Museums and Museology and Curating Cultures students visit the Ashmolean, Pitt Rivers and ...

12 November 2021

Students from both the UG Museums and Museology module and the PG Curating Cultures module spent the day in Oxford visiting the Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum during Reading Week (9th November 2021). The trip was set up by Stephen Murphy (module convenor).

The group set off by coach from London at 9am and arrived in Oxford just before 11am. They were welcomed at the Ashmolean by Adult Learning Officer Jude Barrett who facilitated the visit and the use of the Learning Studio for the class discussion. This took place after the students had completed their self-guided tours of the museum where they were tasked to reflect on the methods of display, what type of narratives were being told in the galleries, and the organisation of the museum overall.

In the afternoon, students visited the Pitt Rivers Museum. The group was greeted by Kieran from visitor services who gave them a concise introduction to the museum and the initiatives underway to address its colonial legacies. Students then had the chance to explore the museum and think about these issues first-hand.

The group arrived back to London at 7pm, exhausted but still enthused by the day’s visits and discussions!