Transformation all around

Two world-famous Oxford institutions. Different sites, different scale and a different focus. But on some common ground in this academic year. The Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum. Both closed for major refurbishment work with improved public access as a key objective. Both had significant funding support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and generous benefactors; both reopened, both transformed.

The Pitt Rivers is an international centre for anthropology and world archaeology and displays objects from all over the world. It was founded in 1884 when General Pitt Rivers, an influential figure in the development of archaeology and evolutionary anthropology, gave his personal collection of 20,000 items to the University on the condition that a museum was built to house the material. It holds around half a million objects of which some 100,000 are on display or in open storage. The museum opened its doors on 1 May 2009 after a nine-month closure. The near £1.5 million project swept away a 1960s exhibition gallery that had obstructed the dramatic view which once more welcomes visitors. In its place, an elegant stone entrance platform and wide staircase, a new lift to make access easier for parents with pushchairs or those with mobility difficulties. There is a new information and orientation area, a shop, and – on the first floor – a dynamic new education space, the Clore Learning Balcony. There are also eight additional displays, focusing on painting, decorative techniques and recycled materials, and featuring many previously unseen artefacts from the Pitt Rivers’ reserve collections.

Alongside the HLF, the largest single contributor, the project had exceptional support from a host of foundations, including the Clore Duffield Foundation, the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund and the Monument Trust, as well as from generous private benefactors. ‘We’ve transformed in the sense that we have restored the Museum’s lost entrance panorama, enhanced access, installed environmental controls and created a wonderful teaching space so that people can learn in-gallery’, explained Museum Director, Dr Michael O’Hanlon. ‘But we’ve absolutely retained the distinctive principles on which displays are arranged, and kept displays “low text” and “artefact rich”, to encourage people to begin with the thing itself, not with second-order information about it.’

Early signs are that the refurbishment is making an extraordinary difference.  The number of visitors to the Museum since it opened has doubled in the year to date, with 180,000 recorded in the first five months. And the refurbishment still has a little way to go, with work on new displays for the Upper Gallery which will focus on collections of firearms and indigenous weaponry when it opens in spring 2010.

The museum is an active department of the University, supporting research and teaching in archaeology and anthropology. It is also a major resource for lifelong learning and schools, and an attraction for families and younger visitors who can take one of the specially provided torches and explore the museum for themselves. ‘The museum is at once nineteenth and twenty-first century’, says Dr O’Hanlon. ‘On the one hand, there is a distinctive Victorian feel to the densely packed displays and period atmosphere. But on the other, the museum resembles the internet, in that you can create an infinite number of paths through the tens of thousands of artefacts on display, following your own interests, moving at your own speed and never in danger of repeating yourself.’

The Ashmolean, Europe’s first ever public museum, has also undergone a complete transformation. A £15 million grant from the HLF was the cornerstone of a £61 million redevelopment project, with additional major support from the Linbury Trust, along with numerous other trusts, foundations and individuals.

Throughout this academic year, the Ashmolean has, for the most part, been closed, but its staff have been engaged in an extraordinary and detailed planning phase. The reason? The innovative approach to displaying the collections that visitors can now enjoy. Called Crossing Cultures Crossing Time, the principle is that the story of each object is traced as part of a ‘journey of ideas and influences across time and continents’. On the lower ground floor, themed galleries covering areas such as money, reading and writing, textiles and the representation of the human image explore connections between objects and activities from different cultures. The floors above provide fresh insights into the interaction of the cultures of East and West from ancient to modern times. The Ancient World floor plots the emergence of civilisations from Egypt and the Near East through Greece and Rome to India and China. The Making of the Modern World floors brings the story up to date. These galleries explore the art, religion, geography and ecology of cultures from Europe to the Far East. It is an approach that is also reflected in the design of the new Ashmolean building, which features a series of linking bridges as well as vantage points to allow visitors both a look back at where they have been and a glimpse ahead at further areas to explore.

The building is arranged over six floors and comprises 39 new galleries, including four that will host temporary exhibitions. It gives the Ashmolean twice as much display space as it had before, as well as a new education centre with its own entrance to welcome the 26,000 young people who visit each year. There are also new state-of-the-art conservation studios and Oxford’s first rooftop restaurant.

The Ashmolean was founded in 1683. Its collections span the civilisations of East and West, charting the aspirations of mankind from the Neolithic era to the present day. As well as an attraction which, in its last full year before closing in March 2007, welcomed 360,000 visitors, it is a teaching and research department of the University, producing publications in the academic fields of art history, history and archaeology.

Following its reopening in November 2009, the museum’s Director, Dr Christopher Brown, said: ‘This has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create not just an improved and expanded version of one of the greatest university museums in the world, but something significantly different in kind: a radical new way of showcasing the Ashmolean’s remarkable collections for the benefit of the widest possible audience.’