On Saturday 26
November 2011, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford will open six new galleries for the
collections of Ancient Egypt and Nubia (present day Sudan). Building on the
success of the Museum’s extension, which opened in 2009, this second phase of
major redevelopment redisplays the world-renowned Egyptian collections to
exhibit objects that have been in storage for decades, more than doubling the
number of mummies and coffins on display. The galleries will take visitors on a
chronological journey covering more than 5000 years of human occupation of the
Nile Valley.
The £5 million
project has received lead support from Lord Sainsbury’s Linbury Trust, along
with the Selz Foundation and other trusts, foundations and individuals. Rick
Mather Architects have led the redesign and redisplay of the pre-existing Egypt
galleries and the extension into the restored Ruskin Gallery, previously
occupied by the Museum Shop. The contractor Beard has completed the
construction work in the historic building. New openings link the rooms,
presenting the collections under the broad themes of Egypt at its Origins; Dynastic
Egypt and Nubia; Life after Death in Ancient Egypt; The Amarna ‘Revolution’;
Egypt in the Age of Empires; and Egypt meets Greece and Rome.
The Ashmolean is
home to some of the finest Egyptian and Nubian collections in the country, with
Predynastic and Protodynastic material which ranks amongst the most significant
in the world. With new lighting, display cases and interpretation, the project
completes the Ashmolean’s Ancient World Floor, comprising galleries that span
the world’s great ancient civilisations – from Egypt and Nubia, Prehistoric
Europe, the Ancient Near East, Classical Greece and Rome, to India, China and
Japan.
“We are enormously
grateful to Lord Sainsbury and the Linbury Trust for initiating this
transformative project for one of the most important and popular areas of the
Museum. Rick Mather’s design for the galleries now allows us to display
material that, for reasons of conservation, has not been seen for up to half a
century.” Dr Christopher Brown CBE, Director of the Ashmolean.
Professor Andrew
Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said, "These
remarkable collections are among the most important outside Egypt and one of
the Ashmolean’s most popular attractions. With an exciting series of new
galleries, the redevelopment transforms opportunities for using the collections
for teaching and research at all levels, and the way they are enjoyed, cared
for and integrated within the wider Museum.”
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