Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has opened its refurbished history galleries to the public as part of a phased redevelopment plan.
The museum started to welcome back visitors last October, following a major redevelopment that saw the city-centre site close entirely in 2019.
Before 2 May, only its Industrial Gallery, Bridge Gallery, Pixel Studio and Wild City family gallery were accessible to the public, along with the cafe and museum shop and two temporary exhibition spaces.
The latest galleries to be refurbished hold a permanent exhibition that originally opened 12 years ago, Birmingham: Its People, Its History, covering an area of more than 850 square metres.
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the display covers Birmingham’s medieval beginnings, through to its roles during the Industrial Revolution and the first and second world wars.
“This expansion allows us to share more of Birmingham's rich history with our visitors and we welcome feedback on how we can further improve these galleries so they better reflect the city’s multi-faceted stories,” said Toby Watley, the director of collection and estate at Birmingham Museums Trust.
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The trust’s £5m revamp has included improvements to the Grade II*-listed building’s heating, electrics, lifts and roofing.
The capital project has been funded through the UK Government’s Museum Estate and Development Fund (Mend) scheme, as well as through grants from FCC Communities Foundation, DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund and Friends of Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery.
Birmingham: Its People, Its History first opened in 2013 at a cost of £8.9m. The displays were designed by Redman Design.
Meanwhile Birmingham Museums Trust has also announced that it has acquired a nationally important archive of British South Asian art.
The South Asian Diaspora Arts Archive reflects the work of the first generation of British South Asian artists who arrived in the UK post-partition from 1947 onwards.
The archive spans visual art, music, literature, dance and theatre, and includes work by South Asian writers and artists that informed creative arts development in the UK.
The archive holds material and testimonies from and about the development and impact of this first generation across the artistic spectrum, including writers who were part of the Asian Women Writers’ Collective, and established theatre companies such as Tara Arts and Kali Theatre.
It has been physically located at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery since 2017.
