The joy of sharing
Digital collections reach the world
Like so many elements of our lives, museum engagement was transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The University was already using digital tools to reach audiences around the world, but staff responded to the pandemic by accelerating their work on digital teaching and learning, exhibitions, tours and events.
Teaching and learning
With millions of students learning at home, Oxford’s museums and libraries rapidly reshaped their usual education programmes for online teaching. Though initially this was a response to the forced closure of museums, there were also benefits that in-person visits could not have provided.
The libraries and museums teams sped up development of the skills, resources and infrastructure needed to open up collections and reach new and existing audiences online. This meant they could also reach young people who could not have visited the museums previously, due to geographical distance or financial barriers. The teams developed new relationships and built on existing ones with local schools.
The Ashmolean worked quickly to develop a home learning hub, with resources ranging from Animal Crossing imports to resource packs on the ancient Olympics. It also organised online workshops that allowed 500 primary school children across the country to ‘visit’ areas of the museum not usually open to the public, and discover items that ordinarily would be inaccessible in a gallery-based session. The History of Science Museum and Bodleian Libraries meanwhile delivered a new virtual ‘Science and Islam’ workshop that addressed diversity in the science curriculum, as well as developing further online resources. The Museum of Natural History delivered sessions to nearly 1,000 children, experimenting with Zoom sessions, virtual visits and more.
Virtual teaching at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Virtual teaching at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Chris Jarvis delivering online learning.
Chris Jarvis delivering online learning.
We've turned some Ashmolean treasures into artworks you can import into #AnimalCrossing!
— Ashmolean Museum (@AshmoleanMuseum) April 22, 2020
How about a Hiroshige print on your wall? A Manet on your t-shirt? Floral tile on your floors?
QR codes & instructions at https://t.co/gqBHrShRbq#ArtHelps #MuseumsFromHome #ACNHDesign pic.twitter.com/NAhUpSgigS
At the Pitt Rivers Museum, staff participated in online webinars and teaching across the globe. Live online school delivery was designed as both a replacement for on-site sessions and a format to test some sessions in a new ‘decolonial schools’ offering. Some sessions were delivered digitally to the classroom and others to students’ homes, depending on the lockdown level at the time. The offerings helped the museum achieve a much wider reach, including delivering one virtual session to students in Singapore.
Exhibitions, events and tours
Although Oxford’s museums, libraries and gardens had to close for periods of time over the pandemic, staff remained hard at work behind the scenes, finding ways to engage with new audiences via digital collections. Again, this only accelerated work that was already happening; Oxford was able to provide tours, events and online exhibitions so quickly in part because of investment in digital methods in previous years.
Visitors from around the world are now able to explore each collection online, including:
- the glasshouses, woodlands and gardens of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum
- the Pitt Rivers Museum’s much-lauded full virtual tour
- a virtual version of the Museum of Natural History
- the collections of the History of Science Museum
- the historic buildings of the Bodleian Library.
The family-focused Ashmolean Adventure allows families to use digital collections on site, engaging children with quizzes, sounds and stories, while the History of Science Museum provided bespoke guided tours online.
A screenshot of a virtual tour of the glasshouse at the Oxford Botanic Gardens.
A screenshot of a virtual tour of the glasshouse at the Oxford Botanic Gardens.
A screenshot of a virtual tour of the walled garden at the Oxford Botanic Gardens.
A screenshot of a virtual tour of the walled garden at the Oxford Botanic Gardens.
‘the best 360° UK museum tour you can take at home’
Museum Crush
‘the best 360° UK museum tour you can take at home’
Museum Crush
Online exhibitions in each of the museums and the Bodleian reached thousands worldwide. New exhibitions were developed from scratch, often in collaboration with new communities, and old ones archived online for exploration. From Young Rembrandt to First Animals to The Art of Advertising to Precious and Rare: Islamic Metalwork, these exhibitions offer a way for those who cannot visit to enjoy the collections, as well as a chance for those who have been to reflect on and return to what they saw.
This digital content provided both entertainment and enrichment during a difficult time. ArtNews called Pitt Rivers Museum lecturer-curator Dan Hicks’ #Museumsunlocked ‘the best thing in the generally grim world of Twitter during the pandemic’. The Museum of Natural History experimented with new formats through Mystery at the Museum, a livestreamed, family-friendly escape room with BAFTA-winning nature presenter Steve Backshall. Hundreds of virtual events were run over the pandemic, ranging from tours of special exhibitions at the Ashmolean to the Pitt Rivers Museum’s ‘brilliant and gutsy’ Radical Hope, Critical Change programme.
A screenshot of a virtual tour of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
A screenshot of a virtual tour of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
A screenshot of a virtual tour of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
A screenshot of a virtual tour of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
A Twitter experiment. How can we reimagine museum visiting and curation in a time of lockdown? Many museums have great programmes sharing digital content—but during April let's experiment with other collaborative ways of seeing and thinkng about museums #museumsunlocked THREAD👇
— Dan Hicks (@profdanhicks) March 31, 2020
These digital opportunities opened up the museums to more than 50 countries around the world – attracting visitors who may never have been able to attend in person. They provided new ways of engaging with collections and the knowledge held within them, and new ways of working with the communities from which the collections come. As more and more of Oxford’s collections are digitised, these opportunities will grow richer.
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