The Trust manages the city’s internationally important museum collection and nine museum venues on behalf of Birmingham City Council. The renewed agreement demonstrates the commitment to partnership between the two organisations, working together to deliver better services to citizens and visitors to the city. Birmingham Museums’ future plans include an ambitious capital programme that will see the redevelopment of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery as a 21st-century museum.
The news comes following a strong start to 2019 for BMAG, where three major exhibitions are showing simultaneously – Women Power Protest, Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing and Too Cute! curated by celebrated artist and filmmaker Rachel Maclean. The Leonardo da Vinci exhibition alone has seen 50,000 visitors since it opened on 1 February. In the USA Birmingham Museums’ touring exhibition, Victorian Radicals, is drawing audiences and flying the flag for the city in Florida, the second in its eight-venue tour.
Birmingham Museums Trust has a growing reputation across the sector for its innovative work in community engagement, using the city’s great historic collection to attract new and diverse audiences. It plans to work more closely in future with Birmingham City Council to deliver on learning, health and well-being, and social care. Its work was recently recognised by leading sector body, the Museums Association, when the Collecting Birmingham project was named the Best Museums Change Lives Project. The three-year Heritage Lottery Fund project worked with 3,500 people from communities in four inner-city wards to collect objects that told stories about growing up, living and working in Birmingham. Over 1,800 objects were acquired including The Rivers of Birminam, a series of 100 black and white photographs by Vanley Burke chronicling 40 years of Caribbean heritage in Birmingham.
Cllr Jayne Francis, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Culture at Birmingham City Council, said: “This new, agreed lease demonstrates the council’s continued commitment to work in partnership with Birmingham Museums Trust to help conserve the city’s heritage for all - and to deliver a museums’ service fit for the 21st Century.”
Dr Ellen McAdam, Director of Birmingham Museums Trust, said: “The 25-year contract and leases are great news. They form a solid foundation for our ambitious plans for capital projects and audience engagement. Birmingham has one of the most important civic museum collections in the UK, and we want to ensure that it continues to deliver learning, inspiration and enjoyment for audiences in the city and region for years to come. We look forward to working with all our partners to deliver the future for Birmingham’s museums.”
