FINGERPRINTS

Join the Ashmolean’s director, Xa Sturgis, as he questions what a museum is for. He introduces us to Powhatan’s Mantle, one of the museum’s founding objects, and one inextricably linked with British colonial history. From there, he traces the Ashmolean’s story to the present day, as special guests explore how we can transform an uncomfortable past into a more positive future.
 

Episode released 21 Jan 2022

Click here to read a transcript of this episode
 

Read more

• Read more about Powhatan’s Mantle here or click here to view an image
• And find out more about Oxford University’s procedures about the return of cultural objects here
   

Speakers in this episode

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Xa Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean
• Sumaya Kassim, writer, curator and museum-sceptic
• Reyahn King, CEO of York Museums Trust
• Dr Laura van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
• Mustafa Barcho, Oxford-Middle East Community Ambassador, Ashmolean Museum
• Marenka Thompson-Odlum, Researcher, Pitt Rivers
• Nicola Bird, Community Engagement Officer, Oxford's Gardens, Libraries and Museums

Dan Hicks takes us on a journey with three bronze masks from the West African city of Benin, through the hands of soldiers, collectors, and curators, and along with special guests considers the responsibility that European museums have towards looted art in their collections.
 

Episode released 28 Jan 2022

Click here to read a transcript of this episode
 

Read more

• View the masks spoken about in the episode here
• Read the Pitt Rivers’ interim report on the provenance of African cultural heritage in their collection here 
• Find out more about the Benin Bronzes and the Benin Dialogue Group here
• Find out more about Oxford University’s procedures about the return of cultural objects here
• And find more about Dan Hicks' book, The Brutish Museums
   

Speakers in this episode

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Xa Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean
• Simukai Chigudu, Professor of African Politics, University of Oxford and founding member of Rhodes Must Fall
• Dan Hicks, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
• Victor Ehikhamenor, artist
• Adenike Cosgrove, collector and historian of African Art Historian
• Professor Bénédicte Savoy, art historian and co-author of the report, The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron

Mallica Kumbera Landrus, the Ashmolean’s Keeper of Eastern Art, takes us on a journey with 200 clay figures from India, displayed alongside a human zoo at the Colonial and India Exhibition of 1886, and later used to teach young British colonial officers at Oxford’s Indian Institute.

 

Episode released 4 Feb 2022

Click here to read a transcript of this episode

 

Read more

• View images of some of the sculptures mentioned in the episode here
• Find out more about Ali Kazim’s exhibition at the Ashmolean here

Speakers in this episode

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Professor Mallica Kumbera Landrus, Keeper of Eastern Art at the Ashmolean
• Ali Kazim, one of Pakistan’s leading contemporary artists whose work will be on show in the Ashmolean from 7 February 2022
• Dr Nayanika Mathur, Associate Professor in the Anthropology of South Asia, University of Oxford

Curator Paul Collins takes us on a journey with a 3000 year old king uncovered by an Indian soldier digging a trench in World War I, and explore what he has to tell us about the formation of Iraq as a nation state.
 

Episode released 11 Feb 2022

Click here to read a transcript of this episode
 

Read more

• Read more about the sculpture here or see an image here
   

Speakers in this episode

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Dr Paul Collins, Curator of the Ancient Middle East, Ashmolean Museum
• Santanu Das, Professor of Modern Literature and Culture, University of Oxford
• Dr Mehiyar Kathem, Nahrein Network, UCL and Oxford, Researcher on cultural heritage in contemporary Iraq

Curator Andrew Shapland shows us a tiny fragment which reveals the story of the man who set out to hunt down the mythical minotaur. Sir Arthur Evans went on to become known as the father of archaeology, but his journey reveals a culture war between empires in the Mediterranean.
 

Click here to read a transcript of this episode
 

Read more

• Read more about the fragment here or view an image here
   

Speakers in this episode

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Dr Andrew Shapland, Curator of Bronze Age & Classical Greece
• Dr Lucia Patrizio Gunning, Modern Historian, UCL
• Dr Antonis Kotsonas, Associate Professor of Mediterranean History and Archaeology
• Dr Lisa Bendall, Associate Professor in Aegean Prehistory, University of Oxford
• Dr Athanasia Kanta, archaeologist
• With the voice of Jonathan Aris as Arthur Evans

The country’s first major art and antiquities collection now sits in the Ashmolean Museum. It reveals untold stories from the ancient world including shipwrecks, competitively collecting, underhand dealings and how classical art was used by aristocrats at the royal court to boost their status and standing. Join lecturer Alison Pollard, as she takes you on a journey which spans over 2000 years.
 

Episode released 25 Feb 2022

Click here to read a transcript of this episode
 

Read more

• Read about the Arundel marbles here
   

Speakers in this episode

• Series host: Lucie Dawkins, Director & Producer, Ashmolean Museum
• Dr Alison Pollard, Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, University of Oxford
• Professor Peter Stewart, Director of the Classical Art Research Centre, University of Oxford
• Jaś Elsner, Professor of Classics and Art History, University of Oxford
• Phiroze Vasunia, Professor of Greek, UCL