We were delighted when our clients at the Imperial War Museum accepted the trophy for the Best New Permanent Gallery at the 2022 Museum + Heritage Awards at on the 11th May. As they said at the time, ‘This has been so much more than a job‘. Indeed, it has: so many compelling stories, artefacts and personal effects from a complete V1 flying bomb to cap badges present a completely new view of the second major conflict of the Twentieth Century.

The Holocaust Galleries in particular rewrite the rules on presenting such a harrowing narrative: before the emphasis has been on sombre, dark spaces; here, Casson Mann fill the galleries with light to show that the events of the Holocaust were not hidden, but done in plain sight, witnessed by so many people at the time, creating a completely new impression of both the perpetrators and their victims. By comparison, the World War 2 Galleries emphasise the human scale of the war, with many individual stories creating a compelling timeline of the conflict.

We were delighted to work with the client team of directors, curators, conservators & interpretation specialists to give each object, text and image its proper place & visibility in these complex spaces.

We want to express our thanks to the two design companies, Casson Mann & Ralph Applebaum Associates, who made us part of their design teams to deliver these stories – exhibition design is a complex & involved process; we only feed into a small part of the machinery that delivers the finished project, but we very happy to involved in every step of the way, from concept to commissioning.

The response to the galleries has been overwhelmingly positive: The Times described the design as ‘compelling’, the Telegraph, ‘a tremendous achievement’ & the Guardian, ‘stimulating, sensitive & humane’.