Birmingham University, the Institute was founded by Dame Martha Constance Hattie Barber (known as Lady Barber after marriage and until her death).
Lady Barber was married to Sir William Henry Barber (known by his middle name Henry). Sir Henry was a solicitor and property developer from Birmingham.
Sir and Lady Barber wanted to leave a permanent contribution to Sir Henry’s hometown, the couple agreed on a building that would be a home to music and works of art. Unfortunately this didn’t happen before the death of Sir Henry and Lady Barber dedicated her time to making sure their plans would be a reality.
The art deco building was designed by architect Robert Atkinson, who was one of the leading names in his trade during the 1920’s and 1930’s. The building has been described as “one of the purest examples of his work” by the times.
The building itself looks quite important; it is rigid, with a very block like shape. The building has strong lines and looks very secure. The colour scheme of brown and beige stone looks clean, whilst the large university crests mounted near the entrance doors add to the impression of its importance. The building almost looks like it could be a bank, prison or some other building of importance. The building is now grade 2 listed.
Lady Barber left specific rules for art being welcomed into the collection. The gallery collection would only consist of “art of beauty and exceptional and outstanding merit” this was to include paintings, furniture, tapestries, manuscripts and other objects of art, however no pieces created after 1899 were to be included in the collection.
Lady Barber also requested that;
The main gallery rooms create an uneven ‘u’ shape, each room has a set of double doors at the ends of the room, which leads into the next gallery room. These rooms start to the left of the gallery landing, following anti clockwise direction. The coin gallery is in a separate room leading from the second main gallery (The Blue Gallery). The Lady Barber Gallery is also a separate room which is situation opposite The Beige gallery, on the left side of the landing.
The main gallery rooms are large, with enough room for paintings to be hung, without being overcrowded or under filled. Each piece of work has adequate space to be seen as an individual painting while allowing you appreciate the atmosphere created by all of the works together. The walls have a few alcoves, which have been used by the gallery to emphasize the importance and value of some works, mainly larger ones. There are also some freestanding pieces which have been enclosed in glass cases, enabling the viewer to see both sides of the work.
The gallery seemed quite dark with minimal artificial lighting, the ceilings lights used were extremely soft and dull, which created a nice atmosphere. The lighting did make it difficult to take photographs without a tripod, and flash photography wasn’t allowed.
The gallery seemed well suited to the artworks, it’s a simple but beautiful gallery. The gallery’s interior decor didn’t draw any attention from the artworks, as it was quite plain, the alcoves actually emphasis the works. Each room was painted according to the name of the gallery room. The gallery was spacious and was easy to move around, leaving enough space to get close to the artworks, with the exception of a few pieces which had a small rope barrier to inform the viewers that these pieces were not to be photographed, due to not being owned by the gallery, however these ropes didn’t affect viewing the art in any way. There was plenty of seating, with at least one large bench in each room, apart from the smaller gallery rooms and the Blue gallery.
The gallery was well set out, which made it easy to navigate around the rooms. The gallery was a full circle which started and lead ended on the landing. The layout of thew gallery didn’t make you feel pressured to walk round in a certain way, but, there was an obvious direction, which made it easy to navigate back to earlier works.
There were no information leaflets available before entering the main gallery space, which would have been nice as I enjoy reading about the art as I go along. Self guided tours and gallery guided tours were available, but needed to be booked in advance, so I missed out on both of these opportunities. The exhibition in the Lady Barber gallery room had information leaflets which cost £1.50, with a payment made into an honesty box.
Lady Barber was married to Sir William Henry Barber (known by his middle name Henry). Sir Henry was a solicitor and property developer from Birmingham.
Sir and Lady Barber wanted to leave a permanent contribution to Sir Henry’s hometown, the couple agreed on a building that would be a home to music and works of art. Unfortunately this didn’t happen before the death of Sir Henry and Lady Barber dedicated her time to making sure their plans would be a reality.
The art deco building was designed by architect Robert Atkinson, who was one of the leading names in his trade during the 1920’s and 1930’s. The building has been described as “one of the purest examples of his work” by the times.
The building itself looks quite important; it is rigid, with a very block like shape. The building has strong lines and looks very secure. The colour scheme of brown and beige stone looks clean, whilst the large university crests mounted near the entrance doors add to the impression of its importance. The building almost looks like it could be a bank, prison or some other building of importance. The building is now grade 2 listed.
Lady Barber left specific rules for art being welcomed into the collection. The gallery collection would only consist of “art of beauty and exceptional and outstanding merit” this was to include paintings, furniture, tapestries, manuscripts and other objects of art, however no pieces created after 1899 were to be included in the collection.
Lady Barber also requested that;
- All works bought were to be of the same quality and standard required by The National Gallery and The Wallace Collection.
- Gifts of art were not to be accepted.
The main gallery rooms create an uneven ‘u’ shape, each room has a set of double doors at the ends of the room, which leads into the next gallery room. These rooms start to the left of the gallery landing, following anti clockwise direction. The coin gallery is in a separate room leading from the second main gallery (The Blue Gallery). The Lady Barber Gallery is also a separate room which is situation opposite The Beige gallery, on the left side of the landing.
The main gallery rooms are large, with enough room for paintings to be hung, without being overcrowded or under filled. Each piece of work has adequate space to be seen as an individual painting while allowing you appreciate the atmosphere created by all of the works together. The walls have a few alcoves, which have been used by the gallery to emphasize the importance and value of some works, mainly larger ones. There are also some freestanding pieces which have been enclosed in glass cases, enabling the viewer to see both sides of the work.
The gallery seemed quite dark with minimal artificial lighting, the ceilings lights used were extremely soft and dull, which created a nice atmosphere. The lighting did make it difficult to take photographs without a tripod, and flash photography wasn’t allowed.
The gallery seemed well suited to the artworks, it’s a simple but beautiful gallery. The gallery’s interior decor didn’t draw any attention from the artworks, as it was quite plain, the alcoves actually emphasis the works. Each room was painted according to the name of the gallery room. The gallery was spacious and was easy to move around, leaving enough space to get close to the artworks, with the exception of a few pieces which had a small rope barrier to inform the viewers that these pieces were not to be photographed, due to not being owned by the gallery, however these ropes didn’t affect viewing the art in any way. There was plenty of seating, with at least one large bench in each room, apart from the smaller gallery rooms and the Blue gallery.
The gallery was well set out, which made it easy to navigate around the rooms. The gallery was a full circle which started and lead ended on the landing. The layout of thew gallery didn’t make you feel pressured to walk round in a certain way, but, there was an obvious direction, which made it easy to navigate back to earlier works.
There were no information leaflets available before entering the main gallery space, which would have been nice as I enjoy reading about the art as I go along. Self guided tours and gallery guided tours were available, but needed to be booked in advance, so I missed out on both of these opportunities. The exhibition in the Lady Barber gallery room had information leaflets which cost £1.50, with a payment made into an honesty box.