Last Tuesday night, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History celebrated its reopening after a two year, $85-million renovation. Hosting some 1,200 guests—all eager to see the new glass-and-marble, five-story atrium—organizers dressed up the space with loads of red, white, and blue lighting and catering displays that kept the collection the centerpiece of the evening.
“In reopening the entire museum, we wanted to make sure to highlight some of our exhibitions,” said museum director of special events Elizabeth Little. “So we set up eight buffets themed to eight exhibits around the space, rather than having a seated event. It’s much more dynamic that way, and people explore the museum as opposed to gathering in one area.”
Spread over three floors, the stations covered a range of cuisine and included historical impersonators. Near the “Science in American Life” exhibition, Benjamin Franklin stood by as staffers dressed in white lab coats handed out dehydrated paella in test tubes. The food also turned interactive, with a conveyor belt offering up assorted sushi and lazy susans providing “spin art” dips for beef, chicken, and pork skewers.
“We were working with a very creative events team that was interested in showing off the museum as well,” said Little. “Occasions Caterers originally came up with concepts playing off of the exhibitions and then Mark Chaikowski filled in all the details and creative touches.”
To that end, an antique locomotive provided the backdrop for a train car-style dining area, complete with a model set, enormous standing pots of ornamental grasses, and a bluegrass duo. Near the exhibition of Julia Child’s kitchen, an impersonator set up with mini croques monsieurs and coq au vin platters. Beside a George Washington sculpture, lace-covered tables decorated with pyramids of fresh lemons offered beef Wellington bites and wild mushroom tartlets.
After remarks from museum director Brent Glass and Smithsonian secretary G. Wayne Clough, a U.S. Army quintet performed the national anthem in front of the museum’s new display room for the Star-Spangled Banner. The feast continued on the atrium balcony, where Marilyn Monroe-illustrated displays were filled with mini cupcakes and brandied sweet potato pies and long tables of doughnuts and pies galore (from deep-dish apple to mile-high lemon meringue) were dished out by World War I-style U.S.O. hostesses.
