Press Releases

Visitors to IWM’s branches will have the opportunity to join in activities ranging from the annual Remembrance Lecture, in partnership with BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking, to observing a poignant breaking of the two-minute silence through brand-new musical performances.

From 5 November until 1 December 2019, the brand new work of art from renowned street artists STIK and Thierry Noir will be displayed to the public for the very first time at IWM London. 

Recently digitised films from Imperial War Museums will air nationally for the first time this October, as Talking Pictures TV begins showing selections from the museum’s vast film archive.

Imperial War Museums (IWM) has digitised and released rarely seen footage of the making of the 1969 Battle of Britain film, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Michael Caine classic and IWM Duxford’s annual Battle of Britain Air Show.

IWM reveals designs, narrative and collections’ highlights for its ground-breaking new Second World War and The Holocaust Galleries, opening at IWM London in 2021.

This year’s Battle of Britain Air Show at IWM Duxford will look back at the 1969 Hollywood Battle of Britain film, and Duxford’s leading role in cinema.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of Churchill War Rooms becoming operational on 27 August 1939, Imperial War Museums (IWM) has digitised the original visitor book containing the names of numerous well-known visitors.

Organised by the IWM Institute in close partnership with Historic England with support from the UK Blue Shield, the symposium takes place on Saturday 7 September 2019 at IWM London as part of the critically acclaimed Culture Under Attack season.

To coincide with the exhibition Rebel Sounds (5 July 2019 – 5 January 2020), part of the Culture Under Attack season at IWM London, Imperial War Museums (IWM) presents Rebel Sounds Live, a free series of live interventions and discussions with musicians and activists who have risked their lives for culture in times of war, exile and censorship.

Lowry’s iconic painting, Going To Work is returning home to Manchester. The artwork, painted by Manchester native Laurence Stephen Lowry, will be going on display for the first time at IWM North from 29 July. Created in 1943, at the height of the Second World War, the painting was commissioned to depict industrial scenes in Manchester.

To coincide with the exhibition Yemen: Inside a Crisis (17 May 2019 – 26 January 2020) IWM is offering Manchester’s public the opportunity to explore the catastrophic implications of Yemen’s ongoing conflict beyond the walls of the museum. Yemen: Say hello to connect is a travelling art installation that uncovers the human cost of the crisis in Yemen by revealing the country’s everyday challenges.

Described by the UN as the “world’s worst” humanitarian crisis, the on-going conflict in Yemen has left an estimated 80% of the country’s men, women and children in desperate need of assistance.

Throughout history, oppressive regimes have attempted to eradicate forms of culture and expression, from Hitler’s persecution of swing and jazz groups in 1930s Nazi Germany to the ban of music in Northern Mali under Islamist rule in 2012. In spite of this, there have always been those willing to risk everything to resist oppression and protect threatened culture.

To coincide with the exhibition Rebel Sounds (5 July 2019 – 5 January 2020), part of the Culture Under Attack season at IWM London, IWM presents Rebel Sounds Live, a free series of live interventions and discussions with musicians and activists who have risked their lives for culture in times of war, exile and censorship.

From 19 April 2019, visitors to IWM North will be able to witness powerful footage from Academy Award winner Peter Jackson’s critically acclaimed They Shall Not Grow Old, alongside original imagery, footage and sound from IWM's extensive First World War collections.

Culture Under Attack is a free season of exhibitions, live music, performances and interventions that explore how war threatens not just people’s lives, but also the very things that help make lives worth living.

From the Nazi theft of art and the bombing of cathedrals in Coventry and Dresden to the destruction of objects from Mosul Museum in Iraq, war devastates lives, kills people and destroys the cultural heritage that they hoped would outlive them.

Never-before-seen documents from IWM's collections will be displayed as part of a new exhibition at IWM London, uncovering how cultural treasures in British museums and galleries were evacuated and protected during the Second World War.

IWM North’s Yemen season will spotlight “world’s worst” humanitarian crisis through 50 objects and photographs from the on-going conflict.

Mass flight display recreating D-Day mission to lead Imperial War Museums’ unprecedented 75th anniversary programme.

At the close of IWM's First World War Centenary programming, two unique and specially commissioned performances featuring new music by Mercury Award nominated band Field Music will be staged in 2019.