Tributes have been paid to one of the most highly regarded and longest-serving art curators in Birmingham, who has died.
Tessa Sidey, curator of fine art at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BM&AG), died on New Year’s Day after suffering from cancer.
She had been a member of the museum’s curatorial team for almost 30 years, with a specialism in the collection of prints, drawings and watercolours.
Colleagues said she was held in respect and affection nationally and internationally, both for her personal qualities and for her scholarship and dedication as a curator and art historian.
Miss Sidey was passionate about the collections at BM&AG, and also about sharing her own knowledge and enthusiasm with a wide audience.
She felt a particular connection to the Museum’s print room service, which allows any work in store to be made accessible by appointment.
Many hours were spent showing drawings and watercolours to visitors, and leading print room sessions with students and art groups.
She developed the museum’s holdings of works on paper through a series of significant acquisitions, particularly in the field of 20th century printmaking, in which she had a specialist interest.
She was also the lead curator on dozens of exhibitions and special displays, many of them incorporating her own new research and accompanied by landmark publications, for example Surrealism in Birmingham 1935-1954.
In recent years, she worked with guest curators on a series of exhibitions and publications, casting new light on the museum’s Pre-Raphaelite collection.
These included Millais: Illustrator and Narrator (with Paul Goldman, 2004) and Hidden Burne-Jones (with Elisa Korb, 2007).
She was also the lead curator on BM&AG’s multi award-winning Pre-Raphaelite online resource, which has brought the museum’s Pre-Raphaelite holdings to a wider audience than ever before.
Among her many publications were a catalogue raisonné of the prints of Michael Rothenstein (1993) and Editions Electo: Original Graphics, Multiple Originals, 1960-1981 (2003), which accompanied an exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery.
She also believed in a “have a go” practical involvement in the visual arts. Her Prints in Focus exhibition of works from the BM&AG collection (1997) was supported by student residencies and workshops in close collaboration with Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.
Miss Sidey’s passion for her subject transcended historical periods, and she worked with many contemporary artists including Helen Chadwick, Jim Dine, Patrick Proctor, Hughie O’Donoghue and the renowned Canadian printmaker, Jennifer Dickson. One of her final achievements, through the Art Fund International Scheme, was to commission the leading German printmaker, Christiane Baumgartner to create a major work about the urban landscape of Birmingham.
She also eagerly researched and helped re-establish the reputations of neglected women artists, including the painters Catherine Madox Brown, Estella and Louisa Starr Canziani and the Surrealist, Emmy Bridgwater.
A spokesperson for Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery said: “Tessa was a passionate advocate of museums and collecting, a loyal colleague and friend, and a supportive mentor to many students and volunteers. Her scholarship, passion and energy were inspiring, and will be deeply missed.”
Her funeral will take place on Monday, January 17 at Lodge Hill Cemetery at 1.30pm.
