Your Amazing Brain

This project was a partnership between the Oxford University for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN) and Banbury Museum and Gallery. There was a brain-related exhibition and an associated ambitious programme of events for a range of audiences in the Banbury community in spring/summer 2022. In autumn 2022, the exhibition traveled to the Discover Bucks museum in Aylesbury. During its run at Discover Bucks until April 2023, another exciting programme of public engagement events was delivered alongside the exhibition. The exhibition now lives at the Cheney School in Oxford, in partnership with the Rumble Museum, on longterm loan. 

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition and events programme!

The aim

'Your Amazing Brain: A User’s Guide' aimed to use neuroscience to show visitors how amazing their brains really are. From emotions to senses, visitors discovered how their brain interprets what it sees, hears, smells, and feels. 

The Reviews

From the visitor comments book for the exhibition, at Banbury Museum and Gallery:

• The current exhibition has much to interest me. As I had very lively grandchildren with me, I am hoping to return either on my own or with a friend to have more time to reflect on the material on display.
• The Amazing Brain exhibition was brilliant, great value for money in half term, entertained 3 kids and 2 Mum's. The interactive elements superb. Great fun and learning at the same time. Have recommended it already.
• The Amazing Brain exhibition was excellent, and really well-pitched, since it appealed equally to a 7 year old and a 70 year old.
• We did the brain crafts before going into the exhibition and the children really enjoyed it, the people running the crafts were really friendly and the children liked showing them what they had made.

From OxCIN's external evaluation consultant, Dr Clodagh Miskelly:

• Your Amazing Brain brought research and information about the brain, neuroimaging, neuroscience and OxCIN research to a new audience outside of Oxford in a location with few opportunities to engage with science and scientists.
• The exhibition and events were high quality and drew on the expertise and experience of the partnership and specialist consultants.
• There was no means to formally evaluate the experience of individual visitors to the exhibition, however evidence from the other evaluation methods suggest that the events and the exhibition contributed to a greater understanding of the brain, neuroscience and neuroimaging and the work of OxCIN as well as scientists and scientific process; and informal feedback also suggests that the exhibition contributed to learning.
• Your Amazing Brain provided many and varied opportunities for 75 researchers take part in public engagement and to develop and improve communication skills
• There was good uptake of these opportunities by researchers including staff and students with different levels of experience in public engagement which reflects the strong culture around public engagement at OxCIN.

the story of 'your amazing brain'

The exhibition was the result of several years of discussions between researchers at the University of Oxford and the team at Banbury Museum and Gallery. We then brought on board an external team of exhibition creative specialists: Stephen Foulger (exhibition consultant), Polly Lewis and George Lewis (exhibition and graphic design)

The exhibition installation process finally got underway in February 2022 at Banbury Museum & Gallery...

and the exhibition opened to the public in late February 2022:

While the exhibition was open at Banbury Museum & Gallery, we worked with the museum staff to develop and deliver a range of events connected to it. This included a primary schools' programme of class visits to the exhibition and researcher visits to classrooms...

...and a "live experiment" day, where thousands of children watched a livestream of our researchers conducting an MRI experiment designed by primary school children. We provided lesson materials for teachers on how to design an experiment, and then held a competition to select which one we would conduct live. You can watch the livestream video here. Here's a behind the scenes peek at the livestream recording process...

We also offered a variety of programmes for secondary school students: we brought our "Big Brain Roadshow" to multiple Banbury secondary schools, and also held an "A-level Day" at the museum where interested students could attend talks and interact informally with researchers through hands-on activities:

We also developed two events working with specific audience groups: neuroscience-themed sessions of the museum's existing Reminiscence Sessions for older adults, and an art workshop in partnership with the local chapter of the mental health charity 'Mind', for their service users:

The biggest event we ran was an after-hours Museum Late, in which we turned the museum into a neuroscience-themed carnival. We brought 50 staff members to run the event, and the 100+ tickets sold out. This was the first time the museum had ever held a Museum Late; they now do so regularly!

One of the performances we commissioned for the evening was an acrobatic performance on brain health, performed by members of the Oxford Acro Society who are also scientists! Read their blog post about their performance. 

After the exhibition closed in Banbury, it moved to Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury, from autumn 2022 - spring 2023. The launch event in November 2022 was an opportunity to celebrate this new phase of the exhibition's journey. We said goodbye to the "Ames Room" (distortion room) walk-in illusion element of the exhibition, and hello to the Beuchet Chair illusion instead, cleverly designed and installed by the exhibition team at Discover Bucks.

We developed a different events programme in partnership with the museum, to suit the needs and interests of local audiences: including half term activities featuring this giant inflatable brain kindly loaned by our colleagues in the Psychiatry Department....

.... a "touch tour" of the exhibition for blind and visually impaired visitors...

....a nearly sold-out series of six neuroscience lectures at the museum....

 the first-ever run of our escape room, "Escape the Lab: Rogue Brain Takeover" (watch the trailer), which sold out....

and another sold-out after-hours Museum Late:

As well as a repeat performance of the acrobatic performance on brain health, this time two of our staff developed and performed a musical set, interspersing songs with explanations of what each one does to our brains. (Watch the performance)

After the exhibition closed in Aylesbury, it went into storage while we searched for another partner museum. Then along came the Rumble Museum at Cheney School, who offered it a permanent home. We installed the exhibition in the school hallways during February 2024 half term:

At the exhibition launch at the school in late February 2024, students, families, and the public explored the exhibition and tried their hand at interactive neuroscience games that the students developed, some in partnership with our researchers:

If you wish to arrange a visit to the exhibition for your family or class, please contact the Director of the Rumble Museum, Dr Lorna Robinson, at lro@cheneyschool.org.