Birmingham Museums Trust is the largest independent
charitable trust of
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...
s in the United Kingdom.
It runs nine museum sites across the city of
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
, including
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, local ...
(BMAG) and
Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum
Thinktank, Birmingham (formerly known as simply Thinktank) is a science museum in Birmingham, England. Opened in 2001, it is part of Birmingham Museums Trust and is located within the Millennium Point complex on Curzon Street, Digbeth.
H ...
, with a total of more than 1.1 million visits per year.
[
The Trust was founded in April 2012 through the merger of the ]Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...
-owned Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery and the Thinktank charitable trust.[
As well as the central museum and art gallery, BMAG includes the ]Birmingham Museum Collection Centre
The Museum Collection Centre (MCC) in Nechells, Birmingham, England, is a building that holds 80% of Birmingham Museums Trust's stored collections under one roof. It is one of the UK's largest museum stores.
Among the thousands of objects stored ...
and the distributed museums of Aston Hall
Aston Hall is a Grade I listed Jacobean house in Aston, Birmingham, England, designed by John Thorpe and built between 1618 and 1635. It is a leading example of the Jacobean prodigy house.
In 1864, the house was bought by Birmingham Corpor ...
, Blakesley Hall, Sarehole Mill
Sarehole Mill is a Grade II listed water mill, in an area once called Sarehole, on the River Cole in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. It is now run as a museum by the Birmingham Museums Trust. It is known for its association with J. R. R. To ...
, Soho House
Soho House is a museum run by Birmingham Museums Trust, celebrating Matthew Boulton's life, his partnership with James Watt, his membership of the Lunar Society of Birmingham and his contribution to the Midlands Enlightenment and the Ind ...
, Museum of the Jewellery Quarter
The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter is a museum at 75-79 Vyse Street in Hockley, Birmingham, England. It is one of the nine museums run by the Birmingham Museums Trust, the largest independent museums trust in the United Kingdom.
In 2008, ...
and Weoley Castle
Weoley Castle is a residential suburban district in south-west Birmingham, England. The area is part of the Weoley local authority electoral ward, and also comes under the Northfield local council constituency. The suburb of Weoley Castle is ...
. Thinktank was created from the collection of the City Council's Museum of Science and Industry, Birmingham
Thinktank, Birmingham (formerly known as simply Thinktank) is a science museum in Birmingham, England. Opened in 2001, it is part of Birmingham Museums Trust and is located within the Millennium Point complex on Curzon Street, Digbeth.
His ...
.
On 24 January 2012 the new trust announced it had received funding from the Arts Council for three years.
The first director of the trust was Ann Sumner, who joined the trust from the University of Birmingham
, mottoeng = Through efforts to heights
, established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
's Barber Institute of Fine Arts
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts is an art gallery and concert hall in Birmingham, England. It is situated in purpose-built premises on the campus of the University of Birmingham.
The Grade I listed Art Deco building was designed by Robert At ...
, where she had been Director since 2007.
She left after only seven months in January 2013 and was replaced by interim director Simon Cane. In July 2013 Ellen McAdam was appointed as the new director. McAdam left in 2020. Sara Wajid and Zak Mensah took on the Director role as co-CEO's in November 2020.
Collections
As well as many paintings, sculptures, and other artworks, the collection includes steam engines
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...
(including the oldest working engine in the world), aeroplanes, Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, Rover
Rover may refer to:
People
* Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian
* Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer
* Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist
Places
* Rover, Arkansas, US
* Rover, Missouri, US
* ...
and MG motor cars, a red phone box
The red telephone box, a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, Malta, Bermuda and Gibraltar.
Despite a reduction in their numbers in recent years ...
, coins, and a Sinclair C5.
Birds
The natural history collection includes approximately 5,700 taxidermied specimens, as well as skins, bones, eggs, and nests. Several former private collections are included, not least those of not noted ornithologists John Auden
John Lorimer Auden MC (23 August 1894 – 30 March 1959), was an English solicitor, deputy coroner for Staffordshire and a territorial soldier who served in the First World War. He was a collector of natural history.
John Lorimer Auden was bo ...
, Robert William Chase
Robert William Chase (1852–1927) was a British ornithologist, businessman, and philanthropist. His extensive collection of taxidermied birds is now in the care of Birmingham Museums Trust.
Chase owned a brush-making business in Birmingham. ...
, and William Royse Lysaght
William Royse Lysaght (23 July 1858 – 27 April 1945) was a steel manufacturer and collector of bird specimens.
Early life
Lysaght was born on 23 July 1858, the son of Thomas Royse Lysaght and Emily Lysaght (''née'' Moss). He was the nephew ...
, as well as that of Richard Weaver, who operated an early, private museum in Birmingham.great auk
The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, wh ...
, and a passenger pigeon
The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (''Ectopistes migratorius'') is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word ''passager'', meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits ...
.Hastings Rarities
The Hastings Rarities affair is a case of statistically demonstrated ornithological fraud that misled the bird world for decades in the 20th century. The discovery of the long-running hoax shocked ornithologists.
The Hastings Rarities were a se ...
" are held.
Locations
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2012 establishments in England
Charities based in the West Midlands (county)
Museums in Birmingham, West Midlands