Arts

25 Feb 09

During the Pitt Rivers Museum refurbishment, East African boat Salama was dramatically hoisted to its new position hanging from the ceiling

The Pitt Rivers Museum will re-open its doors to visitors from 1 May 2009, following major remodeling of its entrance and improvements to the Museum’s education facilities and environment.

The re-opening will be celebrated with a programme of activities to attract regular and new visitors over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

‘This major redevelopment will allow the Museum to better serve the two hundred thousand visitors we welcome annually. Its completion is a testament to the support of many generous trusts and individuals, and to exceptional efforts by the Museum’s staff, to all of whom I am very grateful,’ said Dr Michael O’Hanlon, the Museum’s Director.

The dramatic entrance panorama from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History has been restored by architects Pringe Richards Sharratt. This means visitors can now enter at the same level as the Natural History Museum with access for wheelchair users and pushchairs.

The 1960s exhibition gallery at the entrance has been dismantled and two new matching columns specially cast to support the overhanging balcony. The display cases, displaced to the Lower Gallery in the 1960s, have been returned to their place at the front of the Museum, increasing the number of objects on display on the ground floor. 

A large dugout canoe has been re-positioned and Salama, an East African sailing boat, raised and suspended dramatically from the rafters.

More than 5,232 objects from over 29 cases, removed to make room for the builders, have now been decanted, condition-checked, and recanted back into the Museum.

The installation of an environmental control system beneath the entrance platform will help preserve the Museum’s collections for the future and improve the atmosphere for visitors.

The Balcony on the Museum’s Lower Gallery has been freed-up to form a spacious area dedicated to encouraging learning amid the displays for groups of all ages, as well as providing a new location for family activities such as the monthly Pitt Stops and the popular holiday programmes.

While the majority of the displays have remained the same, there are also eight additional display cases, focusing on painting and decorative styles. They feature many previously unseen artefacts from the reserve collections, all exhibited in the Museum’s characteristic style.

The collection of firearms, originally exhibited on the ground floor, is soon to be redisplayed alongside the other arms and armour collections in the Upper Gallery, which is scheduled to re-open in spring 2010.

The £1.5m redevelopment has been supported by an award of £1m from The Heritage Lottery Fund and by generous contributions from DCMS/Wolfson Foundation’s Museum and Galleries Improvement Fund, The Clore Duffield Foundation, The Monument Trust and from other public and private benefactors.