 | |
| Established | 5 July 2002 |
|---|---|
| Location | The Quays Trafford Wharf Road Trafford Park Greater Manchester England |
| Coordinates | 53°28′11″N2°17′56″W / 53.4697°N 2.2989°W /53.4697; -2.2989 |
| Type | War museum |
| Visitors | 244,564 (2019)[1] |
| Public transit access | Imperial War Museum |
| Website | iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-north |
| Imperial War Museums | |
Imperial War Museum North (sometimes referred to asIWM North) is a museum in theMetropolitan Borough of Trafford inGreater Manchester, England. One of five branches of theImperial War Museum, it explores the impact of modern conflicts on people and society. It is the first branch of the Imperial War Museum to be located in the north of England. The museum occupies a site overlooking theManchester Ship Canal on Trafford Wharf Road,[2]Trafford Park, an area which duringWorld War II was akey industrial centre and consequently heavily bombed during theManchester Blitz in 1940.[3] The area is now home tothe Lowry cultural centre and theMediaCityUK development, which stand opposite the museum atSalford Quays.
The museum building was designed byarchitectDaniel Libeskind and opened in July 2002, receiving 470,000 visitors in its first year of opening. It was recognised with awards or prize nominations for its architecture and is a prime example ofDeconstructivist architecture. The museum features a permanent exhibition of chronological and thematic displays, supported by hourly audiovisual presentations which are projected throughout the gallery space. The museum also hosts a programme of temporary exhibitions in a separate gallery. Since opening, the museum has operated a successfulvolunteer programme, which since January 2007 has been run in partnership withManchester Museum. As part of a national museum, Imperial War Museum North is financed by theDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport and by self-generated income. Admission is free.
During the 1990s, the Imperial War Museum sought to open a branch in the north of England. Seventy-one sites were offered for consideration by 36 local councils.[4] One such council was that ofHartlepool, inCounty Durham, for whom a new museum building was designed byarchitectSir Norman Foster for a site on Hartlepool's dockside.[5] In 1992 theTeesside Development Corporation offered the museum, on behalf of Hartlepool council, a total of £14.4 million towards construction and running costs.[6] However, theNational Audit Office later reported that the corporation's offer breached government rules and negotiations were abandoned.[6][7]
In January 1999 the thenCulture SecretaryChris Smith launched a project to construct the new museum inTrafford,Greater Manchester.[4][8] The Trafford Park area has strong associations with the Second World War on the Britishhome front; factories in the area producedAvro Lancaster heavy bombers, andRolls-Royce Merlinaero engines used by a number ofRoyal Air Force combat aircraft.[9] By 1945 the area employed 75,000 people.[10] The area was consequently heavily bombed, particularly during theManchester Blitz, when 684 people were killed in raids over two nights in December 1940.[11] By the time of Chris Smith's announcement, the museum had already received outlineplanning permission (in October 1997), with full approval in April 1999.[12]
An architectural competition for the new museum was held in 1997, with the winning design being that of Berlin-basedarchitectDaniel Libeskind. Born inŁódź, Poland, in 1946, Libeskind's family had suffered duringWorld War II and dozens of his relatives were murdered inThe Holocaust. It was his first building in the United Kingdom.[2] At the museum's opening, Libeskind said that he sought to "create a building ... which emotionally moved the soul of the visitor toward a sometimes unexpected realization"'.[13] Libeskind envisaged a 'constellation composed of three interlocking shards'[14] with each shard being a remnant of an imagined globe shattered by conflict. These shards in turn represented air, earth and water, and each formed a functionally distinct part of the museum. The 55 m high air shard, provides the museum's entranceway and a viewing balcony (now closed to the public) above theManchester Ship Canal with views of the Manchester skyline. The construction of the tower leaves viewers exposed to the elements and one reviewer considered that it reflected "the aerial perspective of modern warfare and the precariousness of the life below".[4] The earth shard houses the museum's exhibition spaces, while the water shard accommodates a cafe with views of the canal.
Originally budgeted at £40 million, the museum was eventually completed for £28.5 million after anticipatedNational Lottery funding was not forthcoming. The museum was funded by local, national and European development agencies. TheEuropean Union'sEuropean Regional Development Fund contributed £8.9 million,English Partnerships and theNorthwest Regional Development Agency £2.7 million, and £2.8 million was provided by Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council.The Peel Group, a local transport and property company, contributed £12.5 million;[12] this was reportedly the largest single sum ever given to a UK cultural project by a private enterprise.[15] The reduction in budget forced a number of changes; the substitution of metal for concrete in the construction of the shards, the removal of a planned auditorium, and a change of exhibition content. The site's external landscaping also had to be reduced; in 2009, following anarchitectural design competition managed byRIBA Competitions, Berlin-based company Topotek 1 were appointed to complete this landscaping.[16] Despite these economies, the fundamental "shattered globe" concept remained intact.[17] A final £3 million was raised by a fundraising campaign led byBBC Newswar correspondentKate Adie.[18] Construction of the museum, by structural engineersArup and main contractorSir Robert McAlpine,[12] began on 5 January 2000[12] and the building wastopped out in late September that year.[17] Exhibition fitting started in November 2001,[13] and the museum opened to the public on 5 July 2002, shortly before the2002 Commonwealth Games which were hosted in Manchester that year.
Permanent exhibitions are housed in the museum's first-floor main gallery space within the earth shard. These consist of a chronological display which runs around the gallery's 200-metre (660 ft) perimeter and six thematic displays in "silos" within the space. As part of the earth shard, the 3,500 m2 floor of the gallery is curved, gradually dropping away like thecurvature of the Earth from a nominal "North Pole" near the gallery's entrance.[19] Within this hall, described as cavernous and dramatic,[18][20] a number of large artefacts are displayed; they include a RussianT-34 tank, aUnited States Marine CorpsAV-8A Harrier jet and a13-pounder field gun which fired theBritish Army's first shot ofWorld War I.[21] Around the gallery, a number of vertical mechanical conveyors called "timestacks" display selections of smaller artefacts, some of which can be handled by visitors.[18][22][23] Libeskind's subsequent work on the masterplan for renewal theWorld Trade Centre site is echoed in the exhibit of a 7 m (23 ft) section of twisted steel from that building.[24]
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The museum also displays artworks byofficial war artists who were commissioned to create a visual record of Britain during the world wars, among themBuilding Flying-Boats byFlora Lion;The 'L' Press. Forging the Jacket of an 18-inch Gun byAnna Airy; andGoing to Work byL. S. Lowry (1943).[25]
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In addition to the physical exhibits, the walls of the gallery space are used as screens for the projection of hourly audiovisual presentations called the Big Picture, which explore themes related to modern conflict. These presentations use up to 1,500 images from the Imperial War Museum'sphotograph archive and were originally projected from 60 synchronisedslide projectors mounted throughout the space.[22] In 2011 digital projectors were installed, allowing a greater degree of flexibility.[26] The images are complemented by personal accounts from the museum'soral history sound archive. The Big Picture was devised after the reduction in the museum's budget forced the scrapping of the previous exhibition plan by designers DEGW and Amalgam.[27] With some seeing one of the museum's shortcomings as a lack of artefacts, the projections and the building itself are now the main attractions.[28]
Also within the earth shard, a separate gallery accommodates a programme of temporary exhibitions. These have included theWitness series of art exhibitions from themuseum's collection, examining First and Second World War art, and the work of female war artists.[29][30][31]
The WaterWay, a passageway linking the earth and water shards, is used for smaller art or photographic exhibitions, such as Ghislaine Howard'sphotojournalism-inspired painting series365.[32]
Outside the museum building, an ex-Iraqi Ground ForcesT-55 tank was put on display at the main entrance in August 2008. This vehicle was captured by theRoyal Engineers during the opening stages of theIraq War in 2003.[33] The spot had previously been occupied by an IraqiZSU-23-4 Shilkaanti-aircraft gun. Captured by the Royal Artillery after the 1991Gulf War, it was moved fromImperial War Museum Duxford and displayed to mark the museum's fifth anniversary in July 2007.[34]
The museum enjoyed a successful first year, with an initial target of 300,000 visitors surpassed after six months,[35] with over 100,000 visitors in the first six weeks;[36] by the museum's first anniversary on 5 July 2003 some 470,000 visitors had been received.[37] The museum won the Building Award in the 2003British Construction Industry Awards,[38] and was shortlisted for the 2004Stirling Prize.[39] The museum received a largely positive critical reception, with reviewers remarking on the metaphorical power of the building, the complementary effects of the museum's main exhibition with its internal architecture, and the economy with which the museum was built.[4][21][40] In August 2005 Imperial War Museum North received its millionth visitor.[41] The museum was, however, criticised in 2008 byThe Guardian for poor energy efficiency, as part of a report into thecarbon dioxide emissions of UK public buildings.[42]
Supporting Imperial War Museum North's educational goals, the museum has operated avolunteer programme since opening in 2002. The programme seeks to engage local people at risk of social exclusion. Originally based on aNational Vocational Qualification, the programme was revised and relaunched in 2004, and consisted of a basic cultural heritage course, providing opportunities to develop academic skills and improve confidence, and to support individuals seeking to return to employment.[43] In return volunteers work in the museum's public spaces as part of the front of house teams. In January 2007 the museum launched the in Touch volunteer programme, in partnership withManchester Museum and supported by £425,000 from theNational Lottery Heritage Fund.[44] The programme was recognised by theDepartment of Culture, Media and Sport as a case study of its kind, in the department'sThird Sector Strategy.[45]
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