Honey, I lost the kids. The War Museum and The Lowry.

The insider guide to family holidays and things to do with kids – here, experience two entirely different museums on opposite sides of by the Manchester Ship Canal

Daniel Libeskind’s Imperial War Museum North is a thing of beauty: a shimmering aluminium building that defies architectural norms, perching proudly on the edge of the Manchester Ship Canal. Its design represents a globe shattered by war – with not a right angle in sight. It has a towering, er, 55 metre-high tower whose open-to-the-elements viewing platform affords spectacular (if precarious) views across the Ship Canal. The Rough Guide reckons it’s one of England’s top 10 buildings. Oh yes, and it’s always a hit with kids. All Aboard: Stories of War At Sea promises to be action packed and interactive, includes true tales of watery adventure and features the feline derring-do of Simon the Cat. It also explains the origin of many a common phrase, including ‘Pipe Down’ (a bit of naval lingo that many parents may be all too familiar with). Elsewhere, a camouflage exhibition explains how to hide battleships and why in the name of all things military jeeps are painted pink. Sadly, it lacks advice to parents whose offspring have ‘decorated’ their bedrooms with biro.

Later, walk across the water (via the bridge, we’re not expecting miracles) and visit The Lowry, an arts centre that this summer plays host to Everyday People: Spencer Tunick at The Lowry. We’ll be upfront about it: Spencer’s images do feature hundreds of naked people, but don’t write the show off just yet. The artist is known for staging ‘installations’ across the world, where he asks volunteers to shed both clothes and inhibitions and pose against backdrops as startling as the Sydney Opera House or, in one case, a Swiss glacier. In Salford and Manchester earlier this year, 1,000 people answered Spencer’s call to become part of his latest UK commission (his first such work for five years). The installation, which resulted in the photographs and film now on display, was nothing if not ambitious: it involved moving 1,000 naked people to eight different locations across two cities in two days. On top of that, Spencer also paid homage to Salford’s most famous son: the painter LS Lowry (see side-by-side images below).

‘Spencer responded to the work of Lowry through the compositional form of the photographs,’ says curator Kate Farrell. ‘And, by moving people over eight locations, he signalled his desire to take the historic work of Lowry and from it create a new, dynamic work of art that celebrates the past and the city as it is now, is all its urban and sometimes ugly beauty.’ For the people who took part, Everyday People was a life-changing experience (watch the video below if you’re not convinced or read Simon Wilson’s entertaining report on what it’s like to be part of the Tunick experience). So don’t be shy: your kids might find the photographs and film taken in Salford and Manchester a little funny at first, but they are quietly, compellingly beautiful. And at the very least you’ll get to see some of Manchester’s best known destinations, from Castlefield to the Airport, in a whole new light. All Aboard: Stories of War at Sea, Imperial War Museum North. 17 July-April 2011. Free entry. Everyday People: Spencer Tunick at The Lowry. Until 26 September. Free entry.

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Images (top to bottom): Imperial War Museum North; Everyday People – Spencer Tunick at The Lowry, courtesy the artist; side by side: Everyday People – Spencer Tunick at The Lowry, courtesy the artist, and L S Lowry 1887 – 1976 Coming from the Mill, 1930. Video by Robert Martin, courtesy The Lowry.