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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.
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
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
External links
Museums in England | Art museums and galleries in England | Visitor attractions in Birmingham, England | Culture in Birmingham, England | Grade II* listed buildings | Buildings and structures in Birmingham, England
"Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery"