- Power Up, the Science Museum Group’s hugely popular hands-on video game extravaganza, will make a permanent home at the museum from 27 July 2023;
- Following its world premiere at the Science and Industry Museum, Turn It Up: The power of music, the interactive new exhibition exploring music's mysterious hold over us, will open from 19 October 2023;
- Major new gallery Engineers opens on 23 June, marking a decade of transformation of the Science Museum’s public spaces;
- All this and more is now available to book through the Science Museum.
The Science Museum prepares for a jam-packed summer with the permanent return of hands-on gaming gallery Power Up; the opening of the brand-new Engineers gallery; and the return of the Great Exhibition Road Festival—all this alongside the extension of Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination to 20 August 2023. The autumn will also see world-first exhibition Turn It Up: The power of music open in London, after its successful opening run at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, inviting visitors to make some music and discover its impact on us.
Opening on Friday 23 June, Engineers is an ambitious new gallery dedicated to world-changing engineering innovations and the diverse and fascinating range of people behind them. It will celebrate our engineering heritage and showcase innovations through the global lens of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering and its winners. The opening of Engineers marks a decade of transformation of the Science Museum’s public spaces, joining award-winning permanent galleries, and located adjacent to Technicians: The David Sainsbury Gallery, which opened in November 2022.
After five successful seasons, the interactive gaming experience Power Up will make its permanent return to the Science Museum from Saturday 27 July. Visitors will be able to try over 160 consoles and hundreds of video games, and undertake a journey through five decades of gaming, from Pong to the PlayStation 5.
At the ‘eye-opening, captivating and at times wildly uplifting’ (Manchester Wire) Turn It Up: The power of music visitors will be able to discover their inner music-maker while learning about the science behind music, how technology is changing the way it is made and enjoyed, and how music is being used to have an impact on the way we live our lives. This hands-on exhibition provides visitors with a chance to play with beat, melody and harmonies in a specially commissioned musical playground. Turn It Up: The power of music closes in Manchester on Sunday 21 May and will open in London on Thursday 19 October.
These new and vibrant spaces reveal the fundamental, but often unseen, STEM principles that make up our everyday lives. They explore the intersection of creativity, artistry and science. A fitting accompaniment, the museum’s blockbuster exhibition Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination, now extended and available to book through to 20 August, explores how scientists and science fiction creators—artists, film-makers, authors and more—have inspired each other through innovation and imagination.
Visitors can also secure their tickets to the Great Exhibition Road Festival’s return to South Kensington from Saturday 17 – Sunday 18 June. The packed weekend of free events, for all ages, celebrates how awe and wonder can spark innovation in science and the arts. As part of the festival the Science Museum will be hosting a range of free hands-on workshops and fascinating talks.
Additionally, summer tickets go on sale today for Science Museum favourites, including Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery and Fly Zone alongside stunning 3D documentary films in IMAX: The Ronson Theatre.
Visitors can pre-book a free ticket to the Science Museum on our website. For further details about other galleries and exhibitions, please see listings information below or visit our See and Do page.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For more information, please contact Laura Nebout at Laura.Nebout@ScienceMuseum.ac.uk. Images can be downloaded.
General information
The Science Museum is open 10.00-18.00, seven days a week.
Visitors to the museum (including free galleries and exhibitions) will need to pre-book a free timed-entry ticket; further information is available.
Booking for Turn It Up: The power of music and Power Up is open now.
Find Out More About The Science Museum’s Programme This Summer
Exhibitions
Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination
Until 20 August 2023
Ticketed: £15
Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination invites visitors into a unique story-led exhibition through the world of science fiction. Visitors will be guided through this unforgettable exhibition aboard an alien spacecraft by an artificial intelligence of unknown origin, and will encounter authentic items from celebrated sci-fi films, television series and literature, as well as significant scientific objects that have shaped modern life.
Right: Visitor walking through the wormhole jump gate in Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination © Science Museum Group
Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine
Until June 2024
Free
Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine explores the history and science behind the international coronavirus vaccination programme, telling the story of the global effort to develop vaccines at speed. It unpacks the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and explores the logistical challenges behind one of the fastest immunisation programmes in history to consider how the pandemic response is being built upon for the future.
Power Up
From 27 July 2023
Ticketed, daily passes: £10, annual passes: £15
The action-packed gaming experience, Power Up, will make its permanent home at the Science Museum from July, allowing visitors to try over 160 consoles and hundreds of the very best video games, all year long. Visitors can experience the evolution of gaming – from classics such as Pong and Mario Kart to the latest PlayStation and Xbox – while discovering the science and history behind gaming’s most iconic developments.
With the new Power Up annual passes visitors can return again and again to journey through the world of gaming.
Turn It Up: The power of music
From 19 October 2023
Ticketed: £10
Visitors can get hands-on at Turn It Up: The power of music and play with beat, melody and harmonies in a musical playground. This riotous new exhibition explores the science of music's mysterious hold over us and how it drives us to create, perform, feel and share.
From why certain music can make us feel different emotions and how it might influence what we buy, Turn It Up: The power of music illustrates how profoundly music affects our lives. It explores the technological advancements pushing the limits of music while showcasing weird and wonderful instruments like the Pyrophone, an organ powered by flames.
Galleries
Engineers
From 23 June 2023
Free
This major new gallery explores how engineers shape the world we live in through ground-breaking innovations which improve billions of lives. Human stories are at the heart of the Engineers gallery, which challenges common misconceptions of what engineers do and offers a fresh perspective on the breadth and diversity of these important roles.
Marking a decade of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the gallery will showcase previous winners of the prize, alongside some of the most exciting engineering innovations of recent years. Visitors will have the opportunity to take a closer look at iconic objects such as the first digital camera and the cutting-edge CMR ‘Versius’ surgical robot arm, as well as learn more about the remarkable people who invented them.
Technicians: The David Sainsbury Gallery
Free
Technicians: The David Sainsbury Gallery is a unique interactive gallery for 11–16-year-olds which aims to change perceptions and celebrate the role of technicians. The new gallery helps bring the overlooked but crucial world of technicians to life, with visitors invited to hear inspirational stories, explore a variety of one-of-a-kind interactive exhibits.
Step into Shuri’s Lab, a film set recreated from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther, to learn how technicians create blockbuster movies; try your hand at creating lifesaving drugs as a pharmacy technician; pilot a remotely operated vehicle on the ocean floor; or even control a robotic arm to discover the role of advanced manufacturing technicians.
Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery
Ticketed, from £9 (under-3s go free)
Recommended ages: 7–14
Visitors can explore Wonderlab, the museum's popular interactive gallery, be amazed by live science shows and enjoy demonstrations led by a talented team of Explainers.
The gallery’s hands-on activities will inspire visitors to engage with the science all around them, through exhibits including a giant friction slide, live lightning demonstrations, a large rotating model of the solar system and more.
IMAX: The Ronson Theatre
Ticketed, from £10
The Science Museum's IMAX is one of only two screens in Europe to feature the best of digital and analogue cinema, with IMAX 70mm film and next-generation IMAX with Laser. Visitors can catch Antarctica 3D (U), featuring never-before-seen footage from the filmmakers of the iconic Planet Earth II; A Beautiful Planet 3D (U) which showcases the tasks of crew onboard the International Space Station; and Hubble 3D (U), which follows a team of astronauts as they attempt to perform one of the most difficult tasks in NASA’s history.
Events
Lates
General admission: free; VIP tickets: £10+
Our adults-only, themed after-hours event is full of mind-expanding talks, hands-on workshops and much more. Fun, food and drink, and a chance to explore the galleries at night, all the regular Lates highlights will be here for you to enjoy. Don’t miss our legendary best silent disco under rockets and practise your moonwalk in front of a Moon rock.
Our upcoming events include Gaming Lates on Thursday 27 July, Stargazing Lates on Wednesday 13 September and Music Lates on Thursday 19 October.
Great Exhibition Road Festival
Saturday 17 – Sunday 18 June 2023
The Great Exhibition Road Festival returns to South Kensington for a weekend of free hands-on workshops and illuminating talks for all ages exploring how awe and wonder can inspire science and the arts to motivate change and spark innovation. As part of the festival the Science Museum will be hosting a NextGen Zone filled with games, workshops, interactive installations, talks and displays, as well as holding Test a Career sessions where young people can meet and quiz professionals in science and tech roles.
About the Science Museum
The Science Museum is part of the Science Museum Group, the world’s leading group of science museums that share a world-class collection providing an enduring record of scientific, technological and medical achievements from across the globe. Over the last century the Science Museum, the home of human ingenuity, has grown in scale and scope, inspiring visitors with exhibitions covering topics as diverse as robots, code-breaking, cosmonauts and superbugs. 2020 marked a decade of transformation for the museum with the opening of the largest medical galleries in the world - Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries and Science City 1550-1800: The Linbury Gallery - the story of how London became a hub of discovery during 1550-1800. The Science Museum was named a winner of the prestigious Art Fund Museum of the Year prize for 2020. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk. Follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
About Discover South Kensington
Discover South Kensington brings together the Science Museum and other leading cultural and educational organisations to promote innovation and learning. South Kensington is the home of science, arts and inspiration. Discovery is at the core of what happens here and there is so much to explore every day. discoversouthken.com
