Ashmolean project Voices in the Gallery wins Vice-Chancellor’s Education Award

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New for 2020, the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Awards celebrate high-quality education across the collegiate University — recognising new and innovative approaches to teaching, and the steps being taken to further students' educational experience at Oxford.

A project led by the Ashmolean Museum, Voices in the Gallery, is one of the five winning projects which focus around innovation and transformation as well as collaborations between staff and students. Voices in the Gallery is a joint project with students from Oxford Spires Academy and the Ashmolean Museum that explores new ways to share a range of voices and viewpoints about objects in the Ancient Near East.

Young people from Eritrea, South Sudan and Syria co-created a set of audio recordings and films with Ashmolean gallery staff, reflecting on and responding to objects from the Ancient Near East. The films explore how ancient objects have different meanings which resonate across time and place. Using audio recordings from conversations shared during museum and school visits, they explore the shared learning between students and a curator around objects in the collection.

The films reveal new voices and viewpoints from diverse backgrounds, giving visitors new and surprising insights into the contemporary relevance of ancient objects. Through this project the Ashmolean discovered innovative and new ways of working and the students were given a sense of belonging at the heart of the museum and have films in which they take great pride.

"High quality outputs including the broadcast standard video, interview and photography set this entry apart. In particular making powerful use of learners and staff as co-creators, genuinely changing the way the museum’s objects are exhibited."  Judges’ comments

Watch the Voices in the Gallery videos

Find out more about the VC's Education Awards