Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery | |||||||||||||||||
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General information | |||||||||||||||||
Type | Museum, Art Gallery | ||||||||||||||||
Architectural style | |||||||||||||||||
Location | Chamberlain Square | ||||||||||||||||
Town or city | Birmingham | ||||||||||||||||
Country | England | ||||||||||||||||
Current tenants | Birmingham Museums Trust | ||||||||||||||||
Construction started |
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Completed |
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Owner | Birmingham City Council | ||||||||||||||||
Height | 50 metres (160 ft) (Clock Tower) | ||||||||||||||||
Design and construction | |||||||||||||||||
Architect |
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Established | 28 November 1885 |
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Collection size | 500,000 objects |
Visitors |
936,839 (2015) |
Website | www |
Listed Building – Grade II*
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Designated | 25 April 1952 |
Reference no. | 1210333 |
936,839 (2015)
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) (grid reference SP066869) 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 history and industrial history.
The museum/gallery is run by Birmingham Museums Trust, the largest independent museums trust in the United Kingdom, which also runs eight other museums around the city. Entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery is free, but some major exhibitions in the Gas Hall incur an entrance fee. In 2015, 936,839 visitors came to the museum making it the 16th most visited museum nationally and 5th outside of London.
In 1829, the Birmingham Society of Artists created a private exhibition building in New Street, Birmingham while the historical precedent for public education around that time produced the Factory Act 1833, the first instance of Government funding for education.