MAJOR exhibitions at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum helped boost visitor numbers at the attraction last year.
A show featuring paintings by Impressionist artist Cezanne proved particularly popular, the museum’s new director said.
It ran from March to June and broke the Beaumont Street attraction’s record for a single exhibition, with 82,200 visitors.
The Cezanne show helped to contribute to a 16 per cent boost in visitor numbers last year, compared to an average increase at attractions across the UK of 6.5 per cent, according to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.
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There were 754,957 visitors to the museum in 2013, and 879,401 last year.
Dr Alexander Sturgis, director of the Ashmolean, was appointed last year following the retirement of Professor Christopher Brown.
Dr Alexander Sturgis, the new director of the Ashmolean Museum.
Dr Sturgis said: “It’s fantastic news the UK has seen such a strong rise in visitors to its leading attractions.
“At the Ashmolean, we want to raise our annual visitor numbers to one million people a year. We hope to do this by putting on a range of popular exhibitions, public events, such as the Live- Fridays series, and an even stronger offer for children and families.”
Discovering Tutankhamun, which ran from July to November, brought in 43,000 visitors, and a show featuring work by Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, which ended in January 2014, attracted 45,300 visitors.
The six LiveFriday events brought in more people, with one attracting 5,600 visitors.
After the Ashmolean reopened in November 2009 visitors numbers peaked at 1.2 million but have since dropped back to about 850,000-a-year.
Visitor numbers were also up at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Parks Road where there was a 25 per cent increase compared to the previous year. In 2014 there were 423,603 visitors, compared to the previous year’s total of 338,494.
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History next door was closed in 2013 for a £2 million restoration project, but there were 640,596 visitors last year.
The Museum of Natural History.
Bernard Donoghue, director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, said: “These figures clearly demonstrate the popularity of our best-loved attractions and the importance of tourism to the UK. Looking forward to our 2015 figures we are confident that they will rise again.”
Graham Jones, a spokesman for traders’ group ROX – Backing Oxford Business, said: “Visitors who come to Oxford to see these major attractions will be spending their money in the city.”
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