Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont Street
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX1 2PH
England
Website
Education Service
education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
Museum shop
Telephone
01865 278000
Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum is the country’s oldest public museum – probably the oldest museum in the world – and home to one of the most important collections of art and archaeology to be found anywhere. Among its treasures are the world’s largest group of Raphael drawings, the most substantial collection of pre-Dynastic Egyptian material in Europe, the only significant Minoan collection in the UK, the greatest Anglo-Saxon collections outside of the British Museum, and the foremost collection of modern Chinese art in the Western world
In November 2009 it reopened to the public following a 10-month closure and a transformative £61 million redevelopment. Behind the magnificent neo-classical façade, designed by Charles Cockerell, now sits the new six-storey Ashmolean building, which has more than doubled the Museum’s display space. The project has been the country’s largest museum redevelopment in recent history and has turned the Ashmolean into a museum for the 21st century.
The new building, designed by the award-winning Rick Mather Architects has given the Museum 39 new galleries; a spectacular atrium with a cascading staircase rising over five floors; a suite of temporary exhibition galleries; a new Education Centre; state-of-the-art conservation studios; and Oxford’s first rooftop restaurant. The Museum’s collections have been entirely redisplayed, with a new approach called Crossing Cultures Crossing Time, which demonstrates the interconnected nature of the world’s different civilisations. New galleries explore the journey of ideas between east and west and illustrate the material culture of activities common to different societies, such as reading and writing, money and textiles.
Venue Type:
Museum
Additional info
Parking is available next to the Museum on St. Giles
Beaumont Street
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX1 2PH
England
Website
Education Service
education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
Museum shop
Telephone
01865 278000
The entire collection of the Ashmolean Museum is a Designated Collection of national importance.
The Ashmolean Museum was founded in 1683, the first institutional museum in Britain, and arguably in Europe. Notable among antiquities are the Egyptian collections, the Classical Greek collections including the ‘Arundel Marbles’ and the Felix Gem, and the Alfred Jewel. Paintings date from early Italian to Pre-Raphaelite and there are outstanding drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo. The arts of China, Japan, South East Asia and Islam are well represented, as are Maiolica, Renaissance bronzes and numismatics.
Collection details
World Cultures, Fine Art, Decorative and Applied Art, Coins and Medals, Archaeology
Key artists and exhibits
- Designated Collection
Collections services
- General guide to collections available
- Object identification and/or written enquiry service
- Public access available to collections information
- Specialist publications on collections available
- Object study facilities available (enquire in advance)
Beaumont Street
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX1 2PH
England
Website
Education Service
education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
Museum shop
Telephone
01865 278000
Guercino: A Passion for Drawing - The Collection of Sir Denis Mahon
Guercino drew with a passion that revealed itself in the immediacy of his preparatory studies, exploring different possibilities for literary or religious subjects, landscapes and scenes of everyday life. The core of the display comes from the collection of Sir Denis Mahon (1910–2011), an internationally renowned art historian and collector of Italian Baroque art. His Guercino drawings were collected from 1930s–’60s, and came on loan to the Ashmolean to be seen by the widest possible audience.
Suitable for
- Any age
Where
Ashmolean Museum
Website
Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin
Hodgkin has been a passionate collector of Indian paintings since his school days and his collection has long been considered one of the finest of its kind in the world. At times he has devoted almost as much effort to developing his collection as to his own work as a painter. The collection comprises over 140 paintings from the Mughal period (c. 1550–1850), including the refined naturalistic works of the imperial Mughal court; the poetic and subtly coloured paintings of the Deccani Sultanates; and the boldly drawn and vibrantly coloured styles of the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills.
Suitable for
- Any age
Where
Ashmolean Museum
Admission
£6/£4 concessions including Gift Aid
Website
Beaumont Street
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX1 2PH
England
Website
Education Service
education.service@ashmus.ox.ac.uk
Museum shop
Telephone
01865 278000
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