Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery
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| Established | 1891 |
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| Location | Wednesbury, West Midlands |
| Website | Sandwell MBC microsite |
Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery is a purpose-built Victorian art gallery in Wednesbury in the West Midlands of England. It is notable for its Ruskin Pottery collection and for hosting the first public display of the Stuckism art movement.
The building was built in 1891 to house a collection of paintings, drawings and watercolours donated by Mrs Mary Ann Richards on behalf of her late husband Edwin, and cost £5821 to build. It was designed by West Bromwich architects Wood and Kendrick, and built by Henry Wilcock of Wolverhampton. Four panels on the building's facade show the heads of Sir Christopher Wren to represent Architecture, Sir Joshua Reynolds for Art, John Flaxman for Sculpture, and Sir Isaac Newton for Science. Two busts sit in recesses above the entrance, of Alderman Williams and Alderman Lloyd, both mayors of Wednesbury and chairmen of the Art Gallery Committee. Following the Second World War, the museum was used by the council as offices, but returned to use as a museum in 1972, modernised and renovated.
The museum holds a number of permanent displays:
Ruskin Pottery was made in Sandwell, and is sought by collectors globally. The pottery on display exemplifies numerous types of glaze, including Bleu Soufflé, Lustre, Flambé and Crystalline.
The gallery was originally built to display a large collection of works owned by Wednesbury residents, Edwin and Mary Richards. The couple were prolific collectors of art and especially favoured landscapes. In her will, Mary donated her and her husband's collection of paintings to the town of Wednesbury. These are displayed in the Richards Gallery. The works were stored in subterranean caves in Kinver, Staffordshire during the Second World War. Only some of the paintings were returned to public display when the war ended. The collection now consists of fifty-four paintings, following a large sale by Wednesbury Borough Council in 1948.
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