Reg Little talks to the new director of the Ashmolean Museum Dr Alexander Sturgis

As the director of Bath’s Holburne Museum, Dr Alexander Sturgis had overseen an award-winning transformation of the building, with its public space doubled and a six-fold increase in visitor numbers.

But even this level of growth could scarcely have prepared him for his new job at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, where he took over as director in October.

The Ashmolean, founded in 1683, can claim to hold the richest collections of art and archaeology of any museum in England, outside London.

Taking over the helm of the oldest museum in Britain and the greatest university museum in the world would be challenge enough at any time, but Dr Sturgis is getting to grips with the job after one of the biggest expansions in the Ashmolean’s 332-year history.

He succeeded Prof Christopher Brown, the man who oversaw the £61m reconstruction programme at the Ashmolean which delivered 39 new galleries, 100 per cent more display space, a new education centre and Oxford’s first rooftop restaurant.

“For me the great excitement are the collections here and getting to know them better,” said Dr Sturgis, sitting in his office on one of the Ashmolean’s upper floors, offering superb views of the Oxford skyline.

“Whole new worlds are opening up in my professional life, having previously worked mainly with paintings and decorative art.

“I am discovering brilliant people under one roof with different areas of expertise. I could not be more delighted. This is one of the great museum jobs.

“It is significantly bigger than Bath, like multiplying everything by 10.”

He recalled stepping out on to a balcony soon after arriving and spotting a white monk on the roof of a neighbouring building, to confirm, if he had any doubt, interesting times lie ahead.

Fortunately, he already knew something about the workings of Oxford and its university, having studied history at University College.

“I did history with a view to study the history of art wherever possible. But it would be fanciful to say that I knew the Ashmolean well from then. I suppose you look at things from a different perspective. As a student your concerns are very different.”

He admits, however, that a couple of paintings that he saw at the Ashmolean made a lasting impression on him: Piero di Cosimo’s painting The Forest Fire, one of the most exotic products of the Renaissance mind, dating from the beginning of the 16th century, and Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia by Claude Lorrain.

“They both remained stuck in my mind, along of course with Alfred’s Jewel. As a medieval historian to have something like that here was really something. I well remember the jewel in its old home.”

Born in London, his mother was a painter and father an architect.

“I well remember being dragged around museums,” he said. “My feeling is that it is important to put possibilities in the way of children, particularly when it comes to museums. “ His childhood experience left him convinced that getting families through the door is what matters, not the length of visits.

“It is important for people to be able to pop in and see things and have an easy relationship with the museum. If you speak to people working in museums, you will find most of them had their enthusiasm fired up in their childhood.”

After leaving Oxford in 1985 he undertook a PhD in art history from The Courtauld Institute in London, his doctorate being on Gothic cathedrals and liturgy.

He went on to spend 15 years at London’s National Gallery, London, including a spell as exhibitions and programmes curator from 1999 to 2005, before becoming director of the Holburne.

He now becomes the 19th director of the Ashmolean in its 332-year history. Like him, his two immediate predecessors had their expertise in paintings, Sir Christopher White being a Rubens specialist and Prof
Christopher Brown an authority on the great 17th- century artists Van Dyck and Rembrandt.

Oxford Mail:
Dr Sturgis outside the museum

“Perhaps, I should have been called Green,” jokes the new director.

Bernard Taylor, chairman of the the board of visitors of the Ashmolean, said: “His past work in the use of collections in education, in arranging successful exhibitions and in raising visitor numbers six-fold at the Holburne gives him the experience base to build upon the success the Ashmolean has enjoyed in recent times.”

Recalling his early years at Bath, Dr Sturgis, 51, who is married with three children, said: “When I went to Bath the potential was clearly there. It was a fantastic building in an extraordinary location in one of the most visited cities in Britain.”

While the Ashmolean was raising money to expand, over in Bath Dr Sturgis was spearheading a fundraising drive for a £10.8m capital development project to restore the Holburne’s 18th-century home, with a spectacular modern extension putting the Holburne alongside some of Europe’s best regional museums.

Equally bold was his decision to scrap admission charges at the Holburne for the first time in its long history, allowing it to join the ranks of other free-to-enter university museums like the Ashmolean and Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.

When the museum reopened in 2001 it enjoyed record-breaking visitor numbers. The 20,000 visitors in the first full month was more than the museum had attracted in the previous year.

Being free, in Dr Sturgis’s judgment, transforms the relationship between a museum and its visitors.

He said: “A free museum becomes, naturally, a place to drop into for a moment’s peace or to meet a friend, to take your parents or children, or to see a new display, or visit an old favourite.

“The pleasures of art should be available to everyone and free entry allows a museum to play a more vital and familiar role in the life of a city or region.”

At the same time the knock-on effect of boosting numbers brings in more money from museum shops and cafes, while it is easier to persuade people to make donations if a museum is free.

He aims to increase visitor numbers at the Ashmolean in the coming years. In the year following its reopening in November 2009, visitor numbers shot up to 1.2 million but have subsequently dropped back to 850,000.

His ambition is to make one million visitors a year the norm.

“Most university buildings are shut. So it is right to regard the Ashmolean as the open door of the university for the city and internationally.

“The museum’s position within the university is not straightforward. But part of the excitement of the job is the possibilities this presents.”