Internment – Living with the Wire

The Manx Museum, Douglas, Isle of Man

Art behind the Wire

The Isle of Man has played a unique and unusual role in the story of two World Wars. It was ‘home’ to thousands of men, women and children who were identified as being ‘enemy aliens’ and potentially dangerous spies and ‘fifth columnists’. During the First World War many of those who were interned had lived in Britain for years and had British families, while many Second World War internees were refugees who had come to Britain as a safe haven from Nazi persecution in Europe.

Discover more about ‘life behind the wire’ and the different ways that interned artists recorded the world around them, whether they were ‘living with the wire’ for a few months or several years, in the National Art Gallery at the Manx Museum.