This Week in London – The Moon up close; a new Children’s Garden for Kew; and, FOOD at the V&A…

Artist Luke Jerram’s installation Museum of the Moon goes on show at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington from tomorrow. Marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, the six metre spherical sculpture can be found in the museum’s Jerwood Gallery where visitors are invited to watch – or join in – a performance piece called COMPANION: MOON by interactive theatre makers Coney. The sculpture, which depicts the far side the Moon, is accompanied by a surround-sound composition by BAFTA-winning composer Dan Jones. The sculpture is part of a season marking the 1969 Moon landing including lunar-inspired yoga classes for kids, a series of expert space-related talks and museum late openings. The installation can be seen until 8th September. Entry is free. For more, see www.nhm.ac.uk/moon. PICTURE: Image credit for all: Trustees of the Natural History Museum 2019 (Dare & Hier Media).

A giant new ‘Children’s Garden’ featuring more than 100 mature trees and a four metre high canopy walk wrapped around a 200-year-old oak opens at Kew in London’s west this weekend. The 10,000 square metre garden – the size of almost 40 tennis courts – has been designed around the four elements plants need to grow: earth, air, sun and water. The Earth Garden features a giant sandpit and play hut village with tunnel slides; the Air Garden has winding paths, giant windmill flowers, pollen spheres, hammocks and trampolines and a mini amphitheatre; the Sun Garden features a large open space with cherry trees and pink candy floss grass as well as pergolas with edible fruits; and the Water Garden has water pumps and water lily stepping stones. Aimed at children aged between two and 12 years.  Entry included in admission. For more, see www.kew.org.

A “sensory journey through the food cycle”, FOOD: Bigger than the Plate opens at the V&A on Saturday. The exhibition explores how the way we grow, distribute and experience food is being reinvented and, split into four sections, features more than 70 contemporary projects, new commissions and creative collaborations by artists and designers who have been working with chefs, farmers, scientists and local communities. Highlights include GroCycle’s Urban Mushroom Farm installation, a pedal-powered Bicitractor developed by Farming Soul to support small-scale farming, a working version of MIT’s Food Computer, and Christina Agapakis and Sissel Tolaas’ Selfmade project which cultures cheese from human bacteria. Admission charge applies. Runs to 20th October. For more see vam.ac.uk/food.

Send all items to exploringlondon@gmail for inclusion.

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