Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery continues phased reopening

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery will unveil further revamped spaces in October as part of a phased reopening of the building.

Birmingham Museums Trust (BMT) announced this week that the Round Room Gallery, Industrial Gallery, Bridge Gallery and Edwardian Tearooms will be among the spaces reopening on 24 October. The tearooms and shop will open on the same date.

The whole museum has been undergoing a £5m revamp that includes improvements to the Grade II*-listed building’s heating, electrics, lifts and roofing.

The museum’s Round Room will have both new and familiar artworks on display, with Jacob Epstein’s bronze sculpture Lucifer providing the centre-piece.

The Industrial Gallery will reopen with Made in Birmingham, a new display celebrating the city and its people.

Sara Wajid and Zak Mensah, co-CEOs at BMT, said: “We know this is news that a lot of people have been waiting for and we are so happy to be able to open more of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

“We can’t wait to welcome visitors again in time for October half term. It’s such an important institution for the people of Birmingham and we’ve made those people central to the new displays that you will all be able to see.

“When we reopened the museum with ‘pop-up’ displays during the Commonwealth Games in 2022, visitors told us they loved the refresh and seeing and feeling the stories of all Birmingham people front and centre.

“We heard that, as well as the message that people wanted to see more of the collection, understand more about our history and needed more for families and children.”

BMT opened In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, a VR experience centred on the Acid House movement, in Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s Waterhall on 19 July.

The Gas Hall reopened on 10 February, with the exhibition Victorian Radicals: From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts and Crafts Movement. The show has been extended until the end of the year.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery will open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am until 5pm.

BMT is an independent charitable trust that was formed in 2012 to care for more than one million objects and nine museums on behalf of Birmingham City Council and the people of Birmingham.