[Catriona Pearson:] The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in the world.
It's a centre for learning and research,
for looking after this wonderful collection,
making it accessible for everyone,
whatever they want to get out of their visit, we try and make sure that there's something for them.
[Melissa Fanous:] So they walk in and they're like,
"Where do we go and where's the best place to start?"
Especially if you're at the front door,
you tend to understand when someone walks in,
what they're going to be looking for before they even ask for it.
[Freddie Cambanakis:] From basic things like: "Can I have a ticket to the exhibition?"...
to "I've dug something up in my garden, is there someone I can show it to?"
[Kate Mervyn-Jones:] It's got everything for every different type of child,
it's very, very visual.
There's incredible art, it's beautiful.
There's also a lot of gore!
"All the stuff that they used in their lives,
that can give us clues about who they were
and what they did."
Roman Britain: there's lots of places left that they can go and visit,
but I think with Egyptian, it's great to come to the Ashmolean for the collection here.
[David Gowers:] You'll say 'a photographer', and they'll go, "oh, weddings?"
So this is a little head of an Egyptian statuette which is for the Metropolitan Museum in America.
You could do a quick snap of this.
And when I first got it I thought, "it's corroded, it's uninspiring."
But then you get a couple of lights on it,
and it brings out the detail and it looks quite nice.
And there we go!
[Jevon Thistlewood:] I'd say you have your textbook enemies
-- an excess of moisture can affect some things,
if there's not enough moisture,
too much light,
there are certain insects that can feed on parts of the collection,
but there are also dangers associated with things becoming...
anonymous or unseen.
So it's not simply about fixing a problem,
it's about knowing as much about the object as you can.
We have various ways of doing that.
[Maria Kopsacheili:] We are in the collection of casts,
which are exact copies of Greek and Roman statues.
They have always been part of the teaching of Classical archaeology and art.
"It was made in bronze, and we know this from Pausanias."
In a collection like this...
one has the opportunity to look at these pieces together.
[Student:] "Is it on an inscribed base?" [Maria:] "No, but you're close."
[Christina Gernon:] We're packing two objects that are going on loan.
They're going to a European country.
(-- We try and keep some information sensitive!)
Objects travel all across the world.
It is awe-inspiring in some ways.
[Alison Roberts:] This is our 'sensitive store'.
It's air managed to be dry.
I'm going to be working on some photo albums from the Sir Arthur Evans archive.
It's very Blue Peter, isn't it?
'These are some I prepared earlier!'
Because we've got Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price
to do a new artwork based on our archives
and those of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
She wants page 10, 11...
[Mike Earp:] Our sous-chef - "Hello Tom!" [Tom:] 'Hello."
So we have a cafe downstairs and a restaurant up here,
and we often take inspiration from the exhibitions which are going on.
At the moment we have the Great British Drawings exhibition.
In the past when we've had people like Cezanne,
we've added some French influences.
I particularly like the second floor -- I like all the violins --
but I normally try and stay away on my days off
because it's nice to stay away from work.
[Clare Flynn:] Here we're looking at some anchors for the maritime exhibition.
We're probably only going to receive these small parts
because the wooden parts haven't survived.
We reconstruct how that anchor would have looked,
and we have to try and put ourselves in the mind's eye of the visitor,
looking at how things are mounted,
the colours that are used,
and not just generally appreciating objects!
[*Laughs*]
But I do love this type of work...