Headshot of Xa Sturgis

Dr Xa Sturgis CBE

Director of Ashmolean Museum and Keeper of the Pictures

Supernumerary & Governing Body Fellow

Education

MA (Oxford), PhD (Courtauld)

Xa Sturgis has been Director of the Ashmolean Museum since 2014. Before taking up his current post he was Director of the Holburne Museum, Bath (2005-2014) where he oversaw the Museum’s major renovation and extension. From 1990 to 2005 he worked at the National Gallery in a number of roles including Exhibitions and Programmes Curator.

Among the exhibitions he has curated and his publications are: Telling Time (NG, 2000); Bill Viola: the Passions (NG, 2003/4); Rebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the 19th century (NG, 2006); Presence, The Art of Portrait Sculpture (Holburne, 2012); and Jeff Koons at the Ashmolean (Ashmolean, 2019).