Birmingham and Midland Institute

The Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI) was originally founded in 1854 for the “Diffusion and Advancement of Science, Literature and Art amongst all Classes of Persons resident in Birmingham and Midland Counties.” During the nineteenth century, the BMI played an important role in scientific and technical education in Birmingham, and the Philosophical Institute, Midlands Institute, Mechanics’ Institution, and Birmingham Society of Arts came together to form a new organization to bring together their shared aims and objectives.

Coordinates

Latitude: 52.478894037286
Longitude: -1.903871297400

View on the COVE Master Map

Timeline of Events Associated with Birmingham and Midland Institute

Date Event Manage
1 Aug 1867

Birmingham City Art Gallery opens

On 1 Aug 1867, the Birmingham City Art Gallery opened in one room in the Birmingham and Midland Institute. Annual attendance in the thirty-by-seventy-foot room was 145,761 in 1872, when the gallery first opened on Sundays. By 1877, in the same space, attendance was an astonishing 393,645.

Articles

Amy Woodson-Boulton, “The City Art Museum Movement and the Social Role of Art”