Facilities and services
The Department of Prints and Drawings is devoted to serving
the public interest, which it is able to do in many different
ways.
The most important ways are through the exhibition programme, by
which selections from the collection are put on show for periods of
three or four months, and through the Study Room, where any visitor
can ask to see any object in the collection on demand (there is
only one item that is restricted on the grounds of its extreme
fragility).
Opening hours
Monday-Friday: 10.00-13.00 and 14.15-16.00
You can find the department on the fourth floor of the Museum,
next to the Prints and Drawings gallery, (Room 90).
Other public services:
We do our best to answer public enquiries by post, fax or email.
Since we do not have the staff or expertise to answer all possible
questions, we can only cope with enquiries that are about areas or
objects that are covered in our own area of collecting.
Group visits
We can help teachers who wish to teach in front of objects in
the collection, by arranging for them to bring parties of their
students on group visits to the Study Room where we can put out
small selections of drawings and prints chosen by themselves.
Object identification
We offer a service to try to identify Western works of art on
paper that belong to and are brought in by members of the public,
and saying what we can to help them.
Photography
Digital images are available through
the Collection database online.
Small images can be downloaded by right-clicking on an
image, or high resolution versions can be supplied by email.
There is no charge for non-commercial use of existing
images, but all images must be
credited: © Trustees of the British Museum.
To commission new photography or to use images for commercial
purposes please contact sales@bmimages.com
You may take pictures of works on display in our exhibition
galleries, unless they have been lent to us and the lenders have
refused permission for public photography. We do not have the
facilities or staff to enable outside photographers to take
photographs of works in the Study room.
Press, television and film companies should contact the Museum
Press Office: communications@britishmuseum.org
Borrowing
The department lends to between 60 and 70 exhibitions every year
by responsible bodies and organisations in the United Kingdom
and abroad. Some of these loans are tours mounted by the department
in collaboration with partner bodies, but the great majority are of
one or more works to exhibitions whose organisers wish to borrow
from us.
More detailed information has been produced to help those who
are planning exhibitions.
Advice for potential
borrowers (pdf)
Teaching and fellowships
The department offers practical training in the understanding of
printmaking techniques and knowledge of print history through the
Michael Bromberg Fellowship.