In the 19th century, Bury was a small industrial town in the shadow of a large city, Manchester. By the 1890s there was a growing feeling that Bury should have an art gallery because of its increasing prosperity. The gift of the Wrigley collection, which commemorated Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, made this possible. After the opening of the art gallery in 1901, the proposal to open a museum was welcomed by the Bury Corporation in July 1906. The new museum opened in the basement of the art gallery in October 1907. Formerly known as Bury Museum and Art Gallery, it was renamed Bury Art Museum in 2011.

Wrigley's 52 oil paintings represent the best known and most prominent artists of his time, including Edwin Henry Landseer's "A Random Shot", John Constable's "Hampstead Heath" and George Clausen's "Spring Morning: Haverstock Hill". J. M. W. Turner's "Calais Sands at Low Water: Fishers Collecting Bait" is undoubtedly the highlight of the collection.

Successive curators have added to the Wrigley legacy. There are 20th century paintings by artists such as Victore Pasmore and Edward Burra (watercolours). The emphasis is now on the acquisition of recent high quality works.