In 2009, the world’s first university museum reopened its doors following a remarkable makeover. This was a new phase for the Ashmolean: the new building doubled its display space, and enabled the creation of a new Education Centre and state-of-the-art conservation studios, among other new facilities.
This year, another significant phase begins. Professor Christopher Brown CBE has just handed over the leadership of the museum to Dr Alexander Sturgis (pictured), who has been the Director of the Holburne Museum in Bath for the last nine years. ‘I am both proud and excited to be leading the Ashmolean in the next phase of its own story,’ says Dr Sturgis. ‘It has always been a great collection, and it is now unquestionably a great museum. The excitement of this “new Ashmolean” is the way in which the objects and works of art displayed can all now be seen as part of bigger stories to be followed across cultures and across the centuries.’
I am both proud and excited to be leading the Ashmolean in the next phase of its own story. It has always been a great collection, and it is now unquestionably a great museum.
Key to this new phase is the Ashmolean’s endowment campaign, launched this autumn, which aims to raise enough funds to allow the museum to sustain its core activities in perpetuity. As Dr Sturgis explains: ‘An endowment is essential to enable the museum to continue to do all it does so well into the future: invest in our collections and in people to safeguard them, increase our understanding of them through research and teaching, and inspire and delight our many visitors.’
The last five years...