Featuring many of the greatest names in Western art (including Monet, Renoir, Rossetti and Degas - not to mention Botticelli, Poussin, Turner, Gainsborough, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso and Hodgkin), the Barber Institute of Fine Arts holds one of the most outstanding and internationally significant collections assembled in Britain during the 20th Century. There’s also a stunning concert hall, coin gallery and an exciting programme of exhibitions, concerts, lectures, gallery talks, workshops and family activities.
The Barber was founded by Dame Martha Constance Hattie Barber in memory of her husband, property developer and solicitor Sir William Henry Barber. In 1932, Lady Barber drew up a Trust Deed of Settlement which established the Barber Institute ‘for the study and encouragement of art and music’. This ethos continues to this day, and the Barber's collection continues to benefit the University of Birmingham and the wider public.
This film explores how the Barber continues to inspire responses from those studying and working at the University of Birmingham, especially in areas not normally associated with fine art, and focuses on one of the Barber's most-loved pieces - a bronze sculpture modelled on Miss Clara, a rhino which toured Europe in the 18th century.
For more information about the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, visit: www.barber.org.uk