This is the Birmingham Museum of Art, the city-owned museum anchoring downtown Birmingham, Alabama's cultural district. Right here the institution cares for more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts that speak across continents — Asian, European, American, African, Pre-Columbian, and Native American collections all live under this roof. You can also imagine the sweep of time represented inside: Renaissance and Baroque paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts dating from the late 13th century to around 1750.
The present building was erected in 1959 and was designed by the architects Warren, Knight & Davis; a major renovation and expansion by Edward Larrabee Barnes of New York was completed in 1993. The facility covers some 180,000 square feet and sits on 3.9 acres in the city's cultural district, including an outdoor sculpture garden. Nearby, the memorial garden, established in 1955 by Red Mountain Garden Club president Fariss Gambrill Lynn, was expanded and altered as the museum grew.
In 2021 the museum joined the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network launched by the Monuments Men and Women Foundation. Beyond the plaza, the sculpture garden meets the memorial garden, two spaces still shaped by the museum's growth.