BMAG’s four-year-long night at the museum is ending

We go behind the gallery’s closed doors ahead of its reopening this Saturday

Patchers — welcome to your Thursday briefing. 

Today, Art writer and curator Ruth Millington has explored the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery for us ahead of its grand reopening on Saturday. Read on for insight into how the city’s financial crisis has affected the gallery and what to expect from the much-talked-about Victorian Radicals exhibition.

Before that, our newsletter kicks off on a happy note: with more award-winning good news for Birmingham’s hospitality scene. If you’re a fan of Martini, margarita or old fashioned, today’s beverage-focussed briefing should especially pique your interest. 

Years ago, I used to work in one of the city’s best-loved night-time establishments. With all the chutzpah of youth, I considered myself a dab hand at making an espresso Martini and would engage in all the cocktail-making showmanship that I thought Birmingham’s great and good wanted; throwing my Boston shakers around in a performative manner. (Yes, I did think I was like a young Tom Cruise in ‘88 classic Cocktail).

However, I am willing to concede — with my hospitality days behind me (as it stands) — that the individuals driving Birmingham’s most recent food-and-drink scene success are likely much, much more talented than I ever was when it came to making cocktails. And probably less given to flights of Tom Cruise fancy. (Although I hope we are all aware of much of a fan Cruise is of the Birmingham’s foodie offering).

Elsewhere, we take a look at the much ado over the police and crime commissioner powers as well as Wolverhampton’s wagyu sandwich scene, and the last UK leg of the Rocky Horror Show.

As there are now 346 paying subscribers, that means 692 elbows to fend off as we all head towards WV1, WV6, B9 and B30 — the postcode locations where this week’s tasty and theatrical briefing treats are situated.

To keep enabling us to dig around for the best culture and culinary morsels, and then share them with you, do consider adding another pair of elbows to that mix. You can do so via the button below. Speak soon.

---

Brum in Brief

🍸More Birmingham, more hospitality wins: This week must surely go down as a highlight in the second city’s storied hospitality history. Following up on news that Opheem has been awarded a second Michelin star — and Simpson's, Purnell’s, and Adam’s have all retained their prestigious Michelin accolades — Birmingham’s bars are getting in on the award-winning action. In The Top 50 Cocktail Bars in Britain rankings Digbeth’s Passing Fancies has been named third best in Britain, while Couch, in trendy Stirchley, is hot on its heels in fourth. If you fancy reading more about the lore of the third best bar in Britain you can via this link.

👮PCC powers to go to Mayor: For keen-eyed politics followers, Police and Crime Commissioner powers have been transferred to the West Midlands Mayor, following governmental approval. It means oversight held by Simon Foster (including setting what police focus should be, budgetary oversight, and crime prioritisation) will now sit with whoever is elected mayor in May. As it now stands, Birmingham, along with Manchester and London, will be the only police force where these responsibilities reside with the mayor. The Dispatch has previously covered these developments and you can read more on this ‘bitter’ story here.

💷Council tax rise approved: Birmingham City Council has been given the green light to increase council tax by 10% from April. The news comes after the government confirmed it will not block a council leadership request to raise the tax above the 4.99% cap. Readers may have spotted the tax headline already but we thought it was worth keeping in the briefing due to its critical impact on those of us in the Birmingham Council Tax area. 

🥪Wolvo wagyu sarnie: Inspired by Brick Lane salt beef and New York sandwich culture, a Wolverhampton-based artisan butcher is using Wagyu pastrami to re-create a Black Country version of the famous Reuben sandwich that can also be enjoyed by the Muslim community. So famous is Malik Butchers sandwich that customers are even driving down from Scotland to get their fix. You can hear owner Adnaan Malik speak to BBC WM about his diverse customer base and his well-loved products.

🎭Rocky Horror Show: Another Wolverhampton culture note; this time The Dispatch is off to the Grand Theatre. On until this Saturday, Richard O’Brien’s legendary rock & roll musical The Rocky Horror Show is on the final UK segment of its most recent world tour. Jess Clixby at What’s On Midlands described the show as “pitch perfect” and a “feast for the eyes and ears”. All the details at a click.

---

BMAG’s four-year-long night at the museum is ending

We go behind the gallery’s closed doors ahead of its reopening this Saturday

By Ruth Millington

While most public museums welcomed back visitors as soon as lockdown restrictions lifted, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) has mostly been closed since 2020. This has meant that the museum’s world-famous Pre-Raphaelite artworks, along with many other items from its permanent collection, have not been seen by local audiences in years. Even when the museum opened temporarily (and only partially) during the Commonwealth Games in 2022, well-loved portraits by Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and John Everett Millais were noticeably missing from its walls. In fact, during this period, most of those Pre-Raphaelite paintings weren’t even in Birmingham — essential renovation works at the museum made it physically impossible to show them on site.

This month, BMAG is finally beginning a phased reopening. On February 10th, the doors of The Gas Hall will open for Victorian Radicals: From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts and Crafts Movement. Returning from a successful tour across the US, the exhibition features more than 160 works, showcasing masterpieces from the museum’s own civic collection in the city for the first time in over five years. 

Birmingham Museums Trust and Birmingham City Council had already been planning to rewire BMAG and the Council House building for years before the pandemic. Although they initially hoped to do so after 2022, when the Commonwealth Games were out of the way, directors from the museum said that two months into the first lockdown, an electrical test found that wiring had “deteriorated to such a degree that there was no option but to fully close BMAG and immediately commence decanting and rewiring the building”. Securing £5m from the Arts Council England’s Museum, Estate and Development (MEND) fund, BMAG also contracted emergency work on the Victorian building, making improvements to the roof and heating systems and the upgrades to the lifts to make the museum more accessible.

The Star of Bethlehem by Edward Burne-Jones has been restored. Image by: BMAG.

To facilitate such extensive renovations, the team at BMAG was faced with the difficult task of emptying the building. “36,000 objects needed relocating, labelling and auditing,” says Toby Watley, Director of Collections at Birmingham Museums Trust. 26,000 paper works were housed in the Library of Birmingham, while three-dimensional objects were moved to the Museum Collection Centre in Yardley, and paintings were shipped to commercial storage outside the city. Only a few items that couldn’t travel remained at the museum. Among them, measuring 8ft-by-12ft, was the world’s largest watercolour, Edward Burne-Jones’s The Star of Bethlehem, which — having been on display for 130 years — was removed from the wall for the first time in order to be restored. Meanwhile, the Round Room’s striking Lucifer sculpture by Jacob Epstein — which has never travelled further than the Edwardian Tea Rooms or the shop — remained in situ, protected by a custom-made box. A Botticelli panel painting and the Sultanganj Buddha sculpture were also among select items that couldn’t be moved, but their location on site was “kept a secret, for obvious reasons”, says Watley.