Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is a municipally-owned public museum and art gallery in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. It is part of the Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove. It is free for local residents but charges E5.20 per non-resident. The building which houses the collection is part of the Royal Pavilion Estate and was originally built for the Prince of Wales, later George IV and completed in 1805. It was initially intended as a tennis court but had never been finished, and later served as cavalry barracks. After the death of George IV in 1830, his successor King William IV also stayed in the Pavilion on his visits to Brighton. However, after Queen Victoria's last visit to Brighton in 1845, the Government planned to sell the building and grounds. The Brighton Commissioners and the Brighton Vestry successfully petitioned the government to sell the Pavilion to the town for E53,000 in 1850 under the Brighton Improvement Act 1850. In September 1851 it was announced that part of the Pavilion was to be appropriated for annual art exhibitions and two months later the first of these was held. The local talent to which it was confined included Frederick Nash and Copley Fielding. The room devoted to the exhibition was the original South Gallery, now the First Conference Room, but later the exhibitions even spread to the Great Kitchen. The stable building of the Pavilion estate, adjacent to the current museum premises, was used as a museum as early as 1856. It is now the site of the Brighton Dome-a performing arts venue. The museum and art gallery occupied its current situation in the building in 1902. A major refurbishment of the museum and art gallery costing E10 million occurred in 2002. As a result, the traditional entrance to the museum and art gallery became the entrance of the Dome, the latter taking the museum's former entrance. The museum is part of the Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove, comprising; Royal Pavilion. Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. Booth Museum. Hove Museum and Art Gallery. Preston Manor. The Decorative Art collection includes British, European and American applied art and design from 17th Century to present day including ceramics, glass, metalwork, furniture and jewellery. It also includes the contemporary craft collection and the Arts Council craft collection based at Hove Museum & Art Gallery. The Natural Sciences collection includes the Edward Booth collection of British Birds, zoological and geological collections. The collection also holds half a million insects and a library of 14,000 natural history texts. The World Art collection contains 15,000 objects and reference materials from Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Americas. One of its notable collectors was James Henry Green who collected material from Burma in the 1920s and 30s. The Fine Art Collection comprises sculpture, paintings, mixed media, prints and drawings from 15th-20th century. There are notable pieces from European Old Masters, specifically the Italian, German, French and Netherlandish schools. The Fine Art collection also contains the Heyer Bequest of 20th Century American paintings by artists, including Frank Stella and Larry Poons. It also includes items donated by Edward James, the collector of surrealist art. The Costume and Textile collection contains British, European and North American textiles, costume and accessories from the 18th century to present day. The Toy collection contains toys, dolls and games from 18th century to present day. Its founding collection was the National Toy Museum & Institute of Play, containing over 20,000 items. The Film and Media collection contain equipment relating to the development of the early film industry in England 1896-1930. It includes magic lantern projectors and slides, early filmmaking equipment and ephemera. The Local and Social History collection includes objects, ephemera, oral history and photographs from 18th century to the present day, representing the social history of Brighton & Hove. The Archaeology collection includes material from sites in Brighton & Hove and international sites, including a large collection from Egypt. The Oral History collection contains audio recordings of personal memories and experiences of Brighton and Hove and histories relating to the world art, costume craft and film and media collections. The Preston Manor collection contains items bequeathed with the manor house in 1932 including furniture, silver, ceramics, pictures and rare books. The Royal Pavilion collections include original furniture and fittings, items relating to George IV and archives relating to the building.