Students Bring Fresh Ideas to The Brickworks Through University Innovation Project

A new collaboration between the The Brickworks Museum and the University of Southampton is giving students the opportunity to tackle real-world challenges while helping a local heritage site explore new ideas.

The partnership forms part of the university’s Student Innovation Projects, a programme that connects organisations with teams of students who work on practical business or community challenges. During the four-week project, students from a range of academic backgrounds collaborate to research a problem, develop solutions and present recommendations to the partner organisation.

For The Brickworks Museum the project offers a chance to gain fresh perspectives on how the museum can engage audiences and develop new initiatives. By analysing the museum’s current activities and audience, the students aim to identify innovative ways to strengthen its impact and attract new visitors.

In November last year, museum staff put together a client brief focusing on how to improve the museum entrance from Swanwick Lane, past the new housing and down the drive to the main reception. University staff then advertised the opportunity to students and put together two teams, Blue and Yellow, to work on the project. The student teams had just four weeks in which to visit the museum, research the organisation, and possible solutions, before putting together written reports.

The project concluded on Tuesday 10th March when the Museum Director and Collections Manager travelled to the Highfield campus, where the students presented their final recommendations. Both the Blue and Yellow team were very professional in the delivery of the presentations and the suggestions for both the external signage and improvements to our online presence were fantastic. The understanding they demonstrated about the museum and our requirements were very impressive.

As an organisation working on a very tight budget, with very limited resources, this project has proved incredibly beneficial. Having new eyes looking at existing challenges has generated fresh ideas that we would not have go to on our own. We would like to thank the University of Southampton, Department of Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise, for their support and encouragement, and the seven students who delivered above and beyond expectations through this project. Please do look out for their ideas becoming reality over the next 12 months.