Article: David Styles | All images: © Birmingham Museums Trust
A new subscription service developed by Birmingham Museums has today been launched, offering users anywhere in the world access to exclusive digital content for a monthly fee of £20.
Birmingham Museums On Demand has been conceived as a way to both connect with audiences stuck at home during lockdown and safeguard the future of Birmingham Museums Trust, with all profits being ploughed directly into the museum group’s operations.
Having recently announced that its flagship Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery site would remain closed for the rest of 2021, ensuring the public can still access the institution’s collection has been of paramount importance for the Birmingham Museums team.
“We have been determined to find new and different ways to give our audiences opportunities to stay connected and we hope that this new offering will bring inspiration, intrigue and insight,” explains Alex Nicholson-Evans, commercial director at Birmingham Museums Trust.
“When many people are still isolated at home and our museums remain closed, Birmingham Museums On Demand is a way of making people feel more connected to Birmingham’s rich and vibrant collections and historic properties.”
New content – four exclusive talks and lectures created by Birmingham Museums – will be published on the subscription service every month. Each instalment will focus on different areas of the collection, with February’s inaugural offer featuring content titled ‘Love, Betrayal, Poison and Death – Part One’ and ‘The Bredon Hills Roman Coin Hoard’.
Two additional talks launching this month will also give viewers deeper insights into the work of Ford Madox Brown and the history of Aston Hall’s Ice House.
While Birmingham Museums On Demand represents a major leap forward for the wider sector, it comes as no surprise in the context of the Trust’s ongoing digital innovations.
As recently as November it was announced that Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery had become the first official museum partner of online curatorial game Occupy White Walls. In the earliest knockings of the first UK lockdown last spring, too, the institution was one of the first to open up its collections to the public online.
These initiatives, like the new subscription service, have served to expand the organisation’s appeal to the broadest possible global audiences and cement its place as a hub of creativity within the sector.
More information on Birmingham Museums On Demand or to sign up for the service, click here.