The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1683. Our world famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time.
We are open every day, 10am–5pm. Admission is free.
Membership gives you unlimited access to exhibitions, members-only previews and curator-led talks and tours, a members’ magazine and events handbook sent to your door, as well as discounts across our shop, restaurant and café.
Join us today – your support helps keep our permanent collections free.
Learn about the untold stories and hidden narratives of empire, trade and transatlantic slavery through this contemporary art installation inspired by the Ashmolean’s European Ceramics collection.
A cup of tea represents comfort for many of us, but every sip connects us to the legacy of the British Empire, global trade and transatlantic slavery. The fashion for drinking sweetened tea from China inspired the luxury tea sets in the Ashmolean European Ceramics Gallery. Behind this wealth was the brutal exploitation of enslaved people producing sugar in the West Indies.
