IT’S been a busy few weeks for Oxford Brookes, with our new students arriving on campus, the launch of Photography Oxford and hundreds of visitors to the John Henry Brookes Building as part of Oxford Open Doors. All in addition to ‘business as usual’.

During the Open Doors weekend, we welcomed more than 750 visitors into our new John Henry Brookes building.

Visitors could take a guided tour through the amazing new spaces available to our students, and were able to get involved in a wide range of activities throughout the two days.

One fun aspect of the weekend was a nod to our roots as an art school in 1865.

Open Doors visitors were able to visit our Victorian art class and use their creative side, providing their interpretation of our very own life model – who was dressed (of course) as a Victorian gentleman.

We were also delighted to launch three exhibitions being hosted by Oxford Brookes as part of the Photography Oxford festival: World Press Photo, Panos Pictures’ On Solid Ground, and our community project Home, in collaboration with the Oxford Mail.

The exhibitions have already been a real success – within a few days we had welcomed our 1,000th visitor to the World Press Photo exhibition.

It has been very satisfying to see visitors to the university enjoying the photography on display, and taking advantage of the new spaces in and around the atrium of the Abercrombie extension.

It’s the first time that World Press Photo has exhibited in the UK, so it’s a real honour to be able to welcome them to Oxford, and Oxford Brookes.

Launching the three Photography Oxford exhibitions also provided a unique opportunity for a special presentation.

Oxford resident Louis Garnade, a former photographer for the Daily Mirror who went on to set up Summertown Publishing, won a World Press Photo Award in 1956. It was the second year of the prestigious international awards, which recognise the best in photojournalism.

However, Mr Garnade only learned of the accolade this year and the World Press Photo launch at Oxford Brookes was the perfect opportunity to formally recognise his achievement and present him with a copy of his photo 58 years on.

All three exhibitions are running until October 5, so do try to come along and take a look at the work on show.

On Saturday we also have a public lecture by experienced photomontage artist Peter Kennard, who will be talking about his new work, @earth, and we are sure that will be something to look forward to.

Being a part of our local community is very important to us at Brookes, and we are proud of our links to our neighbours.

It’s terrific to have a formal opportunity to invite Oxford through our doors, although we are actually open to our community all year round.

The Open Doors weekend was also the beginning of a significant period of celebration for us too.

With our 150th anniversary in 2015 getting closer every day it was a perfect opportunity to launch our celebrations, with so many of our staff, students and neighbours together.

We’ve had some huge achievements since 1865, bringing together like-minded institutions and progressing through different college titles, the Oxford Polytechnic and lastly as a university since 1992.

We’re looking forward to celebrating our 150th with our neighbours and friends in Oxford over the coming year.

Keep an eye out for more to come.