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Beaumont Street
Coming up:
Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin Sat, 4 February: 10am - 6pm, £6 (£4) Unwrapped: The Story Of A Child Mummy Sat, 4 February: 10am - 6pm. Free Yakusha-e: Kabuki Prints Sat, 4 February: 10am - 6pm. Free Saturday Highlight Tour Sat, 4 February: 11am - 12pm, free (donations welcome) Hands-On Coins Sat, 4 February: 11.30am - 1.30pm & 2 - 4pm, free A Closer Look Tour Sat, 4 February: 2.15 - 2.45pm, free Ceramic Sculpture Talk Tue, 7 February: 1.15 - 2pm, free Highlights of the Western Art Collection Talk Wed, 8 February: 1.15 - 2pm, free The Grand Tour Tour Thu, 9 February: 1.15 - 2pm, free The 18th Century Talk Fri, 10 February: 1.15 - 2pm, free Japanese Tea Ceremony Fri, 10 February Guercino: A Passion for Drawing - The Collection of Sir Dennis Mahon Sat, 11 February: Free entry The Vikings Sat, 11 February: 1 - 4pm, free Oxford and the Pre-Raphaelites Talk Tue, 14 February: 1.15 - 2pm, free Fable in Art Talk Wed, 15 February: 1.15 - 2pm, free Yakusha-e: Kabuki Prints Tour Tue, 21 February: 11am - 12pm, free Digital SLR Photography Course Thu, 23 February: 6:30-8:30pm £180 Games of the World Sat, 10 March: 1-4pm, free The Curious Collections of Francis Douce Thu, 15 March: 4.45pm, free suggested donation £5 Elephant Stomp! Thu, 15 March: 2-4pm, free Art At The Edge: Where Sport Becomes Art Mon, 19 March: Free entry Where Sport Becomes Art Tue, 20 March: 10am - 6pm. Free The English Prize: The Capture of the Westmorland Thu, 17 May: £9/£7 Useful links: Ethical OxfordOxford Restaurants Oxford Hotels Oxford Pubs & Bars Oxford Gig venues Oxford Concert venues Latest venue reviewsGino´s : Gino's is a fun, casual place to eat. It's the dining equivalent of a cosy...read more Aziz: Visited Aziz on Friday evening for the first time in about a year, a bit...read more Aziz: Great food, we have an array of indian establishments to choose from, but...read more Arbat: From the moment we entered the restaurant, it felt like us and the manager...read more Latest Oxford OffersWin a silk scarf, a bottle of fizz and a box of truffles! Coco Noir Win tea and cake for two! Oxfork Win a romantic breakfast for two! Organic Deli Cafe
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Museum itself had various types of art collections that were quite entertaining. However, the service from the dining hall was horrible as most of servers were not paying any attention to customers. At first we thought they did it only to us because we were not British people, but soon I noticed that they didn't care what the customers thought about the food or if we needed anything else. We got our tea after a long delay and we had our scones much later than the tea. We ended up drinking cold tea with scones!!! It took a long time to pay our bill as well. Slow and not courteous service. Food was not that great either. Very dried scones. Oxonian (Unverified), 28/05/11 It's very exciting to be allowed back into the Ashmolean at last. For nearly a year the building has been heavily veiled in builder's fabrics and cluttered with cranes. Was it worth it? Have they managed the tricky balancing act of making the museum more accessible without losing its erudite charm? I think they have. I was hugely relieved to see the graceful pillars in the main foyer (the ones through which one used to reach China) still intact. And I was stunned by the light and space, sheet glass and general shininess of Rick Mather's new bit. There are now lots of unexpected glassed-in viewpoints where you can catch sight of your friends in other galleries on the far side of stairwells - rather fun. They've taken advantage of the space to present lots of extra displays - in fact they've got twice as much of their vast collections on show than ever before. There's been a chance to reorganise some of the familiar collections, too. Western Art is now divided more logically into a sequence of phases - Pre-Raphaelites, Dutch & Flemish, 20th century etc. My favourite landscape paintings by William Inchbold now hang together rather than being isolated in separate rooms, so I've finally had the pleasure of comparing them directly. Some of the rearrangements provide particular satisfaction to the staff. A new room of musical instruments is hung with precious tapestries (remember the tapir? And a fruit-hung garden with musicians and a peacock). As Timothy Wilson, the curator of Western Art explains "Not only do they benefit from the same conditions of temperature and air and light, but traditionally a music room would have been lined with tapestries to improve the acoustics". A happy thought, to reunite the two. I noticed greater detail in labelling, providing not only more detail on individual items but more extensive explanations of displays as a whole. Next to the gigantic stone coin (a foot in diameter) from the Micronesian island of Yap, is a photographic montage explaining how our money is made today at the Royal Mint. This is typical of the museum's new display strategy: Crossing Cultures, Crossing Times, using comparisons of objects to "trace the journey of ideas and influences through the centuries and across continents." One of the treasured memories of my anthropology degree was wandering around the Ashmolean with the late Andrew Sherratt, an enthusiastic and inspiring guide whose particular passion was the development of such cultural journeys. It's good to see the general application of this approach. One of the glossiest new features is the restaurant on the top floor. The café, traditionalists will be pleased to hear, is still in the crypt, but there's now a gleaming restaurant with a splendid outdoor seating area at the very top of the museum. There's also an education centre and a brand new temporary exhibition space. And a lift (I hope they do something about the rather intrusive ping it makes on arrival though). At the preview there were still some missing labels and even a few empty cases - staff have been working flat out to finish things off, and hopefully it'll all be complete in time for the public opening on the 7th November. But the design of the displays is very satisfying - everything's laid out with care and thought for the needs of each particular piece, and some lovely touches of humour. For those who know it well, it's a little strange walking between the old and new buildings. But the new galleries have not been added insensitively and the set piece architecture is a lot of fun. It's fabulous to have access again to these exquisite treasures. The frog purse; the Alfred jewel; kettles, vases and screens covered in animals from dragons to mice; Roman, Greek and Egyptian scuplture; Chinese robes; the tiny jewel-like array of seals from Crete... The face-lifted Ashmolean is a world-class museum in the heart of our city, an amazing place to visit - and it's still absolutely free! Images: The main stairwell A glorious display of Greek vases Looking through the glass walls, you can spot friends in other galleries An extraordinary coin, over a foot in diameter, from the Island of Yap Miranda Rose (DI Staff), 03/11/09 Ads by Daily Info:  Browse ads by tag: Please fill in the boxes and then click "Send Review" to submit your review for Ashmolean Museum. | |
