Midlands Museum of Art

Foundation date: 20 May 1872
Dissolution date: 1878

Active: 1872 - 1878

Function: Art gallery and museum

Policy: The Midlands Museum of Art was originally set up to house temporary loan exhibitions. M. Cooper suggests that the South Kensington Museum, London, wanted to loan works to provincial towns, and that in 1872 Henry Cole (secretary of the Department of Science and Art which administered South Kensington Museum and the Government Schools of Art) began discussions with Nottingham Council. The plan was to establish a museum in connection with the Nottingham School of Art to which the South Kensington Museum could loan works for display. [See M. Cooper 'Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery' (2005), p. 9]. It was hoped that the first exhibition at the Museum would demonstrate Nottingham's prominence in lace-making and would also include pictures, pottery carving etc. and a loan collection from South Kensington.

The museum changed its display annually under the title 'Midland Counties Art Exhibitions' and in 1873 the committee requested that Minton and Co. loan a collection of modern porcelain. [See Cooper (2005), p. 9] The exhibitions and museum closed on 30 March 1878 and loans from South Kensington Museum were returned. In 1875-1876 museum visitor figures were 146,952 [Cooper, p. 10].

In 1872 discussions about finding a permanent home for this museum had already begun. Nottingham Castle was thought to be the only possible alternative site [Cooper, p. 11]. The Midland Counties Art Museum succeeded the temporary museum at the Exchange Rooms in 1878.

Meeting schedule: annual

Citing this record

'Midlands Museum of Art', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib4_1230903696, accessed 10 Jun 2023]