Image: Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery 2021 (Birmingham Museums)
Birmingham Museums Trust launches ‘The Elephant in the Room’ gallery examining how global artefacts entered city collections and addressing complex colonial histories.
A new gallery exploring the origins of Birmingham’s global collections will open at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery this weekend.
‘The Elephant in the Room: The Roots and Routes of the City’s Collections’ exhibition aims to encourage reflection on broader issues facing museums today, including empire, colonialism, repatriation and the display of human remains.
It brings together objects from across the city’s collections, spanning natural science to art, focusing on their cultural roots and how they came to be in Birmingham.
Among the items on display will be the Sultanganj Buddha, one of the most important early bronze statues from India that was discovered during the construction of the Indian railway. Also on display is a 22-foot-long Inuit kayak, and mummified animals.
According to Birmingham Museums Trust, the gallery responds directly to visitor feedback requesting better understanding of the origins of Birmingham’s collections, which number nearly one million objects.
The display examines how Birmingham’s global history and its role in the British Empire have influenced what objects have come to the museum and their significance both locally and in their countries of origin.
“Museums have in the past tended to overlook stories involving histories of empire and conflict,” said Zak Mensah and Sara Wajid, co-chief executives of Birmingham Museums Trust, in a joint statement.
“They’ve been ‘the elephant in the room’ – something that’s too big to hide but is ignored because it seems too complicated or uncomfortable to deal with.
“By confronting these questions, this display aims to ‘shrink the elephant’ by acknowledging the impact of the British Empire on Birmingham’s museums, facing complex topics with curiosity, treating these stories with sensitivity and respect and having an open and ongoing conversation with audiences about how we should care for and display these objects in the future.”
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery began its phased reopening last year. Its newly refurbished history galleries reopened on 2 May 2025.
