ONE of Oxford’s most popular and unusual museums reopened today following a major project to remodel the entrance.

The Pitt Rivers Museum in Parks Road closed last July for the £1.5m revamp, which won £1m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other grants. A special programme of Bank Holiday weekend events starts tonight.

Collections move assistant Kate Greenaway said: “It’s great to have the museum open again and we hope as many people as possible come and visit to see the new displays.

“We went into the museum’s stores and found objects for new displays, called Animal Form in Art, Human Form in Art and Geometric Form in Art.

“There is also a new aboriginal art display in the lower gallery and a brilliant new case on recycling.”

Tomorrow, from 1pm to 4pm, families will have the chance to create their own body art. The museum holds about half a million objects and attracts 200,000 visitors a year. The work has included restoring the original entrance view. The entrance now provides a new reception area with information point and shop, lift and wide shallow stairs leading into the museum.

New exhibitions include Across the Caucasus, which shows photographs and manuscripts from John Baddeley, who became the St Petersburg correspondent for The Standard, after visiting Russia for seven months in 1879.

For more information about the weekend events, see prm.ox.ac.uk