Museums to open late on Christmas Light Night

The Ashmolean, Pitt Rivers, Museum of the History of Science and Bodleian will entertain visitors after hours as Oxford’s Christmas lights are switched on

The Ashmolean Museum, Museum of the History of Science, Pitt Rivers Museum and Bodleian Library will all open late on Friday (2 December), as the Christmas lights are switched on in Oxford.

The Museum of the History of Science will celebrate the 12 days of Christmas by exploring other elements of the number 12. The top gallery will open from 7pm to 9pm with puzzles and prizes, a trail of objects concerning the number 12 will run until from 7.30pm to 8.15pm, and ’12 Angry Men’ starring Henry Fonda will be screened in the basement from 8.30pm to 10pm.

The Pitt Rivers Museum will open in darkness from 7pm to 10pm and visitors will be given torches to navigate around the ground floor. World music DJs will play ethnographic field recordings from across the world in the upper gallery, along with Joined Up Singing (performing at 8.40pm) and Korean percussion group Uuri Samulnori (from 9.40pm). In the lecure theatre, local musicians will perform from 7pm to 9.30pm. There will also be Ugandan Embaire (xylophone) taster sessions at 7.30pm and 8.30pm and an outside bar from 7pm to 9.45pm.

The Bodleian Library is putting on a one-day display of Victorian Christmas cards and objects from 10am to 4.30pm, free admission to the Divinity School and Convocation House from 6.30pm until 8pm. The Oxfordshire County Music Service will provide musical entertainment in the Divinity School from 6.45pm to 7.30pm.

The Ashmolean Museum will offer curator-led tours of the new Ancient Egypt and Nubia galleries at 6.30pm and 7pm. Museum director Christopher Brown will welcome visitors in the Atrium at 7.25pm, followed by performances from the Oxford Gospel Choir at 7.30pm and traditional dance and Egyptian music with Maqam from 8pm to 8.30pm and 9pm to 9.30pm. The Museum closes at 10pm.

Elsewhere in the city, Christmas Light Night boasts a programme of processions, art, dance, live music and performance, as well as a Christmas market. The event is being coordinated by Oxford Inspired and Oxford City Council.