W/C 14 FEBRUARY 2022 – EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS & DIGITAL ACTIVITIES AT IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS

FEBRUARY HALF TERM AT IWM

IWM North and IWM London | Story Seekers | Weekends and daily 14th – 18th February

Free

Families can get hands on with real artefacts and learn about the global impact of conflict, from the First World War to today. Dig deeper into the museum’s collections and uncover the moving stories they tell, from people who braved shark-infested waters to ingenious nurses.

IWM North | We Were There | Tuesday 15 February and Thursday 17 February

Free

This February half-term, visitors can meet eyewitnesses to conflict and gain first-hand insight into the impact of war on people’s lives. Find our special guests across the museum, giving an opportunity for all visitors to hear their personal stories - ranging from driving a tank, to being evacuated from the place they called home.

HMS Belfast | Family Activities | Weekends and daily throughout Half Term

Free (included in price of admission)

There's lots of family fun to be had at HMS Belfast. Travel back in time to D-Day 1944 with the storytelling experience Family Mission, or learn how to keep the iconic warship in tip-top condition and take charge of HMS Belfast in our interactive family activity Sea Legs. Activities vary, we recommend checking details at the admissions desk on arrival.

IWM Duxford | Family Activities | Weekends and daily throughout Half Term

Free (included in price of admission)

There's plenty of fun at IWM Duxford with free family activities to enjoy every weekend and throughout Half Term. Put your paper plane making skills to the test as you try to beat the world record with Flight Academy and head to the American Air Museum and build your very own bespoke cockpit in Cockpit Control or help restore our hacked system in Airforce Action Stations. Activities vary, we recommend checking details at the Visit Planning Point upon arrival.

IWM Duxford | Spitfire Engineers | Daily throughout Half Term

Free (included in price of admission)

Get approved for take-off by exploring four activity stations dedicated to the Spitfire inside IWM Duxford’s Conservation Hall. Families are invited to grab a pre-flight checklist and get hands on with practical challenges. Discover the science behind wing design, the forces of flight, fuel consumption and engine power, before making and testing a propeller. Spitfire Engineers will enhance the Spitfire: Evolution of an Icon exhibition experience for families.

IWM Duxford | Forces of Flight | Saturday 26 February and Sunday 27 February

Free (included in price of admission)

New for February half term, discover more about the science behind how flight is achieved. Experience exciting chemistry show demonstrations and practical challenges from the SkyLab STEM team as they explain the aerodynamic forces that keep aircraft flying. Then, get the whole family to join in the Aim High activity and build your own model planes before putting them though a gruelling flight test. Will your creation land on our test runways? What would make it go faster, further and higher? You even get to take your model plane home (for free!).

LAST CHANCE TO SEE

IWM Duxford | Spitfire: Evolution of an Icon | Until 20 February 2022

Free (included in price of admission)

See a world first at IWM Duxford – the largest collection of Spitfires under one roof at the historic airfield that keeps making history. From 27 December until 20 February, get up close to twelve Spitfires of varying marks side by side on display. Spitfire: Evolution of an Icon will celebrate how this aircraft captured the hearts of the home front and became synonymous with the hope and protection of the British Isles.

UPCOMING EVENTS – BOOK NOW

IWM Duxford | The Inside View: The Lancaster | Every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Tickets £10

Join one of our expert IWM guides in a behind-the-ropes exploration of the iconic Avro Lancaster. Starting with the design of the aircraft by Roy Chadwick, be guided through the bomber’s illustrious history, from the celebrated Dams Raid to the controversy of ‘area bombing’ under Bomber Harris. Then enter the rear of the fuselage and learn about the heroism of the young men in Bomber Command and the harsh conditions they faced in combat.

IWM Duxford | Duxford Dash | Sunday 13 March 2022

Tickets £13.00 / £26.00

PB Chasers, Race Leaders and Company-Loving Improvers, reclaim the live runway and become a ‘Duxford Dasher’ with our 5k, 10k and Family Mile Duxford Dash challenges. Whatever your goal, our inclusive and friendly flat-course race with chip-timing will motivate you to go the extra mile. Conquer the track, run past aircraft lined up on the Flightline and collect your exclusive Duxford Dash 2022 race medal on the finish line.

EXHIBITIONS

IWM North | Poppies

Free

The iconic poppy sculptures from Poppies: Wave and Weeping Window, which toured to IWM North and IWM London in 2018, have been combined and permanently returned to IWM North. The dramatic artwork, titled Poppies, comprises thousands of handcrafted ceramic flowers which cascade 30 metres down and pool within the unique architecture of IWM North’s Air Shard. Poppies: Wave and Weeping Window were originally part of the 2014 Tower of London installation, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red. Poppies reconnects visitors with the poppies both as a contemporary artwork and as a way to reflect on the very human cost of war.

IWM Duxford | The Ops Block: Battle of Britain

Free (included in price of admission)

Opened in September 2020, this exhibition grants the public access to newly transformed and previously unseen historic Second World War rooms at IWM Duxford. Visitors can step foot into the former nerve centre of RAF Duxford to discover accounts of those who lived and worked here and immerse themselves in a multi-sensory recreation of the Ops Room, experiencing the tension felt on the ground on 15 September 1940. Visitors can explore three dedicated ‘people stories’ rooms and learn about the Women’s Auxiliary Airforce, controllers and pilots who served at RAF Duxford.

Churchill War Rooms | Wartime London: Art of the Blitz

Free (included in price of admission)

Explore the Second World War’s impact on London life with a unique art exhibition housed in the secret command centre where Winston Churchill and his inner circle directed the Allied effort. This carefully curated selection of artworks shines a new light on the experiences of ordinary people forced into new patterns of living by Nazi air raids. At the heart of the exhibition are newly acquired drawings from one of the most significant British artists of the twentieth century, Henry Moore, as well as works from other British artists from IWM’s world-renowned collection: William Matvyn Wright; Eric Ravilious; Ernest Boye Uden; Mabel Hutchinson; Evelyn Gibbs; and Leila Faithfull.

NEW SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE HOLOCAUST GALLERIES

IWM London | Second World War and The Holocaust Galleries

Free

Three times the size of IWM London's award-winning First World War Galleries, this £30.7 million project has been six years in the making. With the Second World War and The Holocaust soon to pass out of living memory, these Galleries preserve the first-hand experiences and amazing stories of those who witnessed this seminal period in global history. Over 3,500 objects, personal stories and in-depth interactive displays help visitors to understand the most devastating conflict in human history and the genocide that became known as The Holocaust.

ONLINE

On YouTube, audiences can go behind-the-scenes and learn more about IWM’s exhibitions, anniversaries and collections with hundreds of videos that tell stories of those who have lived, fought and died in conflict, from 1914 to the present day. Visitors to IWM’s website will also be able to browse our world-class collections online where more than 800,000 items including artworks, documents, objects, photography, film and oral histories are available alongside stories written by IWM’s subject-leading experts.

Audiences can also listen back to past episodes of the IWM Institute’s podcast, Conflict of Interest, which pairs IWM curators and witnesses to war with celebrity guests, from actress Carey Mulligan to TV presenter Rick Edwards and stand-up comedian Jamali Maddix. Together, they explore some of the world’s most complicated contemporary conflicts in under an hour.