Imperial War Museum North are ‘incredibly proud’, after winning two awards in a memorable night at the Greater Manchester Tourism awards last week.
The museum was rewarded in the ‘Business Tourism’ and ‘Large Tourism Event of the Year’ categories, and garnered particular praise from judges for both its unique space and links with the local community, and for its First World War exhibition, ‘From Street to Trench: A World War That Shaped a Region’.
From Street to Trench, which ran from April 5 2014 until May 31 2015, was the first major work undertaken by IWM North to mark the First World War Centenary.
The exhibit drew in 357,000 visitors, which represented nearly 90% of the total visitors to the museum during this period.
Charlotte Czyzyk, a researcher on the exhibition, told MM: “For all of us at the museum it’s an incredibly proud moment to realise that our hard work has paid off.
“Certainly for me personally it was a brilliant project to work on and it’s very satisfying to know that it was so popular with the public.”
The free show delved into previously-untold stories of the sacrifices made by people from the North-West of England on both home and foreign fronts.
Ms Czyzyk said: “I think particularly for the First World War the experiences of people at home are often overlooked.
“‘From Street to Trench’ was a good opportunity to look at the men, women and children who experienced war in Manchester and in the surrounding areas.”
The IWM was founded in 1917 amidst the brutal conflict of WWI, with the intent to mark the sacrifices made by all involved in the war, and is now considered a world-leading authority on the conflict.
Despite its serious subject matter, ‘From Street to Trench’ was a family-friendly exhibition that looked to appeal to all ages.
With over 200 personal objects such as photograph, film and sound there were also more interactive avenues to explore such as sampling clothing from the era.
IWM Sales Manager Liam Potter, who was in attendance at the awards ceremony, said: “I am absolutely delighted that we won the Business Tourism Award 2015.
“My team and I at IWM North have worked extremely hard to develop our unique venue offer and increase our events business significantly by 60% over recent years.
“When we won the large visitor attraction of the year award also I was in shock because I don’t think anybody anticipates scooping two awards in one evening!”
For more information on IWM North, click here.
Image courtesy of David Dixon, via Geograph, with thanks
