A poem written to form the outline of a drawing of a Nazi Youth. Courtesy Leicester Museums

Exhibition Preview - Imagine, at Charnwood Museum, runs from February 1 until March 9 2008.

To commemorate the UK’s seventh annual Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27 2008, the Charnwood Museum in Loughborough will open an exhibition entitled ‘Imagine’.

Local schoolchildren and young people have been working with Charnwood Arts artist Paul Gent and poet John Gallas to create the pictorial exhibition.

Imagine features a variety of pieces including a representation of the Warsaw ghetto made by children, harrowing pictures of child soldiers and a picture of the legendary Jesse Owens; an African-American athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Courtesy Leicester Museums

Through these images, the exhibition explores our responsibility to shape the future, looking at how the lessons associated with the Nazi Holocaust have not been truly understood or applied in the more recent atrocities in Cambodia, Tibet, Bosnia and Darfur, to sadly only name a few.

Pictures of shoes owned by victims of various global atrocities since the Jewish Holocaust point to lessons still to be learnt. Courtesy Leicester Museums

Throughout the exhibition Charnwood Arts and Leicestershire County Council staff will run additional workshops for schoolchildren at the museum and their ideas and creations will be added to the displays.

Entrance to Imagine is free and it can be seen at the Charnwood Museum in Loughborough from Friday February 1 to Sunday March 9 2008. Opening times are 10.00am – 4.30pm Monday to Saturday and 1.00pm – 4.00pm on Sundays.

For more information about the exhibition or the workshops call Charnwood Museum on 01509 233 737.

This is an exhibition preview - if you have been to see the show, why not let us know what you think?