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 these ...

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 West ...

, 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 (Birmingham), Millennium Point complex on ...

, 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 (e ...

-owned Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery and the Thinktank charitable trust. The underlying buildings and collections remain the property of the City Council, who have the final decision on admission charges. Admission to BMAG is free of charge, but there is an admission charge for Thinktank. 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 store ...

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 Corpo ...

Blakesley Hall Blakesley Hall, a grade II* listed building is a Tudor hall on Blakesley Road in Yardley, Birmingham, England. It is one of the oldest buildings in Birmingham and is a typical example of Tudor architecture with the use of darkened timber a ...

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. Tol ...

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 Indu ...

Museum of the Jewellery Quarter The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter is a museum at 75-79 Vyse Street in Hockley, Birmingham, Hockley, Birmingham, England. It is one of the nine museums run by the Birmingham Museums Trust, the largest independent charitable trust, museums tr ...

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 ...

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 trans ...

(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 The Sinclair C5 is a small one-person battery electric recumbent tricycle, technically an "electrically assisted pedal cycle". It was the culmination of Sir Clive Sinclair's long-running interest in electric vehicles. Although widely described ...

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,

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 Birmingh ...

, 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. Taxidermy specimens of extinct species include a

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 ...

. Fifty of the "

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