Mulva Cultural Center in downtown De Pere is part museum, part events space
- Jim and Miriam Mulva said they thought of the idea of bringing a cultural center to their hometown nine years ago. They brought the idea to De Pere city officials in 2017
- After some construction delays, the Center is open: it opened to members Monday, and opens Friday to the general public
- The Center's first of a series of rotating exhibits are called "Ladies and Gentlemen... The Beatles!" and "And The Grammy Goes To..."
- Video shows a tour of the facility
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
The $100 million dollar Mulva Cultural Center is finally ready to open its doors to the public. We'll show you what's inside the 75,000 square-foot facility.
The vision of De Pere natives Jim and Miriam Mulva is now realized.
"The view was, we came up with a cultural center," Jim Mulva said. "A cultural center is kind of a new form of a museum."
The first floor of their center includes a coffee shop, open atrium, gift shop and temporary exhibit. They'll add a gourmet restaurant in 2024.
"People can enjoy a lot of the amenities without buying an admissions ticket," said Tom Shefchik, the Center's managing director of community engagement. "We don't have a ticket at the door."
Visitors will need to buy tickets for the main exhibit space and the feature films in the 200-seat theater.
The first exhibit in the Mulva Center's 10,000 square foot upstairs exhibit space is called "Ladies and Gentlemen… The Beatles." And it turns out, it's interactive.
The other part of the exhibit currently showcases the awards and outfits of various Grammy-winning musicians.
President Marv Wall says the Center's first year will also feature exhibits about dinosaurs, legos and sharks.
"We didn't really want to be themed or pigeon-holed into any particular genre or type of art or science, so the first year is quite a variety," Wall said.
The Center also has a classroom, board room, and outdoor spaces that it plans to rent out.
It's already open to members as it welcomes its first guests — nine years after the Mulvas thought of the idea.
"Our determination of success really will be focused on the visitor experience," Shefchik said. "We don't have any goals set as far as numbers."
The Mulva Center opens officially to the public on Friday, with the exhibit, atrium and coffee shop open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
