Annual Review 2019/20
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ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20 ASHMOLEAN.ORG 02 06 26 30 34 INTRODUCTION OUR STRATEGY DIGITAL TEACHING RESEARCHING CONTENTS MUSEUM MUSEUM MUSEUM Forewords ....................................................... 02 Ashmolean For All ...................................... 06 A Year at a Glance .......................................04 Exhibitions, Free Exhibitions, Special Online Collections ....................................... 27 Curricular Teaching ...................................... 31 Exhibitions and Research .........................35 Displays and Touring Exhibitions .........09 Ashmolean From Home ............................ 28 University Engagement Digital Research .............................................35 Online Wellbeing .......................................... 28 Programme (UEP) ......................................... 32 Research Partnerships ...............................36 Digital Learning .............................................. 28 Learning for Everyone ............................... 32 Individual Research .....................................36 Families and Schools .................................. 32 Public Engagement and Research .....36 Young People and The Print Room and Study Rooms ......36 Adult Programmes .......................................33 National and International Reach .......38 Ashmolean Teacher Training ..................33 ABOVE Clay Live, October 2019. © Ian Wallman 40 44 26 Hong Tao (b.1948), Galloping Rhythm, 2000. OUR PEOPLE AND COMMERCIAL Multi-block woodcut, printed with oil-based ink, SUSTAINABILITY AND FUNDRAISING 76 x 90cm. EA2007.28 34 Gold stater of Alexander COVER Rembrandt van Rijn Staff Wellbeing ................................................ 41 Retail and Brand Licensing ......................44 the Great from the Amphipolis (1606–69), Self-Portrait in Last Supper in Pompeii .............................. 12 Mint, 336–c.323 bc. Volunteers .......................................................... 41 Catering ..............................................................44 a Cap, 1630. Etching and Young Rembrandt ........................................ 14 drypoint on laid paper, 10 Sustainability ....................................................42 Membership .....................................................45 5.2 x 4.7 cm. WA1855.368 Modern and Contemporary .................... 16 In Memoriam ....................................................43 Philanthropy .....................................................45 10 Gallery view of the OUR PROGRAMME Acquisition Highlights ................................ 18 Benefactors, Gifts and Legacies ..........46 Ashmolean’s Last Supper Caring for the Collections .......................25 in Pompeii exhibition, Financial Highlights ......................................48 25 July 2019–12 January 2020 legacies of empire, given renewed with our collections, we can restore FOREWORDS urgency by the forceful re-ignition of the hope, reconnect and unify our Black Lives Matter and, within Oxford, communities and rebuild the the Rhodes Must Fall movements, have framework of our culture. all demanded that we re-examine what Over the past few years significant we do and how we do it. work across GLAM has been undertaken For me these questions reinforce the to develop our capability to share our XA STURGIS importance of our five-year strategy, digitised collections and to expand DIRECTOR Ashmolean For All. Launched in 2018, our offer across all platforms, reaching ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM it focuses on improving the way we out to existing and new audiences, from serve and represent as wide and diverse here in Oxford to around the world. Happily, as I write, the Museum has shed Near East Gallery, and to Barrie and It was all going so well. Looking back an audience as possible – seeking to The Ashmolean’s current part in a pilot its chrysalis and re-emerged, re-opening Deedee Wigmore for their support over the year from this uncertain vantage welcome and engage all our visitors study with the Oxford Internet Institute with new measures in place, such as a during the current crisis; your generosity point, it is strange to think how things while recognising the need to give and Department of Psychiatry, funded social distancing system that accepts goes beyond measure. looked as we entered 2020. Visitor voice to different perspectives on our by the University’s Covid-19 Research just over 5,000 visitors a week, instead numbers were breaking all records, collections and their histories. Achieving We are extremely fortunate to be Response Fund, to study the effects of the previous 20,000. thanks in no small part to the beautiful these goals in a sustainable way in a a part of the University of Oxford’s of online cultural experiences on and engrossing Last Supper in Pompeii; world of social distancing and financial As our doors open again, we simply Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM). mental health is testimony to the future we had just celebrated the tenth constraints will require sureness of LORD LUPTON must build on the important work that Their contribution towards our core direction of our wider engagement. anniversary of the Ashmolean’s purpose and more of the adaptability CHAIRMAN has already been achieved towards funding enables us to carry out our Such projects show how we can transforming redevelopment and and creativity that the Museum BOARD OF VISITORS securing the Museum’s endowment leading work in teaching and research, continue to support mental wellbeing welcomed Lord Lupton as our new has demonstrated over the last campaign to safeguard our future as well as developing our strategy to through the engagement of our Chairman. At the end of February we six months and to which this report When I was fortunate enough to take as a world-class museum and the enhance our engagement with the cultural assets online. opened Young Rembrandt to critical so amply testifies. over from Bernard Taylor as Chairman greatest university museum of art local community and wider public. acclaim and (astonishingly in retrospect) Now is the time to look at how we tell of the Board of Visitors on 1 January and archaeology. Crises such as the Over its 337-year long history, the even in early March were confident it the stories of our collections. Through 2020, the Museum was in a flurry of one we are living through often reveal Ashmolean, Britain’s first public would break its ambitious visitor targets. interpretation and intervention, we activity preparing for the major Young the depth of character and resilience museum, has held fast, always can question, debate and showcase Rembrandt exhibition, charting the of a community, and indeed a nation. By 17 March we were closed and evolving and responding to the different perspectives. meteoric rise of the Dutch Master. I would like to call out and thank, on remained closed until early August. state of the world and the changing It was a joy to see the teams at work behalf of all of us who care about There is much to regret about having We have learned a great deal more in needs of its audience. I strongly putting on a show of this scale, the Museum, the Ashmolean’s staff to shut our doors to visitors at a moment recent months regarding the potential believe that the Ashmolean’s beauty and significance. and volunteers for ensuring that of national crisis when so many of us of animating our museum programmes reputation, its stunning objects, its the Museum could provide a source were in need of the very things that and collections in the digital world. That was then. Now, just a few highly-motivated staff, the support of PROF. ANNE TREFETHEN of inspiration and learning throughout museums and art can offer; escape, With that renewed focus and insight, months later, we have to deal with the University and of our supporters, PRO-VICE-CHANCELLOR these past months. enjoyment, inspiration, but perhaps we can adapt to the post Covid ‘new the considerable challenges which big and small, mean that we will UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD above all a sense of community and normal’ and continue to deepen our have hit the world as a result of the We are so grateful to our supporters navigate these choppy waters (GLAM) connectedness. But while our doors connection with, and commitment to, Coronavirus pandemic. Like many for helping us to continue to preserve, successfully. Please do consider closed much of our work continued, an Ashmolean for All. other countries, the UK’s financial enhance and share our collections and helping us along our journey. and I remain in awe of the nimble, Oxford University’s Gardens Libraries outlook is uncertain, as we face the knowledge. In particular, we would like creative and flexible way in which our and Museums (GLAM) present some greatest challenge to our economy to thank Mr Hiroaki and Mrs Atsuko Namikawa Yasuyuki staff managed and responded to the of the most important collections since the Second World War. The Shikanai and The Shikanai Foundation Female figurine, (1845–1927), Vase with Cyclades, crisis; adapting ways of working and in the world, spanning all areas of impact of Covid-19 is scarring the for the exceptional gift of £1 million Waterfall Over Rocks, c.2800–2300 bc. endeavouring to continue to serve human study and history. Welcoming 1910–15. Metal with cultural fabric of our society. to endow the Japanese Collection; Marble, traces all our communities in the new reality. over three million visitors a year, they silver wire and this includes the ongoing care of paint,