APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The city of Appleton will continue discussions of a potential relocation of the Trout Art Museum to Ellen Kort Peace Park.
Residents were given an opportunity to make comments Wednesday night at a special session.
“From my perspective, this is a great move,” one community member said.
“Please, keep the park a park,” a different community member said.
Museum executive director Christina Turner presented early plans for the museum. She said they were created with past concerns in mind.
“This is our first opportunity to sort of just show the public and the city council members and the city administration what our thoughts are.”
The park remains undeveloped, despite previous plans to develop it. Turner said a new museum space is needed because the museum has outgrown its current space, and renovation costs have made a new building the better option.
“There could be a wonderful collaboration between the city and the museum, and we feel like there could be lots of opportunities.”
Museum officials say the museum is in an early stage, but an initial concept map shows some park space will remain. Many council members agreed the map was what they needed to see, although others expressed concerns for a lack of data.
The vote was eight to seven in favor of continuing discussions.
Some community members were left unhappy — including one of Ellen Kort’s daughters.
“It’s not a collaboration when they’re coming in and just doing their own design and not really working with the design that was originally done for the park,” Kerry Kort Williamsen said.
Kort Williamsen said she isn’t done trying to see the park developed to honor her mother.
“We continue to just fight the fight. We continue to keep hoping that maybe at some point this will end.”
The project will move forward into its fourth phase, which will include a traffic and environmental analysis.
