Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England, housing a collection of international importance. Its holdings encompass fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local history, and industrial history. The institution opened in 1885 and is currently operated by Birmingham Museums Trust, the largest independent museums trust in the United Kingdom, which also runs eight other museums across the city. The main entrance is located in Chamberlain Square below the clock-tower known locally as Big Brum.

The origins of the institution trace back to 1829, when the Birmingham Society of Artists created a private exhibition building in New Street. The Museums Act of 1845 allowed boroughs with populations over 10,000 to raise funds for museums, setting the legal groundwork for public collections. In 1864, the Society and other donors presented 64 pictures and the Sultanganj Buddha to the Birmingham Council. These were initially housed in the Free Library building, but space constraints forced the pictures to move to Aston Hall. Joseph Henry Nettlefold later bequeathed 25 pictures by David Cox on the condition the gallery opened on Sundays. In 1880, artist Allen Edward Everitt became honorary curator of the Free Art Gallery, the museum's forerunner, championed by former Mayor Jesse Collings. A donation of 10,000 pounds from Sir Richard and George Tangye catalyzed the construction of a dedicated gallery. With further donations and 40,000 pounds from the council, the Prince of Wales officially opened the new gallery on November 28, 1885. The museum occupied an extension of the Council House above the municipal Gas Department, effectively subsidizing the venture and circumventing the Public Libraries Act of 1850, which limited public funds for the arts. Until property taxes funded acquisitions in 1946, the museum relied on private individuals, including John Feeney, who provided 50,000 pounds for a further gallery. Seven galleries were rebuilt after being bombed in 1940. Postwar leadership under Keeper of Art Mary Woodall and Director Trenchard Cox brought major exhibitions and donations. The Museum of Science and Industry was incorporated into the institution in 1951, though its collections later moved to Thinktank in 2001.

The museum holds around 800,000 objects across its venues, with most areas of the collection Designated as being of national importance. The fine art collection spans paintings from the 14th to the 21st century, featuring significant British and European works. Beyond fine art, the institution covers ceramics, metalwork, and jewellery. Its historical and archaeological holdings include ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts, alongside ethnographic objects from Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The local and industrial history collections document the development of Birmingham, including its ties to the colonial slave trade, where local metalwork and firearms were used in the transatlantic trade. The Staffordshire Hoard, a major collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artifacts, is also a central feature of the museum's historical holdings.

The museum is most famous for holding the world's largest public collection of Pre-Raphaelite art. This includes more than 60 paintings, sculptures, and stained glass windows, with particular strength in the works of Edward Burne-Jones, such as The Star of Bethlehem. Other notable Pre-Raphaelite works include Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Proserpine, Ford Madox Brown's The Last of England, and Arthur Hughes's The Long Engagement. The collection also emphasizes female artists of the movement, such as Emma Sandys and Kate Bunce. The European painting collection features works by Giovanni Bellini, Sandro Botticelli, Canaletto, Claude Lorrain, Peter Paul Rubens, and Edgar Degas. British art is further represented by William Hogarth, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, and Patrick Caulfield's Red and White Still Life. Henry Wallis's The Stonebreaker is another key highlight.

The museum is housed in a Grade II* listed building designed by Yeoville Thomason in the Victorian Neoclassical style. It forms an architectural and functional unit with the neighboring Council House. The exterior features a lofty double-storied portico surmounted by a pediment sculpted by Francis John Williamson, which allegorically represents Birmingham contributing to the fine arts. The clock-tower above the main entrance, known as Big Brum, is a conspicuous local landmark. The interior metalwork for the building and the Council House was produced by the Birmingham firm Hart, Son, Peard and Co., including the distinctive cast-iron columns in the main gallery space. The entrance hall bears the inscription, By the gains of Industry we promote Art. Additional entrances include the Gas Hall on Edmund Street and Great Charles Street, and the Waterhall on Edmund Street, which originally housed the gas department.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is owned by Birmingham City Council and managed by Birmingham Museums Trust. General admission is free, though fees apply for some major exhibitions in the Gas Hall. The museum closed in October 2020 due to the global pandemic and remained closed through 2021 for a rewiring project of the Council complex. It partially reopened in April 2022, closed again in December 2022, and reopened in October 2024 with approximately 70 percent of its spaces accessible. Open areas include the Pre-Raphaelite Galleries, Staffordshire Hoard Gallery, Birmingham History Galleries, Round Room, Industrial Gallery, Bridge Gallery, a family gallery, the tearoom, and the shop. The museum operates Wednesday through Sunday, 10am to 5pm, with daily hours during school holidays. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero, scheduled to run until September 2026, and EVERY THING MUST GO by Joe Lycett, opening in July 2026.