6 incredible creative events not to miss at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

For the first time since October 2020 Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery will be open to the public in less than four weeks time.

One of the city’s most iconic landmarks is celebrating its temporary reopening with five exciting pop-up events - including a look back at Birmingham’s 90s rave scene and its cinema history.

And from May 14 it will be hosting the city’s first major art exhibition since the pandemic with Turn Prize-winner Lubaina Himid CBE before it tours the UK.

The popular Edwardian Tearooms will also be welcoming guests for meals, drinks and snacks - and its popular ‘late’ events in the evening.

The areas - the Round Room, Industrial Gallery, Edwardian Tearooms, Gallery 10 and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery - are opening seven days a week from April 28, but will close again in December in order to allow maintenance work to continue before the building fully reopens in 2024.

5 pop up events at BMAG not to miss

Don’t Settle: We Are Birmingham

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s partial reopening will be launched with a radical transformation of the stunning Round Room. We Are Birmingham will reflect the people of 21st Century Birmingham. Co-curated by Birmingham Museums and a group of six young People of Colour from Don’t Settle, a project of Beatfreeks, the new display will present a vivid celebration of the city that Birmingham is now as well as aspirations of what the city could become.

Birmingham Music Archive: In The Que

A sensory exhibition will celebrate one of Birmingham’s greatest music venues – the Que Club. Curated by Birmingham Music Archive and Pretty Hate Production, In The Que, will feature previously unseen photographs by critically acclaimed photographer Terence Donovan, personal artefacts, archive film footage, flyers and posters and a 35 minute documentary film. Reflecting the experiences of the Que Club – from the ravers to the DJs, musicians to staff – the exhibition will encourage visitors and former clubbers to share memories and join in a lively programme of events.

Fierce: SaVĀge K’Lub: Vā TAMATEA

New Zealand/Aotearoa artists Rosanna Raymond and Jaimie Waititi present a SaVĀge K’Lubroom in a secretive corner of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. The installation reclaims the gentlemen’s clubs of the same name first established in London in the 19th century. SaVĀge K’Lub poses the question: what might it mean to be a savage today?

Vā TAMATEA is the calm surface above the churning currents that unearth tāonga (treasured possessions) from Birmingham’s collection.SaVĀge K’Lub is interested in the rupture of the Vā (a Samoan term for ‘space’) that was brought about by the exchange of tāonga during ‘first contact’ between European explorers and Polynesian peoples. Part of Fierce’s Healing Gardens of Bab.

Flatpack Projects: Wonderland

Wonderland by Flatpack Projects and presented by Birmingham 2022 Festival will explore how cinema has shaped the streets, social lives and dreams of Brummies over the past 125 years. Flatpack plans to map all 150 plus cinemas in the city – from fairgrounds to multiplexes and from South Asian extravaganzas to pop-ups. The display will showcase photographs and cinema memorabilia, alongside Birmingham’s collection of magic lanterns and optical toys. Visitors can join in by sharing their own cinema-going memories, watch film screenings or take part in drop-in activities.

Kalaboration Arts: Blacklash: Racism and the Struggle for Self-Defence

From the mid-1980s and over a period of two decades, artist, cultural activist and filmmaker Mukhtar Dar, documented the struggles of Asian and African Caribbean communities against racism. Blacklash: Racism and the Struggle for Self-Defence, by Kalaboration Arts, draws on Mukhtar’s extensive archive of photos, videos and other political ephemera providing a historical context for contemporary anti-racism movements such as Black Lives Matter, as well as encouraging reflection, discussion and debate.

Unprecedented Times

Finally, an additional exhibition will invite visitors to take a moment to pause and reflect on all that has passed in Birmingham over the last two years of living with Covid-19. Unprecedented Times, developed in partnership with Birmingham City Council’s Public Health Division and Birmingham Museums’ Community Action Panel, will explore survival of the human spirit in public crises past and present. The display will explore themes of hope and loss featuring historic objects from Birmingham’s collection alongside new work and photography by Birmingham-based artists.

Art exhibition at Gas Hall

Gas Hall reopens on Saturday, 14 May, with an Arts Council Collection exhibition curated by Turner Prize-winning and internationally-renowned artist Lubaina Himid CBE.

Found Cities, Lost Objects: Women in the City, opens in Birmingham with a selection of local works before touring galleries and museums across the UK.

The new exhibition invites visitors to consider the experiences of women in the city, as seen through the lens of art.

What have creative chiefs in Birmingham said about the reopening of BMAG?

Sara Wajid and Zak Mensah, Co-CEOs of Birmingham Museums Trust, said: “Having spoken to the creative teams behind the partner displays and seen their displays taking shape we’re so excited to be unpacking Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in just four weeks – for the Commonwealth Games and the Birmingham 2022 Festival.

“The museum is going to feel very different this summer with a new approach to exhibitions and how visitors enjoy the themes on display and the galleries hosting them.

“While some of the spaces may feel different there will always be a warm welcome and we want everyone to join us for a look around or a hot drink and lunch in the lovely Edwardian Tearooms.”

Martin Green CBE, Chief Creative Officer, Birmingham 2022, said: “Bringing multiple creative companies together under one roof for this series of pop-up displays is really exciting. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is a major cultural force in the city and this fresh direction and openness speaks volumes about Birmingham and the region.”

For further information visit: Birmingham Museums

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