A black tie fundraising gala dinner event at National Maritime Museum Cornwall, in the company of Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal, raised over £80,000 for the Museum last week.
The event called a Night at the Museum, celebrated the Museum’s 10th birthday and launched a new 10-year campaign to raise £4 million over the next decade.
More than 120 guests enjoyed a champagne reception overlooking Falmouth’s harbor in the Museum’s Waterside café followed by a candlelit five course meal in the Museum’s Main Hall. Generously catered for by The Seafood Restaurant, prepared by guest chef Jack Stein, the stunning food was complemented with fine wines kindly supplied by St. Austell Brewery.
The evening’s entertainment included an auction for money-can’t-buy prizes, generously gifted to the Museum by private individuals and organizations from across the U.K. Prizes ranged from breath taking paintings by Kurt Jackson and Alexander Creswell that together raised nearly £6,000 to vintage port and a day’s sailing with GBR’s medal maker Sid Howlett MBE – the man behind Ben Ainslie’s success.
Her Royal Highness spoke and praised the Museum’s work and all it had achieved over its first 10 years, wishing it well for the future and encouraging others to support its ambitions to continue to inspire, entertain and inform.
Jonathan Griffin, Director of National Maritime Museum Cornwall said, “I can’t thank our guests, auction donors, auction bidders, the team at The Seafood Restaurant and St. Austell Brewery enough. Their commitment to our future is heart-warming, their belief in our vision is empowering and their generosity has helped kick-start our campaign far better than we could have imagined. We have also received an anonymous pledge from a couple who will match every pound we raise to the tune of £1 million. This really is a significant boost to our fundraising ambitions and the launch of our new £4m campaign simply couldn’t have gone any better.”
“The campaign to raise £4 million over the next decade will allow us to look beyond today and build the future. We want to inspire and engage people with the stories of the sea, boats and Cornwall and we want to be a successful enterprise of which Falmouth, Cornwall and the maritime community can be very proud.”
“We need funding to achieve this excellence and make a real contribution to people’s lives and with the successful gala night last week, we are cautiously optimistic that many existing loyal good friends and new friends to the Museum will help us deliver our vision.”
