IWM Blog

  • Friends, Foes and Good Companions: Grimsby town trail
    Our Big Picture
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    Friends, Foes and Good Companions

    Our Big Picture, 5 December 2024
    The Cod Wars, a series of confrontations between Iceland and the UK overfishing rights in the North Atlantic, have been a topic of discussion for decades. However, the impact of this conflict on the fishing industry and the communities involved has often been overlooked. That's where the "Friends, Foes and Good Companions" exhibition comes in.
  • The Waiting Gardens of the North by artist Michael Rakowitz
    Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    The Waiting Gardens of the North by artist Michael Rakowitz

    Gina Barron, Baltic Volunteer, 4 December 2024
    An exhibition forming part of the IWM 14-18 Now Legacy Fund project, dealing with conflict and the displacement of people. Gina talks about her experience as a volunteer on the project.
  • Chila Kumari Singh Burman, The Shining Lights of Service at the Royal Pavilion
    Photograph by Brighton Pictures
    Blog: Art

    The Shining Lights of Service at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton

    Nicola Coleby, Creative Programme Manager, Brighton & Hove Museums, 13 November 2024
    Opening on Remembrance Day in 2023, artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE created The Shining Lights of Service, a unique, multi-coloured light installation commemorating the Indian Hospital at the Royal Pavilion during the First World War. It was an IWM14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commission in partnership with Brighton & Hove Museums and in collaboration with Believe in Me CIC.
  • View over moorland
    © Mhairi Sutherland
    Blog: Art

    The Tower, the Light and the Line

    Guest author: Mhairi Sutherland, Visual Artist, 8 November 2024
    Visual Artist Mhairi Sutherland shares details of her artwork BASE, part of 'Mapping Monuments' project. The project and Mhairi's artist residency is an exploration of the origins of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland (1824), continuing her ongoing artistic research of the militarised landscapes of the north coast of Ireland.
  • Bedroom with damaged wall and an iron frame bed
    Photograph by Turner and Drinkwater. Courtesy of Maritime Museum: Hull Museums and Gallery
    Blog: First World War

    Where Were You?

    Guest author: Dr Lee Karen Stow, Visual Artist & Researcher, 7 November 2024
    Dr Lee Karen Stow presents the second photo essay in Visual Traces, a visual narrative exploring the wartime experiences of civilian, working-class women in her family and birthplace of Hull through the traces they left behind.
  • Green V2 rocket bomb on display in the atrium of IWM London
    IWM
    Blog: Objects

    80 years on: the V weapon attacks on Britain

    Zoe Melabianaki and Dominic Hewett, Research Support Librarians, 10 October 2024
    The Collections Access and Research Team will be participating in tenth annual History Day held at Senate House, London on Tuesday 5th November 2024. History Day is a day for researchers, students, and enthusiasts to explore the collections of libraries, museums and archives from all over UK. The theme for this year’s event is anniversaries and this blog will look at how V1 and V2 rockets were used against British soil eighty years ago and their impact on local communities and ordinary people’s lives.
  • Several men wading through the water with other men behind preparing to disembark landing craft
    IWM (BU 1184)
    Blog: Objects

    Commemorating D-Day: The Library Collections at IWM

    Charlotte Willsmore and Kaili Smith, Research Support Librarians, 10 October 2024
    On Tuesday 5th November the Collections Access and Research team will be participating in the 10th Annual History Day, held at Senate House. History Day is a day for researchers, students, and enthusiasts to explore the collections of libraries, museums and archives from all over UK. The theme for this year’s event is anniversaries and in honour of this theme, this blog will look at the commemoration of D-Day through materials held in the Imperial War Museums’ Library collection. 
  • The We Can Do Better installation on Downhill House
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    We Can Do Better

    Guest authors: Alannah Ferry, Brónagh Kelly, Dáire Stafford, Étain McAvoy, Rebecca Mulhern, Róisín Grall, 13 September 2024
    We Can Do Better was a takeover of Downhill House by the artist Joe Caslin in collaboration with a group of young women born after the Good Friday Agreement. Produced in Northern Ireland by the Nerve Centre, Caslin co-created the work with a group known as ‘The Kindred Collective’. The temporary, paper-based artwork stretched across the front of Downhill House and was designed in response to some of the issues affecting young people in Northern Ireland today. In this blog post, the collective explains how a nine-month process of engagement and co-creation led to a piece of work that reflected societal conflict, empowerment and change.
  • Black and white image of trees at night
    © Grzegorz Stefanski
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    locusts: a new IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund art commission

    Guest author: Joseph Constable, Head of Exhibitions, De La Warr Pavilion, 29 August 2024
    Commissioned by the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund in partnership with The Brickworks Museum, located in the village of Swanwick, Southampton, locusts brings together real-life testimonies from the local community about the Second World War and its aftermath within this part of England, whilst exploring the potential for individual and collective healing through processes of recollection and re-enactment. Joseph Constable shares his reflections on this powerful new film.
  • Nurse Elsie Sandy picking cosmos flowers outside the nurses' hostel in the grounds of the Colonial Hospital on St Vincent in March 1955.
    IWM (TR 7109)
    Blog: Objects

    Reading the West Indies: A Guide to finding Caribbean stories in our Library Collection

    Zipporah Blake-Gravesande, Apprentice Research Support Librarian, 15 August 2024
    A guide to locating Caribbean library resources in IWM London's Research Room, including how to search collections, book a Research Room appointment and a reading list.
  • Acrobats in black outfits build a human pyramid, standing on each other's shoulders
    After the Rain, Compagnie XY. Photo © Joseph Gerard Photography.
    Blog: Arts and Culture

    After the Rain

    Guest Author - Rachel Melaugh, Creative Director In Your Space Circus, 25 June 2024
    Part of the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund in partnership with Ulster University, 'After the Rain' was the culmination of over a years long engagement in Derry-Londonderry by the world renowned contemporary French circus troupe Compagnie XY. Rachel Melaugh, Creative Director of In Your Space Circus and producer for this project shares her reflections.
  • Old box containing many embroidered handkerchiefs
    © Lee Karen Stow
    Blog: First World War

    Unfolding Hankies

    Guest author: Dr Lee Karen Stow, Visual Artist & Researcher, 25 June 2024
    In this guest blog post, Dr Lee Karen Stow shares insights into her new project. Unfolding her maternal grandmother Olive May Bertholini’s hankies, she also unfolds her story of war and, perhaps, of love. Hidden within these squares of delicate cotton and silk, and striped gents hankies, are memories and clues to what she and others went through during the two world wars.

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