Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

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Opened in 1885 as an art gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BM&AG), in Birmingham, England, has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, archaeology, ethnography, local and industrial history. It includes a vast amount of first-class work by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the largest collection of works by Edward Burne-Jones in the world.

The Museum and Art Gallery occupies an extended part of the Council House built less than a decade after the original Council House (subsidised by the corporation's Gas Department to circumvent the Public Libraries and Museums Act which limited the use of public funds on the arts) and, via an elaborate archway (internally a corridor), much of the 1911-1919 Council House Extension block. The main entrance is located in Chamberlain Square below the clock tower. The Extension Block has entrances via the Gas Hall (Edmund Street) and Great Charles Street. Waterhall (the old gas department) has its own entrance on Edmund Street.

Entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery is free, but some major exhibitions in the Gas Hall incur an entrance fee.

BM&AG is managed by Birmingham City Council.

[edit] Community Museums

BM&AG also has many branch museums (some closed in the Winter) in historic buildings:

• Aston Hall, in Aston, built 1618 - 1635
• Blakesley Hall, in Yardley, a Tudor house
• Museum of the Jewellery Quarter , Hockley (open all year)
• Sarehole Mill, in Hall Green, a water mill
• Soho House, in Handsworth, home of Matthew Boulton with exhibitions on the Lunar Society
• Weoley Castle (ruins), in Weoley Castle

The Science Museum, on Newhall Street from 1951 - 1997, is now closed. Many exhibits were move to an independent museum and science attraction with an admission fee in the Thinktank.

[edit] Sources

• All About Victoria Square, Joe Holyoak, The Victorian Society Birmingham Group, ISBN 0-901657-14-X
• By the Gains of Industry - Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 1885-1985, Stuart Davies, ISBN 0-7093-0131-6
• Images of England - details from listed building text

[edit] External links

• BM&AG website
• BM&AG collection online
• Selection of BM&AG's Pinto Collection of Treen
• Art & Islam - BM&AG exhibition website
• Birmingham City Council - BM&AG page
• Revolutionary Players - BM&AG administrated website

Buildings in Birmingham, England  Highrise (In height order): BT Tower | Holloway Circus Tower | Chamberlain Clock Tower | Alpha Tower | Orion Building | The Rotunda | NatWest Tower | Five Ways Tower | Centre City Tower | Hyatt Regency Hotel | 1 Snow Hill Plaza | Quayside Tower | Colmore Gate | The McLaren Building | Metropolitan House | Edgbaston House | Post & Mail Building | Jury's Inn Birmingham   Notable lowrise: 1-7 Constitution Hill | 17 & 19 Newhall Street | Birmingham Assay Office | Baskerville House | Central Library | Council House | Curzon Street railway station | Great Western Arcade | ICC | The Mailbox | Methodist Central Hall | Millennium Point | The Old Crown | Paradise Forum | Birmingham Proof House | Sarehole Mill | Symphony Hall | Town Hall | Victoria Law Courts   Major railway stations: Moor Street station | New Street station | Snow Hill station    Major complexes: Brindleyplace | Bull Ring, Birmingham | Pallasades Shopping Centre    Sports venues: Alexander Stadium | Edgbaston Cricket Ground | NIA | St. Andrews | Villa Park    Lists of buildings: List of tallest buildings and structures in Birmingham | List of Birmingham board schools | Listed buildings in Birmingham