The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Botticelli, Rubens, Poussin, Claude, van Dyck, Gainsborough, Turner, Rossetti, Manet, Monet, Degas, Magritte and Picasso…

Major works by these artists and most of the other names in the history of Western art are included in the outstanding art collection at the Barber Institute, which has been praised variously as “the last great art collection of the twentieth century,” “one of the finest small galleries in Europe” (The Observer newspaper) and “one of the best small picture galleries in the country” (Britain’s Best Museums and Galleries).

A public gallery housed in Birmingham’s finest Art Deco building, the Barber was founded in 1939 by Dame Constance Martha Hattie Barber, as a memorial to her late husband Sir Henry, a Birmingham lawyer and millionaire property developer. Bequeathing £1 million to the University of Birmingham for the foundation of ‘an Institute for the study and encouragement of Art and Music’, Lady Barber, herself a keen amateur painter, collector and pianist, stipulated that the galleries should contain ‘…a collection of that standard of quality required by the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection’.

The building, designed by architect Robert Atkinson, a well-known cinema designer, opened in 1939, and accommodates four main first-floor galleries, arranged in a quadrangle, alongside print galleries, a purpose-built concert hall, Fine Art and Music libraries and offices. It is also home to the University’s History of Art department, with the collection providing an invaluable teaching resource for students.

Under the directorship of Thomas Bodkin, former Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, and his three successors, Ernest Waterhouse, Hamish Miles and Richard Verdi, the Barber collection of paintings, sculpture and works on paper undoubtedly meets their benefactress’s lofty requirements.

As well as the Permanent Collection, the Barber runs a successful programme of loan exhibitions, which are usually devised to focus on a particular work in the collection, and have featured household names such as Turner, Rossetti and Constable as well as lesser-known masters such as Matthias Stom, Bartholomeus Breenbergh and, most recently and successfully, Johan Christian Dahl.

There is also a fine Coin Gallery, housing one of the most important collections of Roman, Byzantine and Medieval coins in the world, and a regular programme of lectures, concerts and family events.

For further information, visit the Barber website at www.barber.org.uk and to search the collection online go to www.mobius.bham.ac.uk

Opening Times: Monday-Saturday, 10am – 5pm; Sunday, 12 noon – 5pm.
Closed December 24-26, January 1, Good Friday 

Click to view more info