While most people may have previously enjoyed perusing a gallery or museum during visiting hours, it's a completely different experience to get up close and personal with artworks and artefacts whilst enjoying a product launch, drinks reception or dinner.
Exhibitions provide a creative and inspiring backdrop and prove to be a great talking point and ice breaker. Choosing to host an event where guests can explore and discover famous portraits, iconic figures and historical objects will make for a truly unforgettable occasion.
Take a look at just five current and upcoming exhibitions on show within our member venues to give you an idea of how you could add value to your next event.
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Sir John Soane’s Museum - Egypt Uncovered: Belzoni and the Tomb of Pharaoh Seti I
With its rich history and unexpected interiors, Sir John Soane's Museum is a fantastic venue full of curiosities and suprises in every room.
Guests can explore the museums most spectacular spaces to see Soane’s fascinating, world-class collection arranged the same way today as it was in 1837. Discover the Dome area and the 3,000 year-old sarcophagus of an Egyptian king, as well as the famous Picture Room – which unfolds to reveal masterpieces by Hogarth, Turner, and Canaletto.
The upcoming exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum would make a unique addition to any event; Egypt Uncovered: Belzoni and the Tomb of Pharaoh Seti I reveals the story behind the museum’s most treasured possession. 200 years after the discovery of the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I by the Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823) the exhibition brings the story of the sarcophagus up to date with accounts and tales of its discovery, recent conservation and research into the object and a new high-resolution digital scan of the sarcophagus by Factum Arte.
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Wellcome Collection - Can Graphic Design Save Your Life?
A destination for the incurably curious, Wellcome Collection houses a plethora of weird and wonderful items and intriguing exhibitions. The latest exhibition ‘Can Graphic Design Save Your Life?’ explores the persuasion of design and how it shapes our health and our addictions.
Drawn from public and private collections from around the world, this major exhibition will explore the relationship between graphic design and health. ‘Can Graphic Design Save Your Life?’ brings together over 200 objects to consider the role graphic design plays in constructing and communicating healthcare messages around the world, demonstrating how it has been used to persuade, inform and empower.
From neon pharmacy signs to hard-hitting posters, this exhibition features work from influential figures and highlights the widespread and often subliminal nature of graphic design in shaping our environment.
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Wallace Collection - El Greco to Goya - Spanish Masterpieces from The Bowes Museum Exhibition
The Wallace Collection is home to one of Europe’s finest collections of works of art, paintings, furniture, arms & armour and porcelain. Its latest exhibition is a chance to discover previously unseen Spanish art in London.
El Greco to Goya: Spanish Masterpieces from The Bowes Museum is the first London exhibition of Spanish art from The Bowes Museum in County Durham, including works by Goya and El Greco. This collaborative exhibition between the Wallace Collection and The Bowes Museum celebrates the partnership between these two great museums. Like the Wallace Collection, The Bowes Museum is the product of one family’s obsession with collecting great works of art. John Bowes and Richard Wallace – both illegitimate sons of aristocratic fathers – bequeathed collections of international significance to the nation.
Private views of this new exhibition gives guests the opportunity to explore the very special paintings from The Bowes Museum, which complement works in the permanent display by Velázquez and Murillo.
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The National Gallery - Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell
One of the most famous collections in the world, the National Gallery houses a vast range of beautiful, interesting and emotive works from Europe’s most celebrated painters and excellent temporary exhibitions such as Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell.
Remembered as an Impressionist but certainly with inclinations towards Realism, French artist Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas is known for his depictions of contemporary Parisian life. An enduring interest in the human form means Degas strove to capture the body in unusual positions, using women, predominately dancers, singers and launderesses as the focus of most of his work.
This exhibition offers a rare glimpse into the life and working practises of the notoriously private artist. Expect to see many of his trademark depictions of Parisian life and to learn more about his persistent experimentation with materials, particularly his use of pastels.
Please contact the National Gallery’s Events team to find out more about entertaining at the National Gallery and to hear about the upcoming programme, including next year’s landmark exhibition on Monet.
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The Design Museum - California: Designing Freedom
The world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form from architecture and fashion to graphics, product and industrial design. The Design Museum provides a unique and inspiring setting for a whole host of events, particularly those related to design.
The current exhibition, California: Designing Freedom, traces the progression of design in California from the 1960s to the present. It reveals how design was heavily influenced by counterculture movements. The central premise is that California has pioneered tools of personal liberation, from LSD to surfboards and iPhones. This ambitious survey brings together political posters and portable devices, but also looks beyond hardware to explore how user interface designers in the San Francisco Bay Area are shaping some of our most common daily experiences. By turns empowering, addictive and troubling, Californian products have affected our lives to such an extent that in some ways we are all now Californians.
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