The Ashmolean’s collections span the civilisations of East and West, charting the aspirations of mankind from the Neolithic era to the present day. Among many riches, we have the world’s greatest collection of Raphael drawings, the most important collection of Egyptian pre-Dynastic material outside Cairo, the finest Anglo Saxon treasures beyond the British Museum and the foremost collection of modern Chinese art in the Western world. From late 2009, visitors to the Ashmolean will embark on a journey of discovery, beginning on the lower ground floor of a brand new building. Here themed galleries will explore connections between objects and activities, such as money, materials and representation of the human image, that are common to nearly every culture. Three further floors will provide fresh insights into the interaction of eastern and western cultures during ancient and modern times. On a floor dedicated to exploring the Ancient World, objects dating from pre-history to c.700AD will plot the emergence and flowering of ancient cultures from Egypt and the Near East, through Greece and Rome, to India and China. The Making of the Modern World floors will bring the story up to date with galleries exploring the art, religion, geography and ecology of cultures from Europe to the Far East, tracing the intermingling of people and objects that has shaped the world we live in today. Each floor will have an “orientation gallery” to introduce key themes and provide story trails to follow, so visitors can plan their own routes through different cultures and eras, making illuminating connections and comparisons that bring the past to life. An education centre, the first in the Ashmolean’s long history, will transform the visitor experience for school children (who currently have nowhere to hang their coats or eat their sandwiches), and provide much-needed space for a whole host of new activities and events that will welcome a far wider range of people into the Museum. State-of-the-art conservation facilities will transform our ability to care for the Museum’s treasures, while a new Conservation Gallery, open to the public, will showcase the work of the Museum’s conservators and the fasinating interaction of art, science and technology that they bring about. What is making this possible? The Ashmolean is undergoing a £61 million redevelopment, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Award-winning architect Rick Mather has designed a new building in which to house our collections of antiquities, Eastern art and coins. This new building, which adjoins the existing historic Ashmolean building, doubles public gallery space and gives us the scope to totally re-think the way we present our world-class collections to the public.