OUR MUSEUM: OUR VOICES

The personal responses of local young people aged between 16 and 18 shone a new light on our collection.

OMOV 2021 Exhibition

Created by University of Oxford students, these labels – which appear in the Museum galleries – were written from personal experience as well as expertise, with participants considering their ethnicity, gender and sexuality in responding to the collections.

OMOV 2020 Exhibition

What do you think we should do next?

The Ashmolean is a public museum, a museum for Oxford, a national and a global museum. Over time we want to include and amplify more (and more diverse) voices, hear other stories and learn new ways of looking.

Get in touch with feedback and suggestions to omov@ashmus.ox.ac.uk

In winter 2019/2020, the University Engagement Programme at the Ashmolean Museum, funded by the Mellon Foundation, kicked off a new project, Our Museum, Our Voices. The aim was to amplify a range of diverse voices from amongst those with a stake in the university collections. A group of 24 students from the University of Oxford, who answered a call seeking collaborators, were chosen to participate in workshops over the course of the spring term. They wrote new labels for objects on display in the galleries, considering both their academic expertise and their ethnicity, gender and/or sexuality in responding to the collections.

We know that objects can bear many stories and convey a range of meanings; mute items become eloquent and resonate with varied perspectives. We also know that museums are not neutral: the stories that are told, the objects that have been collected are a product of choices and privileges, sometimes made over centuries. This can affect who feels welcome in a space, who can see themselves reflected back in the exhibits. The project group wished their interpretations to resonate with people from within their communities, and seek to broaden the understanding and experience of those outside them. They wanted to invite visitors to look again through their eyes and hear their voices in conversation with the object and the existing displays. The project took the form of a series of three workshops with the group. Scheduling was tricky, with Oxford students very busy in lectures, tutorials and classes, but we managed to work with portions of the group each time and kept in touch digitally. In the first workshop, we discussed what a label is, what it does, and how labels have affected each of us. Quiet at first, conversations soon developed in small groups, and spilled over into our exploration in the Ashmolean’s galleries to see what makes A Good Label.

In the second workshop, we considered the design and interpretation style for the labels, working with the Museum’s Head of Design, Graeme Campbell, and Interpretation lead Natasha Podro. With Graeme we also discussed how we would present ourselves visually as a group, while acknowledging the individuality of experience and voice behind the new texts. Natasha challenged the group to think about who the audience would be, what kind of relationship they wanted to build with them, and how we could move away traditional label formats to something more playful and diverse.

The tour of the museum from the first workshop also started the group ruminating on which object they would each like to select for a new label, and this workshop gave another opportunity to visit favoured galleries and have another look. Greco-Roman sculptures of Hermaphrodite and portraits of Antinous, Hadrian’s young lover, proved popular, along with objects from South Asia, pre-Raphaelite art, and more.

That left plenty to do in the final workshop. With objects chosen and draft texts submitted in advance, each student had the chance to work on their label further, one-to-one, while the rest of the participants broke into three groups to decide the final design, develop a leaflet, and to brainstorm ideas for an online platform. Ellie Field, Ashmolean web content editor, showed the group what could be done using video and social media promotion, as well as how best to provide information on part of the Ashmolean website dedicated to the project.

Texts, chosen signatures or pseudonyms, design briefs, and launch ideas were all submitted by the end of term, and then it was just over to us in the museum to make it happen…at which point we were sent home, locked down, and furloughed. Disappointed at first, we’re really delighted that we could return to this and redouble efforts to make sure that group’s work gets out there as soon as possible. The new labels are thought-provoking, funny, atmospheric and moving, and provide new contexts in which to think about the objects and their current interpretations.

The decision to work in the first instance with University of Oxford students was deliberate: this is a museum for the university as much it is of the university. It is fitting that those within this institution have contributed to what is displayed and feel some stake in it. Yet, the Ashmolean also has a wider outlook, to Oxford and to the world. We hope this will be the first tranche of a rolling project, working each year with different communities, in the University and across the city, with the aim of extending our shared ownership of this extraordinary place, all under the Our Museum: Our Voices umbrella.

This is the not first time that the Ashmolean and its sister museums in the University have done something like this. The ‘Out in Oxford’ trail, launched in February 2017, and the Pitt-Rivers Museum’s Beyond the Binary project, have involved a range of partners from students and researchers to community activists. At the Ashmolean, the existing ‘Nice Cup of Tea?’ exhibit is a step towards looking critically at works on display and the Museum is committed to a long-term strategy called Ashmolean for All, which aims to broaden its audience by community collaboration and through equitable and inclusive policies on display and interpretation. Our Museum: Our Voices will be one of the most tangible outcomes of this enabling vision.

It is at the intersections of the various facets of identity that difference can be felt most keenly, and broad efforts are needed to offer equity of opportunity in a truly diverse and inclusive museum environment. The protests of recent months have further underscored the work we need to do. We hope that this project will promote understanding and inclusivity, and will show how much we all have in common as well as celebrating the diversity of our shared human histories.

Penny Coombe, October 2020

With thanks to the project team in the Ashmolean (Natasha Podro, Jim Harris, Graeme Campbell, Ellie Field, and Sarah Casey – particularly to Natasha and Jim for their valuable comments on this piece), and to all of our amazing participants.