Birmingham Museum of Art — Attraction in Birmingham

I recently visited the museum to look at the Barbie exhibit. It wasn't what I was expecting because it only showed what looked like living room settings through out the decades. I was expecting Barbie through the decades and how she has changed. I notice that Barbie had a large room and will be shown through some of 2020 as well. I was told by one of the staff that the museum is planning and exhibit for indigenous people in detail for about 3 rooms I believe. I am disappointed that the museum in my years of living and growing up in Birmingham, Alabama. I have never seen that much work or effort put into the details of black history connecting African history. The museum seems to actively represent other cultures over one culture (being African American, black, and African culture). African have a deep rooted history in the state of Alabama but it seems that our culture has been almost excluded in the Birmingham art museum. In speaking to one of your workers I asked if there would be anything in depth for black history month in February to June which is black music month and I was told that the museum only does the bare minimum. Which broke my heart since I am a lover of the arts. The museum as so many galleries inside to exhibit things from other countries, Christian religion and the way the white people live in the Victorian Era but I cannot go there to learn anything of my own culture but can learn almost everything about everyone else culture through the years in detail. The Birmingham art museum needs to do better in its black balling of African American culture first before giving an entire...

I like the artwork presented here. You could spend about 3 hours here and still not see nearly everything. There is a lot. It's broken up into sections of art like Chinese, Native American, African, etc. There are huge pieces of Chinese murals there. I like the lighting and the flow of how everything is set up.

The staff is another story. I find them rude every time I go there. My last recent visit was actually to do a college paper on a work of art. I spent 3 hours there and about 2 hours into it I asked one of the security guards a questions and not only was she not helpful she proceeded to tell me that I'm not supposed to have a pen in there because it's really hard to get off the paintings. My first thought was, then why are there not any signs that say this? My second thought was, I've been here 2 hours and have just been sitting looking at the painting, do you really think I'm just going to randomly draw on it? She then proceeded to get me a pencil, which was fine even though she was rude, but she brought back a golf pencil. You know, the ones that are like 2 inches long. All I could think was, you really expect me to write a paper with this thing?

I had also asked if it was ok to take pictures and her response was that I should have filled out a form to do it at the front desk. Again, all I could think was, where was the sign for that? Had I known I would have gladly filled it out, but there are no signs for anything. I will not be asking anyone there a question again, especially since she was actually the nicest guard there. All the other ones looked like they would shoot you rather than...

Beautiful exhibits. NOT KID FRIENDLY. I have brought both my 5 year old and my 1 year old here. 1st time: we were told to keep her water bottle in the back pack and make sure she's outside if she drinks from it,which I fully understand. 2nd time: we are told we can't gave backpacks(diaper bag) in the building so we have to leave it at the front. Any time they needed a diaper change, we had to walk back up to the front and get our things. After this second time, I contacted management and they shared my concerns that we should not be barred from feeding our children on the outdoor patio area. 3rd time: I skip the bottle ordeal and just breast feed (fully covered and secluded in the patio area). I am asked to leave. 4th time: we are told we cannot enter the museum with a baby bottle at all. I asked if we could keep it contained in her stroller(we no longer bring diaper bags in) and we were told no. So we go sit outside and finish feeding our child, leave her food in the car, and try to enjoy the museum. Of course, she's not happy the whole time. We get dirty looks from security there because we can't keep her quiet enough. I feel horrible for ruining the museum for everyone and eventually leave. This was my daughters 1 year birthday. I am beyond dissapppinted. We live in Hoover and went out of our way to go here. NEVER AGAIN. I will not be bringing my family here anymore. I've been coming here since I was 7 years old and was really looking forward to sharing this with my daughters but they're clearly pushing families out. We will be finding somewhere else to enjoy...