Pocket-sized Power: A Feminist History of Portrait Miniatures Online exhibition Explore the exhibition here Can power fit in the palm of your hand? Portrait miniatures are tiny, yet mighty objects. Often no bigger than a smartphone, these small detailed portraits were often made to be worn as jewellery and carried as keepsakes. Hidden in … Read more
Fragments of Devotion: A Sensory History of Illuminated Manuscript Cuttings Online exhibition Launches 30 June 2025 Explore the exhibition here Devotion leaves traces—on parchment, in song, through touch. Across centuries, acts of worship have imprinted themselves on sacred manuscripts, transforming them into deeply personal objects of connection and belief. Fragments of Devotion invites you to … Read more
Unstill Life Global Mobility and Consumerism in Still Life Paintings 22 June 2024 – 26 January 2025 Still life paintings have often been considered as impressive assortments of inanimate objects. However, there is also a dynamic and mobile history intrinsic to their production: the expansion of global trade and rise of consumerism. The emergence of … Read more
Women in Power: Coins from the Barber Collection 22 June 2024 – 26 January 2025 Spanning nearly 2,000 years and more than 5,000 miles, the Barber’s forthcoming coin exhibition explores historical women who have appeared on coins. From London to Beijing, and from representations of gender-fluid deities from the 3rd century BC to Elizabeth II … Read more
Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites 11 October 2024 – 26 January 2025 Scent is a key motif in paintings by the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements. Fragrance is visually suggested in images of daydreaming figures smelling flowers or burning incense, enhancing the sensory aura of ‘art for art’s sake’. Scent was … Read more
The Hidden Lives of Plants: Botanical Illustrations from the V&A 22 June – 10 November 2024 There are almost 1,000 botanical illustrations in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection – ranging from scientific diagrams documenting medicinal plants to merchandising images that adorn seed packets. Many of these illustrations also exist as objects of beauty in their own … Read more
Claudette Johnson: Darker Than Blue 22 June – 15 September 2024 Claudette Johnson – recently shortlisted for the 2024 Turner Prize – is one of the most exciting and prominent artists working in the UK today. New and recent work features here in her first solo exhibition in the West Midlands. Johnson is best known … Read more
Immensely appealing works by the four artists known collectively as the ‘Scottish Colourists’ – SJ Peploe, JD Fergusson, FCB Cadell and Leslie Hunter – are shown together for the first time in the West Midlands in this exhibition of works lent by the important Fleming Collection. Painted in the early 20th century, their cityscapes, still … Read more
A painting by the great Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio, depicting the seven corporal acts of mercy of traditional Catholicism, is the inspiration for this outstanding series of 14 dramatic images. Like his predecessor, Birmingham-based photographer Fiumarella uses real people as his models – in this case, the homeless and prostitutes from the streets of Porto … Read more
David Talbot Rice and the Rediscovery of Byzantium From the 1920s through to the 1950s, renowned archaeologist and art historian David Talbot Rice conducted some of the first examinations of the ruins of the Byzantine Empire. Exhibited here for the first time, photos, drawing and field notes from these studies mark his contribution to bringing … Read more
19th-Century Portrait Photography The dawn of photography in the mid-19th century made portraiture accessible to a much wider public. This exhibition explores early photographic studio portraiture, including the popular carte-de-visite format. The exhibition discusses how photographic techniques, backdrops, props, costumes and poses enabled public figures – ranging from Oscar Wilde through Ellen Terry to Queen … Read more
In 2020, the Barber celebrates the golden anniversary of its coin collection – one of the most significant in the world. Scholars and numismatists, Geoffrey Haines (1899 – 1981) and Philip Whitting (1903 – 1988), each left their vast collections of a combined 15,000 pieces to the Barber with the condition that the coins were … Read more
