Centre for Research in Asian Ceramics 

In response to national and international recognition of the importance of the Oriental Museum’s Asian ceramic collections and associated scholarship (both within the Museum and the University’s Academic Departments), the Oriental Museum's Centre for Research in Asian Ceramics (CRAC) was established in May 2024 as a focus for teaching, research and inter-institutional collaboration in this field.

Durham University is recognised as a major centre for the study of the international trade in Chinese ceramics in the medieval period.  Ceramics also sit at the heart of a range of research-led Memoranda of Understanding include the Palace Museum, Beijing; the National Museum of Japanese History; the National University of Singapore and the University of Malaya.  In addition, in 2024 the National Museum of Korea generously agreed to fund a 2-year curatorial post to focus upon the Oriental Museum’s Korean collections.  This role has a heavy focus upon researching and reinterpreting our Korean ceramic collection. 

In addition to promoting broader scholarship in the field of Asian ceramics, CRAC seeks to enhance awareness of the Oriental Museum’s outstanding Asian ceramic collections and encourage both national and international partnership work focused upon them through promoting co-curated exhibitions (both digital and physical); online resource development; joint publications; research collaborations; and through the support of the Durham Collection Fellowship Programme.

Ceramics at the Oriental Museum

World-class ceramic collections have sat at the heart of the Oriental Museum’s collections since its creation, with the Chinese ceramic collection of Rt Hon Malcolm MacDonald being one of the Museum’s founding collections.  Over the past 60 years curators have worked with collectors to bring a wide range of major collections of ceramics from across Asia into the museum. This has been supplemented by targeted acquisitions, including contemporary material. The collection today includes some more than 5,000 ceramic items, primarily from West & Central Asia, South-East Asia, Japan, China and Korea.

The collection ranges in date from prehistory to the present day, with a significant focus having been placed in recent years upon the collection of contemporary work by prominent and developing potters.  Planned future bequests will further enhance the Japanese, Chinese and West Asian collections, as well as developing our holdings of European pottery reflecting the influence of Asian ceramics on the West.