Highlights of the Annual Report - The Ashmolean Museum

10 / The Ashmolean 2002-03
Publications and the Shop
This year saw the retirement of Ian Charlton, the Museum’s first Publications
Officer. His proud achievement of excellent publications continued with
Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Paintings, a catalogue of the Daisy Linda Ward
collections by Fred Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische
Documentatie in The Hague. Well illustrated in colour and black and white,
it was a collaboration with
the Dutch publisher, Waanders. Four new titles were published in the
successful Handbook series, which now has over 20 titles and provides an
attractive introduction to the remarkable range and depth of the Museum’s
collections.
The Shop had a particularly good year, recording the best ever
Christmas. Its profits play a crucial part in the financing of the Ashmolean
and its present success is undoubtedly the result of the skilful buying and
commissioning of appropriate products by the Shop Manager, Anne Walker,
and her excellent and dedicated team.
Staff
Kathy Booth Stevens with a
group of young visitors.
Two senior and well-respected curators retired this year. Dr Roger Moorey
retired in September. His wise counsel and scholarship will be sorely missed
both by his department and by the Museum as a whole; we will also miss Dr
Oliver Impey, the curator of our Japanese works. Indeed, he is not so much
the curator as the creator of our Japanese collections, as Oliver has almost
single-handedly created in the Ashmolean the most important holdings of
Japanese art in this country outside London.
In June, Kathie Booth Stevens, Head of Education, left the Museum
which she had served so well for nine years. I want to record my profound
personal debt to Kathie, who has been such an inspirational colleague since
my arrival, and for whose wise advice and kind support I am immensely
grateful. The new head of Education, which is now a full-time post, is
Joanna Rice, formerly Head of Education for Warwickshire Museum
and County Records Office.
During the year a new post of Deputy Director has been created
and Dr Nicholas Mayhew, Keeper of the Heberden Coin Room,
has kindly agreed to serve in this role for an initial period of
four years. Dr Volker Heuchert has been appointed Collections
Manager in the Heberden Coin Room, following the retirement last
year of Dr Cathy King. The Director of Development, a new fulltime
post, has been created and we are delighted to welcome Edith
Prak, who brings great experience in medical and legal fund-raising.
This year also saw the retirement of Ian Charlton, Head of the
Publications Department, who was responsible for the
development of that Department which now plays such an
important role in the life - and the financial health - of the
Museum.
Dr Christopher Brown
Director
September 2003