Event: Venue showcase: The Legacy Event
Date: 3rd April 2025
No of guests: 50
Event space: Energy Hall and Exploring Space
Objective:
The corporate events team at the Science Museum hosted The Legacy Event, an exclusive evening of fine dining and entertainment, during which exciting plans for the future of the museum were revealed and the team bid farewell to the iconic Exploring Space gallery.
The exclusive dinner marked one of the final events in Exploring Space before its closure as part of an ambitious transformation of the ground floor galleries. It was also an opportunity to share future plans for the museum with clients first-hand, which include a new Space gallery opening in the Autumn, followed by Tomorrow: The Peter Bennett Gallery in early 2027.
Guests were also reminded of the important role venue hire plays in supporting the museum’s missions and values and ensuring STEM is made accessible to everyone. A special ‘The Legacy’ film created by Pete Baron Creative shared real-life stories that brought three of the museum’s missions to life: inspiring futures, the apprenticeship programme and new galleries as part of the museum’s expansion.
The Event:
The special evening event was created in collaboration with new suppliers London Event Productions and Jimmy Garcia Catering, alongside long-term partners Sternberg Clarke, Lavender Green and Velvet Living.
On arrival, guests were welcomed into the Energy Hall where the mill engine was being operated by museum apprentice Jevantte, who featured in The Legacy film. Whilst enjoying innovative drinks and space-themed canapes from Jimmy Garcia Catering, the museum’s explainers were conducting live science experiments with dry ice and flash cotton.
Following a speech from Jodie Fletcher, Business Development Manager at the Science Museum, and the premiere of The Legacy film, guests moved through to Exploring Space for the exclusive dinner; a two-course menu created by Jimmy Garcia.
After dinner, guests moved back into the Energy Hall for the post-dinner reception where liquid nitrogen desserts were being served. The events team had one last surprise of the night with the long-awaited return of aerial artists to the roster of entertainment courtesy of Sternberg Clarke, who performed a special routine to Rocket Man. Hal
Supplier Partners:
London Event Productions provided a stage in the Energy Hall with a distributed audio system and large screens to showcase The Legacy film. The team also provided a lighting design which included up lighting throughout and an animated ceiling breakup pattern, as well as stem spots and stage wash for the speaker and performers.
In Exploring Space, wireless floor/table lights guided people to the table, with uplighting throughout, a distributed speech PA, and a hologram of a 3D-scanned Apollo 10 capsule.
Jimmy Garcia Catering designed a menu that brought creativity to the forefront – playing with themes, visuals and sensory elements to create a truly immersive dining experience. Incorporating the museum’s mission and values, JG presented canapes including sticky braised beef cheek and kanpai London sake cured salmon on creative trays designed to ‘Ignite Curiosity’, sparking conversation and engagement.
Arrival drinks included a bespoke ‘Out of This World’ cocktail, a colour-changing cocktail crafted with gin, rhubarb liqeur, amaro Montenegro, honey syrup, fresh lime juice and butterfly pea flower tea and a refreshing pa-No-ma mocktail with 3 Cents grapefruit soda, pinch of salt, fresh lime, demerara sugar and natural soda water.
The two course dinner in Exploring Space included a starter of grilled Wye valley asparagus, wild garlic sauce, crispy broad beans, house pickled walnut emulsion, butterfly tuiles, lime pickled pink onions and lime gel served on light boxes. For the main, guests enjoyed stuffed lamb cannon rolled in spring cabbage, broad bean & pea fricassee, polenta chip and lamb sauce. This was served underneath a rice paper topper with the museum’s logo on, which with flash paper revealed the dish beneath.
For dessert, a liquid nitrogen ice cream sandwich station was set up in the Energy Hall. This theatrical experience saw ice cream sandwiches created live in front of guests, using liquid nitrogen to create a mesmerising, fog-like effect. The interactive station not only delighted the senses but also sparked curiosity and conversation. Flavour creations included white chocolate & fudge cookie with sea salt caramel ice cream and crystalised ginger cookie with cinnamon and caramelised apple ice cream.
Lavender Green Flowers provided arrangements with a futuristic look and feel to beautifully highlight the dining space in Exploring Space under the rocket, immersing guests in an experience that was ‘out of this world’. The team chose designs in bold colours of tones of orange, contrasted with shades of blue and green. The arrangements included floral varieties Bells of Ireland, Delphinium, Ranunculus, Dianthus, Muscari, Kniphofia, Lotus Seed Pods and Anthurium Leaves. Designs were displayed in 12 black troughs and 22 green dishes complemented with gold nightlights for a warm glow to dress the long dining table.
After the event, all the florals were donated to Thames Valley Adventure Playground (Registered Charity: 278366) and The Baby Bank (Registered Charity: 179580) for fundraising efforts. A combined total raised was £896.00 with TVAP planning to subsidise 28 children’s respite visits and The Baby Bank purchasing a bike and helmet for a 9-year-old boy who had been struggling to get to school since his own bike had been stolen in February.
Sternberg Clarke wowed guests with an aerial silk performance. Riggers securely attached wires from the high beams of the Energy Hall from which the silks themselves were attached. Having successfully rigged the silks the aerial artists carried out a short practice before guests arrived.
After the main course in Exploring Space, guests returned to the Energy Hall for dessert before they were wowed with the mesmerising silk performance set to the soundtrack of Rocket Man by Elton John. The performance marked the return of silk artists to the entertainment roster at the museum.
Venue Comment:
Jodie Fletcher, Business Development and Marketing Manager at the Science Museum, comments: “With the help of our fantastic suppliers we created a really special evening in Exploring Space so that we could bid farewell to one of our most popular galleries with clients old and new. The event also gave us the opportunity to share our exciting plans for the future with them and how their support continues to impact the museum’s wider mission. Working with some of our fantastic suppliers we created a true legacy event which we hope will live long in the memory of our guests!”
