The first game of lawn tennis was played in 1859 by Major Harry Gem and his friend, Jean Batista Augurio Perera, on a court at the latter’s home, 8 Ampton Road, Edgbaston. This unique show at the Barber – less than half a mile away – is the first ever to explore the subject of tennis in art
So says the Barber Institute’s website. They’ve got an exhibition of tennis-related art (the first ever, apparently) running from 27 May – 18 September.
Dirty secret time – despite going to Birmingham University and walking past the place practically every other day I’ve still never been to the Barber Institute.
Shame on you Chris! It’s not as stuffy as you think you know for instance last year they had an exhibition based on ‘Beat Poet’ Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ which is not the usual sort of thing you think they would get involved with..
Last year I also went to a talk on the book by local historians Simon Inglis and Steve Beauchampe: ‘Played in Birmingham’ which describes Birmingham’s (and Edgbaston’s) pivotal role in the game of Lawn Tennis, which is explained more clearly in ‘Court on Canvas’.
Did you know Birmingham had over 200 tennis clubs in Edwardian times? I grew up in a road in Bearwood which had a redundant tennis club: ‘The Sandonian’ in it
The Barber is variously described as: ‘The best small gallery in Europe’ and one of Birmingham’s ‘hidden gems’ along with nearby ‘Winterbourne’, an ‘Arts and Crafts’ house.
The newish director of the Barber is Professor Ann Sumner and she is not at all an academic ‘bluestocking’ as you might expect and is a delightful ambassador for The Barber Institute and Birmingham.
I am sure if you contact her at a.b.sumner@bham.ac.uk she would show you round one of Birmingham’s best ‘creative spaces’.
Best wishes
Keith Bracey
Great, intimate curious place – go.
There’s actually a small and shameful list of places I’ve never been around this city. I remember blogging about the Kerouac thing and resolving to go, it just never happened in the end. One day…
Shame on you – it’s a lovely serene place that gets a good number of visitors – but 95% of Brummies have no idea it’s even there!
They put on some super shows – the Kerouac was bizarre – with a single long reel of paper in a typewriter – which was the whole book!
Ann Sumner is a lovely lady – she’s rtunning an evening launch for the Tennis on Thursday – contact her and come and take a peek!
We should compile a list of creative-places-I’ve-never-been-to-in-Birmingham.
My list (incomplete and for which I am ashamed) would be:
Barber Institute
Pen Museum
Crescent Theatre
Old Rep
Soho House
AE Harris Factory
Ditto on the Pen Museum and Soho House. Also RBSA, Aston Hall, CBSO Centre (for a concert, at least), Castle Fine Art Gallery (the commercial one at the ICC), Blue Orange Theatre (which is new, so fair enough) and any of the Michelin starred restaurants. I’ve never been to Rush Hour Blues either. In fact, I’m going to stop before this list gets too long.
Tony is right, Barber Institute is underrated gem, you must go!
It’s listed in new edition of THIS IS BIRMINGHAM out in July, as is the Pen Museum.
Someone should do a blog about all these places ;)