The Barber Institute of Fine Arts may be a regular haunt if you’re a busy Art History student or a friend of University of Birmingham, but to the rest of us, I can’t help but feel this fantastic collection of art is one of the city’s most underappreciated locations.
As soon as you walk up the stairs into the grand reception area, you can’t help but feel you’ve stepped into a side wing of the National Gallery in London; and as their website boasts, the collection gives Trafalgar Square a run for its money too, displaying the likes of Monet, Botticelli and Renoir to name a few!
And yet, the fact that it is not in the city centre I suspect the Barber Institute perhaps suffers a little on visitors in comparison to The Birmingham City and Art Gallery in the heart of the town centre.
As a frequent visitor to the Barber, I cannot recommend their vast array of free lunchtime lectures and events enough. I will certainly be visiting their current exhibition, exploring ‘The Age of Innocence’ in both 18th and 19th Century art having written my dissertation on the same subject when I was still at university.
http://barber.org.uk/age-of-innocence/
As a fellow Birmingham based business, we are proud to be associated with this fabulous Institute as we recently held a Valuation event in their gallery. We invited the public to bring along any items of artwork they wished to have valued and we were astounded by the number of people that popped by to see us. Both my colleague Jeremy Thornton and I, saw numerous paintings and sketches and were delighted to assist in valuations, whilst the public were also able to enjoy the art on display throughout the galleries at the same time.
Following the success of the day, we are looking forward to returning to the Barber Institute in the near future for further valuation events, so keep checking our calendar so you don’t miss out!
http://barber.org.uk/fine-art-valuation-day/
In the meantime, why not pay The Barber Institute a visit and tag along to one of their weekly lunchtime talks and tours or put your party dress on ready for their Festive Christmas Party!