2007 At Imperial War Museum North

Add this to a photographic exhibition on the Falklands conflict and another on Indian Independence along with our Timestack handling sessions, regular activities and the acclaimed Big Picture Shows, and I feel sure we will be able give the whole family a memorable visit this year.

FROM JANUARY: CHILDREN OF JERUSALEM: Painting Pain, Dreaming Peace. This remarkable display of art by Israeli and Palestinian children was launched to international acclaim in Jerusalem before travelling to Geneva, London and now Manchester. The children spent two years working with Israeli and Palestinian artists and the paintings they produced show how art can build a bridge between people and nations. Organised by The Institute for the Study of Religions and Communities in Israel and the East Jerusalem Department of the Social Activities Branch, Municipality of Jerusalem. Toured by the Ben Uri Gallery: The London Jewish Museum of Art.

FROM FEBRUARY: Highlights of Second World War Art. IWM North presents a special exhibition showing how the Second World War shaped people's lives by bringing together art and personal testimony. Following on from the popular Witness exhibition of First World War Art in 2006, extraordinary art from Imperial War Museum's internationally-acclaimed Second World War collections will be displayed alongside gripping first hand accounts of life at the Front line and at home.
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The Imperial War Museum, established in 1917 to record the contributions and experiences of all British and Commonwealth peoples in the First World War and subsequent conflicts, holds one of the greatest collections of twentieth century British art in the world. Witness 2 will feature around 70 paintings, works on paper and sculpture from the collection, with internationally renowned works such as Battle of Britain by Paul Nash and The Nuremberg Trial 1946 by Dame Laura Knight together with lesser known but important works of the period such as A Nursery School for War Workers' Children by Elsie Hewland and A Saline Bath by Alfred Thomson.

This will be the first time that some major recent acquisitions will be displayed (by Morris Kestelman, William Scott and John Minton) and the first time that many works will have been exhibited outside London (including work by Edward Burra, Henry Carr, Leonard Rosoman and a selection of Ronald Searle's drawings from his time as a Prisoner of War in the Far East).

In conjunction with Imperial War Museum North's focus on people's stories and the message that war shapes lives, Witness 2 will open up a society under the strain of total war by revealing the experiences and contributions of those both living through and fighting during the Second World War (from civilians, nurses and firemen to service men and women, prisoners of war, and the artists themselves). Works will be displayed in themes reflecting experiences from the horror of battle and captivity to the hard physical work on the Home Front. Paintings such as Liberation by Henry Carr and The Nuremberg Trials by Laura Knight raise questions about the scale of destruction and responsibility for the war's costs.

Men and women are shown waiting, preparing, working, fighting, suffering, celebrating and questioning during the greatest conflict in human history.

The extraordinary global nature of the war is reflected in a distinct area of the exhibition focusing on the careers and travels of 3 official war artists - Edward Bawden, Edward Ardizzone and Anthony Gross - who journeyed far and wide to paint British and Commonwealth forces.

Imperial War Museum holds the single largest number of works commissioned under a major scheme administered by the War Artists Advisory Committee during the Second World War. The Committee supported the production, exhibition and purchase of high quality work on an impressive scale from the outbreak of war, and then ensured it entered collections around the country at the end of the war. This will be the first time that Imperial War Museum's Second World War collection has been shown at IWM North.

FROM MARCH: A LONG WAY FROM HOME: THE FALKLANDS 25 years on (working title). On 2 April 1982 Argentine forces overwhelmed the Royal Marine garrison in Port Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands. The retaking by British forces of these islands, along with nearby South Georgia, was codenamed Operation Corporate. 252 British and 655 Argentine servicemen died, as did 3 islanders. Over 10, 000 prisoners of war were taken.

This small exhibition of photographs is drawn from IWM's own archives and marks the 25th anniversary of the conflict. It includes powerful images taken by both British and Argentine servicemen who all have etched on their faces the effort and exhaustion of fighting in a desolate landscape a long way from home.
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FROM MAY: The Animals' War. This major exhibition, on tour from Imperial War Museum London, explores the remarkable role of animals in conflict from the First World War to the present day.
It is estimated that 16 million animals served during the First World War - by 1916 alone the warring nations had raised 103 cavalry divisions with over a million horses. Despite increasing mechanisation and advances in technology, animals have continued to play their part in the front line. Mules, elephants, camels, horses and other beasts have transported men and material in difficult terrain. In the Second World War over 200,000 carrier pigeons were used by Britain's armed forces and secret service organisations. Dogs have guarded military personnel and property, located injured soldiers, tracked down enemy insurgents and sniffed out explosives. More recently rats and pigs have also been trained to clear minefields and the dolphin's sensitive sonar has been exploited to identify mines in the Persian Gulf.

The Animals' War uses photographs, film, sculptures, memorabilia and interactive features to explore the intriguing and often surprising stories of animals in war. Among the working animals whose stories are included in the exhibition are Winkie, the pigeon who saved the lives of a ditched aircrew by carrying a vital message revealing their location; Sefton, the cavalry horse who survived the Hyde Park terrorist bombing by the IRA; Endal, the assistance dog who helped to rehabilitate a badly-injured Gulf War veteran; and Roselle, the Labrador who led her blind owner to safety from the 78th floor of the World Trade Center after it was attacked on 11 September 2001.

Animals of many kinds from dogs and cats, to lions and eagles have also been adopted officially and unofficially as pets and mascots by the armed forces. A number of these will be featured in the exhibition including Rin Tin Tin, who was found as a puppy on the Western Front and went on to become a Hollywood legend; Judy, the pointer, the only animal to have been officially registered as a Japanese prisoner of war; Voytek, the bear mascot of the 22nd Transport Company of the Polish Army Service Corps who saw action at Monte Cassino in 1944; and Simon of HMS Amethyst, the only cat to have been awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal known as the "animals' Victoria Cross". Dickin Medals on display will include those awarded to three police horses during the V1 Flying Bomb Offensive of 1944 and to Buster, the spaniel, who located a cache of arms in Iraq in 2003.

FROM JULY: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM NORTH 'S 5TH BIRTHDAY. Imperial War Museum North, recently awarded best Large Attraction in the whole of the northwest of England is 5 years old on 5th July 2007. In that time the Museum has clocked up a large number of visitors of all ages from all over the world by bringing some of the Imperial War Museum's exceptionally rich collections to the North and has won over 20 awards. The iconic building which signals the Museum's content, the first design to be built in the UK by Daniel Libeskind offers some of the most startling techniques of modern exhibition design. Always listening to what our visitors want, the Museum has constantly evolved over those past five years so why not visit to see some of the new displays, stories in the Main Exhibition Space and interactive Action Stations.
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FROM NOVEMBER: The 90th Anniversary Of The Commonwealth War Graves Commission. IWM North is proud to host the British leg of this special exhibition (opening simultaneously in Canada and Australia) marking the 90th anniversary of the founding by Royal Charter in 1917 of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). The CWGC pays tribute to the 1, 700, 000 men and women of the Commonwealth Forces who died in the First and Second world wars, over 23, 000 sites and 150 countries.

Since its inception, the Commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots, erecting headstones over graves and, in instances where the remains are missing, inscribing the names of the dead on permanent memorials. Never making distinctions on account of military or civil rank, race or faith the CWGC plays a vital role in remembering the war dead, enabling future generations to remember the sacrifice made by so many.

The exhibition will feature work from a major new publication comprised of archive photographs together with new images by the acclaimed photographer Brian Harris. Not only revealing the history of the CWGC and its continuing work, the exhibition will also illustrate the human stories behind the graves and the nature of the loss suffered by families all over the Commonwealth after the two world wars.

NEW TO THE PERMANENT DISPLAYS IN 2007: Look out for new exhibits in the Main Exhibition Space - from a Luftwaffe log book recording air raids on Manchester and Liverpool to a series of extraordinary and moving series of photographs by Frauke Eigen remembering victims of genocide in Kosovo.
Recent stories added to the displays include those of nurse Edith Cavell, shot by firing squad in 1915, and Douglas Clark, a sporting legend and wartime hero.

By www.iwm.org.uk