Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford is scheduled to reopen to the public on 1 May.

A four-day programme of special events over the Bank Holiday weekend will celebrate completion of phases one and two of the redevelopment programme.

Reconstruction of the museum’s entrance will enable visitors to enter on the same level as the adjacent Museum of Natural History. The new space will accommodate the reception and a shop.

Stairs and a platform lift for wheelchair users will lead guests down to the exhibition gallery, which has been revamped to restore the original view through the museum’s totem pole on the far wall. Original display cases transferred to the Lower Gallery during the 1960s will now feature at the front of the museum.

The emptied Lower Gallery will provide a new area for family activities, like the monthly Pitt Stops and special holiday programmes.

Eight additional displays focusing on painting and decorative styles will also showcase many previously unseen artefacts from the reserve collections.

The Upper Gallery is set to reopen in spring 2010 and will house the museum’s firearm and armour collections, which were originally exhibited on the ground floor.

Funding came from the Heritage Lottery Fund (£1m), the Clore Duffield Foundation and the DCMS/Wolfson Foundation’s Museum and Galleries Improvement Fund, although a £30,000 shortfall remains.