Guide to Museums in:


Birmingham

Bristol

Leeds

London

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ENGLAND

BIRMINGHAM MUSEUMS

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is primarily an art gallery located in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, archaeology, ethnography, local history and industrial history. The art gallery is most noted for the extensive collection of paintings ranging from the 14th to the 21st century. It includes work by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the largest collection of works by Edward Burne-Jones in the world. The collection includes works by Canaletto, Lowry, Gainsborough. Paintings from the Dutch School include a painting each from Jan van Goyen and Willem van de Velde the Younger. The collection of antiquities includes coins from ancient times through to the Middle Ages, artefacts from Ancient India and Central Asia, Ancient Cyprus and Ancient Egypt. There is material from Classical Greece, the Roman Empire and Latin America. There is also mediaeval material. Entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery is free, but some major exhibitions in the Gas Hall incur an entrance fee.

For more information please contact Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, B3 3DH, Tel: +44 (0)121 303 2834, E-mail: bmag_enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square

Thinktank is a science museum in Birmingham, England. It is part of the Millennium Point complex. Thinktank is devided into four floors. Each floor has a theme, in general going from the past, in Thinkback (Level 0), through Thinkhere (Level 1) and Thinknow (Level 2), to the future, in the Thinkahead gallery (Level 3). Thinkahead gallery contains the Futures exhibition, dealing with future technology, innovation and space travel. The majority of the displays are screens, with a trackball to choose to play a video on a certain topic. Thinknow gallery deals with current technology and scientific understanding, and how everyday life has been affected by scientific ideas and advances. Thinkhere contains a City Stories, a gallery looking at the development of Birmingham, from its medieval past, right up to present day. It looks at Birmingham in the Civil War, Industrial Revolution, World War II, and then a more recent history involving the Birmingham pub bombings. There is also a LEGOlab on this floor of the building, here children can program Lego NXT robots to complete a variety of tasks. Aimed at older children, above 8. Thinkback concentrates on Birmingham's transport history, eispecially vehicles and steam engines. There is an entrance fee to the museum.

For more information and enquiries please contact Thinktank, Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, B4 7XG, Tel: +44 (0) 0121 202 2222, E-mail: findout@thinktank.ac

Thinktank, Birmingham
Photograph © Bs0u10e0

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 Institute is located 5 km southwest of the city centre at the East Gate of the university campus and has one of the most outstanding collections of art assembled in Britain in the 20th century, including works by Gwen John, André Derain, Fernand Léger, René Magritte and Egon Schiele. The collection is full of famous works by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt, displayed in spatious and elegant galleries on the first floor of the Institute. The Renaissance is represented by masterpieces by Giovanni Bellini, Veronese and Simone Martini, the 17th century by Rubens, Van Dyck, Poussin and Murillo. The collections of French impressionism and post-impressionism include artworks by Degas, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Among the British artists represented are Aubrey Beardsley, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Rossetti and Turner. The institute also has one of the world's largest coin collections, especially of Roman and Byzantine coins.

For more information and enquiries please contact The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TS, United Kingdom, Tel: +44 (0) 121 414 7333, E-mail: info@barber.org.uk

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts of the University of Birmingham

Aston Hall is a municipally owned Jacobean-style mansion in Aston, Birmingham. Washington Irving used it as the model for Bracebridge Hall in his stories in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. Aston Hall is now a community museum managed by Birmingham City Council and again open to the public free of charge. It boasts a series of period rooms which have furniture, paintings, textiles and metalwork from the collections of the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Admission is free.

For more information and enquiries please contact Aston Hall, Trinity Road, Aston, Birmingham, B6 6JD, Tel: +44 (0)121 675 4722, E-mail: bmag_enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk

Entrance to Aston Hall
Photograph © Tony Hisgett

Tyseley Locomotive Works is the museum and engineering arm of the Birmingham Railway Museum Trust, based in Birmingham. Located close to Tyseley railway station, the No.37 bus operated by National Express West Midlands passes the site. Located on the A41 Warwick Road, the site is approximately 3 miles from Birmingham city centre, or 4 miles from Solihull. As well as supporting the trust's operating wing Vintage Trains the museum is home to an extensive collection of steam engines, ranging from small industrial builds to Great Western Railway 'Castles' and 'Halls', and large ex-main line diesel engines.

For more information and enquiries please contact Vintage Trains (or 'Tyseley Locomotive Works'), 670 Warwick Road, Tyseley, Birmingham, B11 2HL, Tel: +44 (0)121 708 4963, E-mail: office@vintagetrains.co.uk

Tyseley Locomotive Works seen at the Tyseley Locomotive depot
Photograph © Tony Hisgett

The Ikon Gallery is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. Ikon was set-up to encourage the public to engage in contemporary art. The gallery is open every day of the week except Mondays, though it opens on bank holiday Mondays. The gallery features temporary exhibitions over two floors. A variety of media are represented, including sound, film, mixed media, photography, painting, sculpture and installation. There is also an off-site programme which helps develop dynamic relationships between art, artists and the audience outside the gallery. Ikon also holds a variety of talks, tours, workshops and seminars.

For more information and enquiries please contact Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham. B1 2HS, Tel: +44 (0) 121 248 0708, E-mail: art@ikon-gallery.co.uk.

The Ikon Gallery in Brindleyplace, Birmingham