A City that Can

Highlights
The Citizen Jury display area with bright coloured display cases featuring speech bubbles.

A City that Can is a new gallery that celebrates the people, places, sounds and experiences that have shaped Birmingham since the 1950s. 

Discover music memories, sporting heroes, and the people who helped reshape Birmingham after the war. These are the extraordinary stories of ordinary Brummies.

The gallery has been developed as part of our Citizens’ Jury project which was commissioned to challenge ideas about who museums are for and what belongs in them. 

Free entry. Located on level 3.

The gallery is divided into the themes Be Loud, Make Change and Play Hard, which explore some of the ways Birmingham people have reshaped their city and made their mark. 

Be Loud

Be Loud celebrates Birmingham’s activism, community spirit and the city’s rich and diverse musical heritage.

Items on display include a 1950s portable record player, an Honor melodeon donated by Irish musician Pat Brennan, material connected to the pioneering Birmingham-based Oriental Star Agencies record label and membership cards from 1962 for the Tudor Dance & Social Club at the Locarno dance hall in Hurst Street.  

It also explores the communities and businesses that have helped shape Birmingham.  

A recreated table setting from the Koh-I-Noor curry house shows one of the city's earliest curry houses, which opened in the 1960s. The booth was saved by artist and curator Mohammed Ali who persuaded builders renovating the restaurant to let him have some of its original partitions and unused rolls of wallpaper so that it could be preserved. 

A recreated table setting from the Koh-I-Noor curry house.
Three black and white photographs on display on a wall.

Make Change

Make Change tells the story of the citizens’ jury in their own words, including the impact of the jurors’ work and how the experience has influenced their own lives. 

Visitors are also encouraged to share their own memories of growing up, living and working in the city.


Play Hard 

The Play Hard theme includes boots and a mouthguard donated by Birmingham-born bare knuckle boxer Melanie Shah, skates that belonged to speed skater Eric Grinsell and a Small Heath Harriers running shirt from Nellie Batson Loines. 

Among other items on display are Chad Valley toys made in Birmingham between the 1950s and 1970s and a vintage Cluedo board game from the 1960s. The iconic murder mystery board game was invented in Birmingham during the second world war by Anthony Pratt. Pratt’s wife Elva was also instrumental in designing the board.  Pratt was born in Balsall Heath.

Image gallery

  • Entrance panel to the Citizen's Jury.
  • The Citizen Jury display area with bright coloured display cases featuring speech bubbles.
  • The intro panel to the Citizen's Jury with map of Birmingham with speech bubbles coming out of it.
  • Close up of the Make Change display area with colourful cases feauting objects, TV screen and speech bubbles.
  • Graphic that reads 'Who are museums for?' in a speech bubble.
  • A gallery display area featuring yellow chair and colourful speech bubbles on the wall.
  • Outline mural of Citizen's Jury participants on a pink wall in front of a touch table and photographs on the wall.
  • Three black and white photographs on display on a wall.
  • A video of the Citizen's Jury playing with a bench in front.
  • Outline mural of Citizen's Jury participants on a pink wall
  • Gallery display featuring touch table, mural, and purple display cases with the text 'Be Loud'.
  • A pink and purple gallery space featuring large glass display cases with costume, furniture posters and other objects.
  • A recreated table setting from the Koh-I-Noor curry house.
  • Black and white photo of a shop keeper in a sweet shop.
  • Accordion.
  • Waistcoat covered in badges.
  • Teddy bear from the 1950s.