Dudley Museum and Art Gallery

Dudley Museum and Art Gallery stood in the town centre of Dudley in the West Midlands until 2016. The building on St James’s Road opened in 1883 as a Free Library and School of Art. An art gallery was added five years later and opened by the Mayor of Dudley in 1888. The Brooke Robinson collection of paintings, furniture and ceramics was moved into the museum in 1979. The museum closed in December 2016 as part of cost-cutting measures by Dudley Council. The museum’s geology collection was drawn from about 15,000 fossils from the local area. Two exhibits, ‘Dudley Unearthed’ and ‘Fantastic Fossils’, showed fossils from Wren’s Nest hill and explained the area’s volcanic past. A 2007 exhibition called ‘Return of the Dinosaurs’ featured large models of Baryonyx and Thecodontosaurus. Brooke Robinson’s bequest included 17th to 19th century British and European art and oriental ceramics. A room was also dedicated to local football legend Duncan Edwards. Part of the collection now sits in the Dudley Archives centre on Tipton Road. The new space displays fossils, ceramics and paintings in modern surroundings. Interpretative panels link the geology to the industrial revolution and the Dudley Volcano. The Brooke Robinson room still holds his paintings, furniture and medals. Visitors can also see works by local artist Percy Shakespeare among the rotating fine art collection.