A reinstallation of the Birmingham Museum of Art’s growing and important Eighteenth Century English Art Collection will open on May 22.

For the first the time, the museum’s holdings of Eighteenth Century paintings, ceramics, silver, and furniture will be integrated into one installation providing the visitor with a well-rounded picture of the prosperity and opulence that defined English life during this period.

The Eighteenth Century English art collection will be relocated to galleries on the third floor adjacent to the Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection, the finest and most comprehensive collection of Eighteenth Century Wedgwood outside of England.

The galleries will be transformed through the use of color and fabric, moldings and other architectural elements as well as new lighting and display techniques to create a backdrop to one of the Southeast’s largest collections of English art.

The reconfigured gallery space will feature a select 100 objects that represent the era at its utmost while providing a better context for the Wedgwood collection. The works will be drawn exclusively from the museum’s permanent collection, including several new acquisitions. Together, these works, with new and expanded didactic labels, will provide an encompassing view of life in Eighteenth Century England.

Highlights include the portraits of Sir George and Lady Chad by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88); the figures of the four continents, made by the Derby porcelain manufacture circa 1775; an intricate silver basket dated 1740-41 by master Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751), mounted 80 years later on a matching stand made by Paul Storr (1771-1844); as well as recent additions from the Catherine H. Collins Collection of Eighteenth Century English ceramics.

To celebrate the opening of the new English galleries, Anne Forschler-Tarrasch, The Marguerite Jones Harbert and John M. Harbert III Curator of Decorative Arts, will lead a tour of the galleries on Sunday, May 22, at 2:30 pm. She will describe how the tea wares in the museum’s silver and porcelain collections were used in tea rituals throughout the Eighteenth Century.

The museum is at 2000 8th Avenue North. For information, 205-254-2318.