Saturday, February 28, 2009

Pitt Rivers Postulation

The Pitt Rivers Museum is currently shut until May 1st for renovation. A great disappointment if you were planning on going, but it's only a few months away, and it sounds like it's going to be a really exciting improvment.

The basic aim seems to be to bring the museum back to its original state after everything was moved around a bit in the 1960s:

- When you go in, you should be able to see right through to the huge totem pole at the back.
- Original display cases will be at the front.
- There will be new family acitivites and holiday workshops in the Lower Gallery.
- The entrance will be the same height as the Natural History Museum and there will be a big lift for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
- The shop and reception areas will be different.
- An environmental control system will be in place to help keep all the strange items in good nick and help to eliminate that rather stuffy museum smell (although I quite liked that!).
- There will be 8 new displays on painting, with items that haven't been on display for decades.

This is all costing around £1.5m - pretty impressive for a museum that's free to enter.

I'm looking forward to exploring when it re-opens!

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