The museum features a permanent exhibition of chronological and thematic displays, supported by hourly audiovisual presentations which are projected throughout the gallery space.

Born in Łódź, Poland, in 1946, Libeskind's family had suffered during World War II and dozens of his relatives were murdered in The Holocaust.

The construction of the tower leaves viewers exposed to the elements and one reviewer considered that it reflected "the aerial perspective of modern warfare and the precariousness of the life below".

The Peel Group, a local transport and property company, contributed £12.5 million;[12] this was reportedly the largest single sum ever given to a UK cultural project by a private enterprise.

[18] Construction of the museum, by structural engineers Arup and main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine,[12] began on 5 January 2000[12] and the building was topped out in late September that year.

[17] Exhibition fitting started in November 2001,[13] and the museum opened to the public on 5 July 2002, shortly before the 2002 Commonwealth Games which were hosted in Manchester that year.

[19] Within this hall, described as cavernous and dramatic,[18][20] a number of large artefacts are displayed; they include a Russian T-34 tank, a United States Marine Corps AV-8A Harrier jet and a 13-pounder field gun which fired the British Army's first shot of World War I.

[18][22][23] Libeskind's subsequent work on the masterplan for renewal the World Trade Centre site is echoed in the exhibit of a 7 m (23 ft) section of twisted steel from that building.

[25] In addition to the physical exhibits, the walls of the gallery space are used as screens for the projection of hourly audiovisual presentations called the Big Picture, which explore themes related to modern conflict.

These presentations use up to 1,500 images from the Imperial War Museum's photograph archive and were originally projected from 60 synchronised slide projectors mounted throughout the space.

The Big Picture was devised after the reduction in the museum's budget forced the scrapping of the previous exhibition plan by designers DEGW and Amalgam.

[29][30][31] The WaterWay, a passageway linking the earth and water shards, is used for smaller art or photographic exhibitions, such as Ghislaine Howard's photojournalism-inspired painting series 365.

[41] The museum was, however, criticised in 2008 by The Guardian for poor energy efficiency, as part of a report into the carbon dioxide emissions of UK public buildings.

Originally based on a National Vocational Qualification, the programme was revised and relaunched in 2004, and consisted of a basic cultural heritage course, providing opportunities to develop academic skills and improve confidence, and to support individuals seeking to return to employment.