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Director’s Christmas Message 2021

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Missions, meeting points, and curious connections

I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe that we are finding ourselves in December already – where did the year go?!

The challenges posed by Covid-19 continued, of course, but so did the opportunities and the thrill of excitement offered by trialling innovative approaches across all our activities.

On a mission

The year got off to an exciting start with the launch of our new Vision and Mission, a crucial part of Vision 2024, the transformative strategy for our centenary.

The work with our architects Purcell continued apace, with the hugely satisfying achievement of reaching a major milestone in the development of our capital project in late summer. We are very actively seeking funding for the next stages of the development and I am looking forward to sharing progress in future Newsletters.

Multaka: a new meeting point

Talking about funding, we were thrilled to announce the successful collaboration with Alwaleed Philanthropies on the continuation of the multi-award winning Multaka-Oxford project that we are jointly running with the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Of all the projects I have been involved with in my career, Multaka undoubtledly ranks amongst those that I am most proud of, and I can’t wait for this new phase to start.

2021 Highlights

And so much else happened for which there is far too little space here (no surprise the months flew by!):

are just three examples.

Curiosity Calendar

A propos Collections Online, I can’t imagine a more fun way to explore this project than our Curiosity Calendar – one door each day all the way to Christmas and no increase in waistline, promise ☺!

None of this would have been possible without our fantastic audiences, our wonderful supporters – and the incredible team that I have the privilege to lead.

THANK YOU!

With best wishes for a peaceful and relaxing festive season and a happy and healthy 2022,

Silke

Dr Silke Ackermann FSA
Director

How a handbag brings us together

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Oxford’s Christmas Light Festival is here — hooray! 

It’s wonderful to have an event that draws Oxford’s array of communities together, especially in these difficult times.

And this year, Multaka volunteers are teaming up with the History of Science Museum (HSM) to create our first ever live-streamed, festival family event. 

The activities will take inspiration from one of the star objects in our new exhibition of Islamic metalwork, the 600-year-old Mosul Handbag.  And during the event, we will be celebrating diversity in faith, music, food, and art. 

600-year-old Mosul Handbag from The Courtauld, on display as part of the Precious and Rare: Islamic Metalwork from The Courtauld exhibition

Multaka and the HSM team have been exploring a new way to meet up with our three Multaka volunteers through the pandemic to discuss, organise, and design our activities for Christmas light festival. We have been meeting online every two weeks to exchange ideas and skills, and we want to share this healthy platform for discussion to our online visitors.

Rana Ibrahim — Multaka volunteer and HSM’s Multaka Collections Officer — with a craft bag inspired by The Courtauld’s Mosul Handbag

Jenan, one of our Multaka volunteers, told us:

‘It gives me great pleasure to participate in ​this event based on the Musel historical bag ​at the History of Science Museum in Oxford ​because I love its beauty and magnificent effect. Moreover Al-Musel city with its ancient civilization is the city of my mother back home; that makes me very thrilled and honoured.’

Alison, also one of our Multaka volunteers, added:

“I have enjoyed the Multaka lights festival project as a route to discovering other cultures, meeting new people, and learning about the Arabic language.  I have been exploring some of the designs from objects in the ‘Precious and Rare’ exhibition online, and inventing ways to recreate them at home.  I will demonstrate some ideas to add sparkle and shine to your Mosul bag during the online event.“

Get ready to craft!

Helen, who is a learning officer at the Museum, told me that one of the things that she has really enjoyed is the way that we have all been learning together.  

”All too often the name of the city of Mosul is mentioned in this country in the context of war, so it’s been wonderful finding out about the city’s rich culture and history. One of my favourite activities was when we were talking about the Mosul handbag and decided spontaneously to show our own favourite handbags to each other on Zoom. That led to the sharing of some really lovely stories.”  

So come and join our brilliant Multaka team with your family for some fun activities on Friday 20th November from 4.30-5.30pm.

Get ready to download a template to make your own handbag, learn some Arabic and try your hand at Calligraphy.

Book your place on our website.

Al Salam Al- aykum!

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