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| Authors Own Photo |
I’m probably about to commit heresy by saying this out loud,
but I’ve never really been a fan of the Imperial War Museum. In the past I’ve
only ever really been to visit ‘The Holocaust’ exhibition, first with school
and then again some years later, while the only other occasion I remember
visiting was when we were younger and my Dad took my brother and I; my brother
being a huge military fanatic at that age, forever covering the living room in
battle scenes with his toy soldiers. As
such I see it a bit as a ‘blokey’ museum and personally, it wouldn’t really
ever be first on my list of museums to revisit. Don’t get me wrong, I think
it’s a great institution and a hugely valuable one at that; the loss of its
library, artefact collections and testimonies never being one I could
comprehend. But personally, I just don’t connect with it; I think the only
thing I wish I’d seen but didn’t was the Animals at War exhibition a few years
ago, which I had the chance to familiarise myself when creating my radio
programme this time last year.
However, that said I did recently revisit the museum to view
the refurbished First World War Galleries and found myself pleasantly
surprised. Now rather foolishly we did go on the last Saturday of half term and
it felt like half the population of London did too – it was extremely busy! And
that does impact your experience; it’s not easy to see and read everything and
at times you do get pushed along with the crowd whether you like it or not. But
given the huge efforts that went in to refurbishing these galleries in time for
2014’s centenary commemorations and the media coverage it received, I really wanted to go and see for myself how
the museum had changed and what shape the new exhibition took.
The first thing I should say is “wow!” I mean every inch of
that exhibition has been thought about and considered – accessibility, visitor
interaction, engagement, digitisation, visitor comfort…. all the public history
buzz words apply in this context. It was an assault on the senses and while it
felt a little overwhelming at times, it really was impressive. I particularly like
the use of sound and texture; that the surfaces on which glass cases rested
were inscribed with quotes and phrases; while walls were pasted with WW1 posters
and propaganda; and that full use was made of interactive screens, film footage
and first-hand testimony. It meant that even if you couldn’t wade through the
people and be right up close to the artefacts on display in the glass cabinets,
you always had something to look at or read or engage with. You’d have to try
really hard not to interact with something. A few things really stood out for me however. One was the inclusion of an illustrated children’s books which focused on key areas of WW1. I mean what a topic for a children’s book – it’s not something I would have ever considered would have been produced, and that’s the sort of facts I find particularly interesting. Another was the interactive game of battleships that people could play in order to see how many cargo ships they could safely get to the front line, replicating the mission many men faced in trying to overcome naval blockades and naval warfare.
I was also impressed by one particular area of the museum where again, one of the benches (if that’s the right word), which sort of shaped the museum, had been designed to look like stacks of newspapers and featured headlines from during the war. They speak for themselves but what an effect design feature, turning something that needs to be there into a display in its own right – highly effective!
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| The Wall of Bullets |
Everything has been thrown at this exhibition to make it the best it can be and you can see that right away. You can see the time and care that has gone into this exhibition and it really is a great one. Military history is not really my thing, and I find WW2 more interesting than WW1, but for those few hours I was really interested in what I was seeing and engaging with. I would definitely probably go back at a quieter time, just to take more of it in. There’s a lot to do in one visit.
I think this is also worth a mention. While there my friend and I also looked at the Curiosities of War exhibition which did exactly what it said on the tin – my friend and I just looked at these artefacts quizzically and then at each other as if to say “What is that?!” It was only a small part of the museum, but if definitely made us stop, think and enquire - all important things for an exhibition to do.
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| "A Barrel.... Right ok...." "Oh I get it, I think, sort of..." |
That said, my favourite exhibition visited that day was The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes, which has on display the personal stories and medals belonging to those, who throughout history, have been awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), for extreme bravery under enemy fire, and the George Cross (GC), which recognises extreme bravery carried out away from battle, both in war and peace. It was a new gallery to the museum in 2010, paid for by a £5 million donation by Lord Ashcroft, KCMG, and now contains the largest collection of VC’s ever assembled, merging Ashcroft’s private collection and those already held by IWM.
The exhibition is built around the question “How brave are
you?” and provokes visitors to consider how they would define the concepts of
bravery and heroism; offering some suggestion by dividing the exhibition into
seven themes; aggression, boldness, endurance, initiative, leadership,
sacrifice and skill.
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| Lord Ashcroft Gallery |
What I really liked about this exhibit was its inclusion of
modern techniques to engage visitors of all ages. The medals are displayed
alongside narrative but you can learn more by interacting with touch screens,
listening to sound clips and watching video montages. There are also graphic
magazines you can pick up and read and next to some of the stories there are
lever arch stamps which children can use to mark off a card as they follow the
trail round. Another simple technique used was placing some of the narrative in
boxes, so visitors have to open them to read the text – very simple yet I found
myself opening everyone, spurred on by curiosity. I also like the fact they
haven’t stuck to using traditional fonts either. In some places it’s jazzed up
a bit and that just makes it that bit more quirky and engaging.
The website for the exhibitions describes its objective as being ‘to intrigue, inspire and amaze by re-telling forgotten
stories of bravery that show, when faced with extreme situations, some people
can do extraordinary things’ (1). And it does just that. I hadn’t expected the
exhibition to be as fresh and full of life as it was. Owing to previous visits I
don’t associate that sort of experience with the IWM and yet this exhibition
still gives that impression after five years. I would have said it was much
more recent and it just goes to show that I should ditch any presumptions I
have, because the IWM is clearly moving with the times.
There is much more
pressure on museums now to cater for its modern visitors and we demand so much
more. I’m as guilty of it as the next person, I want to be engaged and to an
extent, entertained. That is how I learn best - through interaction and I was
plenty surprised at just how well the IWM did those things on my most recent
visit.
It is definitely worth
another visit – especially if a slice of cake’s in the equation!
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