The Ashmolean in Oxford, the UK’s oldest museum, has reopened to the public following a major ten-year, £61 million redevelopment, including a brand new, six-floor contemporary extension behind the magnificent original Grade I-listed Charles Cockerell building. The new extension has nearly doubled the space of the museum, providing new galleries for the ancient world, eastern art and Islam galleries, a learning centre and a rooftop restaurant.
It has already been hailed as a triumph by cultural and architectural critics.

Cultural Innovations is proud to have been part of the consultant team, under lead museum and exhibition design consultants Metaphor. CI was responsible for project management of the Concept and Scheme Design stages for the 39 new galleries and advised on the related exhibition procurement planning. During the Detailed Design stage CI supported the museum's project executive directly, managing the programming of internal and external resources, representing this to the HLF and internal stakeholders, and assisting project managers Mace in managing the integration of showcases and the base-build. This is the twelfth major collaboration between CI and Metaphor.

Martyn Best CEO of Cultural Innovations noted ‘It is excellent to see the quality of the final architectural and exhibition re-development of the Ashmolean. Cultural Innovations is very pleased to have been able to able to make our contributions to this important project.’

‘The opening of the new Ashmolean,’ says Metaphor director Stephen Greenberg, ‘is the start of an exciting journey for the Museum. Over the years, change will come to the building and to the galleries as new curators arrive and fresh acquisitions and discoveries are made. Interpretation devices such as RFID object tagging, mobile phone applications and digital tablets will enrich the visitors’ discovery of objects. We’ve designed the new Ashmolean to adapt to these changes as far as possible.’


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