New Display Strategy
New ways of seeing our past
How best can beautiful objects be displayed, to enhance our understanding and enjoyment of them? How can modern architecture and design help put our past into a fresh perspective, for the greatest number of people? What, in short, should a modern museum be like?
Planning the Ashmolean’s redevelopment was an opportunity to address these fundamental questions. The new Ashmolean is not just a greatly enlarged and improved version of its former self. It is one of the world’s most significant and innovative cultural showcases.
While the transformation is sure to astound anyone familiar with the Ashmolean of old, there’s an important sense in which it represents a natural, evolutionary progression.
At its opening in 1683, the Ashmolean was the world’s first ever public museum, a beacon of learning for a newly scientific age. Over the centuries, as an integral part of the University of Oxford, it has remained at the forefront of modern thinking on how museums can best foster learning, while giving enjoyment and inspiration to the widest possible audience.
With a breathtaking new building, and a completely fresh approach to how our collections are displayed, the Ashmolean is now equipped to lead the way in meeting the challenges of the next 300 years.
A new display strategy: Crossing Cultures Crossing Time
The Ashmolean’s collections span the civilisations of east and west, charting the aspirations of mankind from the Neolithic era to the present day. Among many riches, we have the world’s greatest collection of Raphael drawings, the most important collection of Egyptian pre-Dynastic material outside Cairo, the finest Anglo Saxon treasures beyond the British Museum and the foremost collection of modern Chinese art in the Western world.
Our innovative new display strategy has transformed the way these rare and beautiful objects are experienced and understood by visitors.
Crossing Cultures Crossing Time (CCCT) is an approach based on the idea that civilisations that have shaped our modern societies developed as part of an interrelated world culture, rather than in isolation. It assumes, too, that every object has a story to tell, but these stories can best be uncovered by making appropriate comparisons and connections, tracing the journey of ideas and influences through the centuries and across continents.
East ‘prefigured’ by West
Hellenistic and Roman objects such as this 1st century AD terracotta figurine (left) made their way to India from the time of Alexander onwards. Graeco-Roman stylistic influences are evident in the classically draped and posed 3rd century AD Gandharan Buddha (right).