In 1816 Viscount Fitzwilliam bequeathed his art collection to Cambridge University in order to "promote the increase of leaning". Today the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has just officially open its doors again after a 12 million pound overhaul and extension, which will ensure that it can live up to this motto. On the 1st July, the museum showed to the public how it had re-designed itself to cope with the swelling number of visitors per year coming from across the globe. The museum has gained over 3000 sq metres of extra display space over four floors, enabling it to bring more of the half a million objects it owns onto permanent display and give it a chance to host more temporary exhibitions.

The Antiquities department has got its fair share of this expansion. Though this stage of the project does not affect its viewing spaces, the department has gained new offices and, more importantly, a student and seminar room. Dr Lucilla Burn, the curator of the department, believes this is will allow more "hands-on" study sessions with the objects themselves and more interactive outreach seminar work, such as their "Introduction to Ancient Egypt" seminar series planned for the autumn. The improved storage facilities will also offer better access for scholars coming to the Fitzwilliam from across the world to study its collection.

All this though will pail into comparison with the department's plans for the Egyptian galleries, which roll into action this autumn. Just this week, they have got confirmation of a grant of half a million pounds from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which completes the total of £1.25 million needed to re-vitalise the Egyptian galleries with a whole new layout. To honour this new development, the department will also be hosting an exhibition this autumn on Roman Egyptomania.

At the same time, the department is in negotiation with the Getty trust to fund two full time conservators and are about to employ a new staff member (again funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund) who will cross the boundary between academic and educational outreach work. These three new positions will, amazingly, double the existing staff in the Antiquities department. It is almost unbelievable that a collection with such a world wide reputation is cared for, promoted, displayed and researched by only three dedicated staff members. It is a department that most certainly punches about its collective staff weight. Lucilla Burn believes this is a problem facing many UK regional museums, but particularly those attached to a university such as the ones in Cambridge, Oxford and Manchester, which have to fight against the perception that they have a cosy university income to cover running costs. Indeed, in her view, the future for museums, like the Fitzwilliam, depends on more of these public/private funding partnerships, such as that instigated in the latest round of re-developments completed for 1st July. It is not for nothing that the Fitzwilliam has been keen to underline its public outreach agenda and not for nothing that much of the new development has been about creating new Arts study rooms, IT resources and education spaces for the public and particularly for schools. If the public/private partnership is to work, the museum has to be seen to act for the benefit of the public and not just the university - a fact also recognised by the Ashmoleum museum in Oxford and its new Antiquities curator Susan Walker, who apparently also has re-development plans in the pipeline.

Dr Burn is confident though that this challenge is something the Fitzwilliam, and particularly the Antiquities department, will continue to meet. Over the next ten years, she hopes to see the re-designing of the Egyptian gallery pave the way for a re-design of the Greek and Roman galleries. Her vision is for a thematic cross-culture display aided by the latest in interactive computer technology such as the PDA system now being developed for visitors. In preparation for such an expansion, the department is already planning a large exhibition for 2007 on the Ancient Theatre to coincide with the Triennial Greek Play in Cambridge. It is clear that the next ten years will see major changes in the Antiquities department at the Fitzwilliam, of which this month's re-opening is only the beginning. Indeed, with visitor figures at now over a quarter of a million a year and growing, they definitely seem to be doing something right!

Michael Scott