Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to reopen after four-year closure

The Made in Birmingham display “explores some of the people, places and things which make the city what it is”, the museum said.

It will include some familiar items, such as the giant logo from the now-demolished HP Sauce factory and a sign from the Eagle & Tun pub – where local band UB40 filmed the video for Red Red Wine.

There will also be vintage advertising signage from Bird’s Custard and a large model showing an abandoned vision of what Centenary Square might have been.

The Round Room gallery, which has displayed art for almost 150 years, reopens with with One Fresh Take, about how art can be a way to see the world differently.

Other display areas have been updated to showcase various artworks linked to the city and the people within it including Curtis Holder, Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020, who was commissioned to draw Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos Acosta.

The Bridge Gallery’s Modern Muse selection is a series of photographic portraits by Arpita Shah celebrating the identities and experiences of young South Asian women from Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Two films can be watched in The Pixel Studio – The Tiny Spark and Excerpt.

The Tiny Spark is directed by directed by Pogus Caesar and looks at the 1985 Handsworth Riots and features the poetry of Benjamin Zephaniah.

Zephaniah’s blue plaque, which was unveiled last week, can also be seen in the museum.