Lunar New Year Celebration at the Garden Museum

Celebrate Lunar New Year with a special late opening at the Garden Museum, inspired by our new exhibition Seeds of Exchange: Canton and London in the 1700s. This festive evening brings together performance, craft, and ritual to explore the cultural journeys of plants, creativity, ideas, and traditions.

Activities

Visitors can experience Peony Pavilion (Kunqu), a Chinese opera performance and workshop from Coco Shi and take part in a drop-in calligraphy workshop throughout the evening.

Two workshop add-ons are available to book with your ticket at £10 each:

• Traditional tea ceremony and tasting: 6.15pm-6.55pm
• Wonton demo and tasting with Yvonne Poon: 7pm-8pm

Each offering a different way of engaging with themes of exchange, migration, and connection between people and the natural world.

Set against the backdrop of Seeds of Exchange, the evening invites reflection on how plants have travelled across continents and cultures, shaping food, landscapes, and customs – and how these stories continue to resonate today.

About Seeds of Exchange:

Seeds of Exchange: Canton and London in the 1700s explores the exchange of botanical knowledge shared between Canton (now Guangzhou) and London between 1766-1773, displaying a collection of Chinese botanical art and research for the first time in Britain since it was commissioned 235 years ago.