2020

Opportunities in a crisis: Silke’s Christmas message

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HSM Director Silke Ackermann shares her mantra for 2020, reflects on innovative — if occasionally bumpy — times this year, and looks forward to some exciting new initiatives for 2021.

Early in the year, when listening to the Chinese Ambassador speaking about the virus in Wuhan on a BBC politics talk show, I was entirely fascinated to learn that the Chinese word for crisis is a combination of two words: crisis and opportunities.

Never was an interview — or an unexpected language lesson — timelier.

Yes, we can

There are opportunities in every crisis became our mantra – a mantra that enabled us to maintain a positive can-do attitude throughout world-wide challenges to the cultural sector that neither of us could have imagined in our worst nightmares.

We:

  • developed new and agile working practices
  • embraced digital media whose name we had not even heard of a couple of months earlier
  • created innovative displays online for lockdown(s) and onsite for reopening
  • reached audiences globally who were previously not even aware of our existence, and
  • managed to keep all team members safe and supported throughout.

A new vision

Amazingly, we also managed to keep Vision 2024, the ambitious strategy for our centenary, on track and on schedule.

Even better: the necessity to adapt and change at breath-taking speed over the past ten months has provided us with any number of chances to trial and pilot ideas that we want to implement for Vision 2024 – opportunities in a crisis, indeed.

THANK YOU to our fantastic audiences and wonderful supporters who came along with us on the occasionally bumpy ride — we could not have done this without you!

It’s all about teamwork

None of this would have been possible without the incredible team that I have the privilege to lead, and especially my colleagues on our Executive Team who have rolled up sleeves, pulled out all the stops, and were there with me when the going got tough. THANK YOU!

  • One of our curators unveils our iconic Armillary Sphere after Lockdown
  • Browsing ingenious objects
  • Checking out goodies in the Museum Shop

We hope that 2021 will continue to offer opportunities, but ideally less crisis!

With best wishes for a peaceful and relaxing festive season and a happy and healthy New Year.

Silke
Dr Silke Ackermann FSA, Director

Happy Christmas from Dr Silke Ackermann, the Museum’s Director

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Dr Silke Ackermann, Director

What a year this has been! We started it off in style with our brand-new logo, the swirling colourful interpretation of an astrolabe that draws in both those who recognise what it represents and those for whom it is simply attractive. The change in name may sound like a small step for humanity, but is the outcome of a huge leap for us in articulating clearly what we are about: a museum of history that talks with equal confidence about mathematics, religion and art through the stories told by some of the most intriguing and stunning objects ever made. Our equally new website is sleek, stylish – and much used.

We want to be a meeting place of cultures and history, and no project illustrates this better than our multi-award winning Multaka-Oxford, culminating in the stunning Moonlight event in November that attracted over 1,100 people. We also want to be a place of discussion and we want to encourage debate, and Tomorrow’s Oxford Heads did so spectacularly. 

It has been the year when our new handrail, every bit lovingly made on site over the course of 18 months, has finally been completed and officially ‘opened’ – the first step in making our 17th century home accessible to all. 

Aric Barcena from the University’s Estates Service cutting the ceremonial ribbon, watched by Museum staff and David from Cobalt Blacksmiths

And it has been the year when we fully adopted the mindset of ‘the museum as a business’, a mindset that underpins that in the current day and age the Museum needs to operate like a business with a strong commercial performance that supports and enables many of the successes that we are very proud to share in our latest Annual Review.

So what topic could have been more appropriate for our special display in the Basement Gallery than the 60th anniversary of Oxford Instruments, the University’s first spin out company and still one of its most successful? If you ever had an MRI scan then you, like so many others, have experienced the mind-boggling achievements of Oxford Instruments, founded by two extraordinary people, Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood.

People | Science | Business celebrates the unique blend of innovation, business acumen and the amazing team that is at the heart of this company and we hope that you will have an opportunity to see the display before it closes on 1 March 2020.

People | Science | Business : Celebrating 60 Years of Oxford Instruments display in the Basement Gallery

This year we have pushed the boundaries beyond anything our bijou Museum was believed to be capable of – and we are determined that this is only the beginning. Going forward we will focus on Vision 2024, the ambitious strategy for our first centenary that aims to revolutionise HSM – and right now there is no stopping the amazing ideas that my team are coming up with. Watch this space (literally)!

So we end the year as we have started it: in colour, with the new uniforms mirroring all the colours (and more) represented in our new logo. But what did you do with the old uniforms? I hear you ask. The Turl Street Homeless Action (TSHA) is a student run organisation that does excellent work helping Oxford’s homeless community.  Volunteers go around the city centre every night providing food, drink and warm clothing to those in need.  We are really pleased at the Museum to have been able to support this local organisation by donating fleeces previously worn by our front of house staff, now put to a new use.

Museum Staff and Volunteers

My team and I wholeheartedly thank you for your support throughout the past 12 months and we wish you a happy, healthy – and colourful 2020!

Dr Silke Ackermann, Director