Autumn of Light and Sound at a Cathedral Near You

This Autumn cathedrals will be hosting amazing light and sound exhibitions.

Winchester Cathedral has announced a partnership with artistic collaboration, Luxmuralis, Luke Jerram’s artworks Gaia and Museum of the Moon can be found in Derby, Lichfield, and Southwark cathedrals, York Minster has announced a new light show to mark our late Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee and there are light and sound art installations in cathedrals up and down the country this autumn.

An Autumn of light and sound and spectacular spectaculars … at a cathedral near you

This week Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon opens in Lichfield for six weeks, the same artist’s installation of Planet Earth, Gaia opens in Derby Cathedral and Luxmuralis’ sound and light installation, SCIENCE opens in Worcester Cathedral today (Wednesday) for four nights.

Photo – Gaia, at Rochester Cathedral earlier this year.

Suspended in the nave of Derby Cathedral, Gaia, which is seven metres in diameter, will allow visitors to experience the earth up close and has inspired an events programme around living well and caring for our planet. It can be seen until 16 October.

The Very Revd Dr Peter Robinson, Dean of Derby, explained:

“Derby Cathedral is the perfect space for this awe-inspiring and reflective artwork.

“I think this artwork provides a new perspective of our place on the planet, a sense that societies of the Earth are all interconnected and that we have a responsibility toward one another.

“Just as astronauts have gazed in wonder of the Earth from space, I hope that ‘Gaia’ will inspire visitors to think about the significance of creation, our role as custodians on the planet and the environmental impact that we have on the natural world.”

Luke Jerram’s art installation of the moon, the Museum of the Moon opens in Lichfield Cathedral this Wednesday (21 September) until 31 October.

The Museum of the Moon features detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface and at an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of this sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface.

Visitors during the daytime will be able to view Museum of the Moon as part of their visit while evening event tickets can be booked through the Cathedral website at here and are £5 for adults, £3 for children with under 3s FREE.

 The Dean of Lichfield, the Very Revd Adrian Dorber, said:

“Luke Jerram’s work has won praise and acclamation wherever it has been seen. It is really excellent to bring the ‘Museum of the Moon’ to Lichfield. Over the past few years the Cathedral has been encouraging visitors to think about the universe and its origins and the role of humanity within God’s good creation. This is another opportunity not only to see something beautiful and eye-catching, but to be awed. I hope it will be a great autumn attraction. We look forward to making all age groups welcome.”

In Worcester SCIENCE will see the interior of the cathedral transformed by light projections accompanied by a special soundscape from the artistic collaboration Luxmuralis. The artwork is designed to encourage visitors to explore and contemplate the contributions of science and human endeavour in our understanding of the world around us.

Stephen Edwards, Vice-Dean of Worcester Cathedral, said:

“We’re very excited to be hosting SCIENCE in September, which promises to be a spectacular show, featuring an immersive internal sound and light journey that will transform the interior of our majestic Cathedral.

“Projects like this are very exciting and important for the Cathedral as they allow visitors to experience our magnificent building in a very different way. 

SCIENCE is on 21 – 24 September with tickets priced at £11 per person on a timed entry system and can be found on the Cathedral website.

Under 3s go free but a ticket will need to be booked.

Works by the artistic collaboration, Peter Walker and David Harper, that make up Luxmuralis can be found in several of our cathedrals throughout autumn and winter.

Winchester Cathedral has just announced a new creative partnership with the team which will launch on October 1 with Light of Hope, an illuminated five-metre diameter steel sculptural artwork created to represent hope that will hang in the nave through to January 2023. A community engagement project with local schools will run alongside it.

Other works at Winchester include the light and sound show Star of Wonder this Christmas which retells the nativity story and a new piece, Elements coming March 2023.

The Dean of Winchester, The Very Revd Catherine Ogle, said:

“I am delighted to welcome Peter back to Winchester Cathedral for this exciting creative collaboration. The Cathedral has been a place of great inspiration and wonder throughout its long history. By continuing to explore the relationship between worship and the arts, we invite all our visitors and worshippers to experience the Cathedral in a new way.”

For more information about and the events programme at Winchester Cathedral, click here.

Rochester Cathedral will show ‘Life’ by Luxmuralis which will take visitors on an immersive journey with sound and light installations projected throughout the cathedral taking visitors through a 24-hour period to experience the natural world around us.

‘Life’ will be at Rochester Cathedral from the 4th – 8th October. Tickets must be pre-booked and timed entry will be in operation.

Life can also be seen at Durham cathedral from 12-16 October – the first time the artistic collaboration Luxmuralis has shown their artwork in the North East.

To find out more and book tickets tap here.

This October half term, Luxmuralis is lighting up St Albans Cathedral with their immersive sound and light show, Science: Lighting up Our Universe

From Tuesday 25 – Saturday 29 October with timed tickets available from 6pm until 8.45pm.

The show will take audiences through the history of science, showing the ways in which scientists have shaped the past and will influence the future. To accompany the show, St Albans Cathedral will be running a Science and Faith programme, with events ranging from science experiments in the nave to lectures.

Canon Kevin Walton said,

“We are delighted to share once more with Luxmuralis in bringing this artistic spectacle to St Albans, bringing together science and faith in wonderment at our universe.’

Advance tickets are now available on the Cathedral’s website.

A new light and sound installation from the creators of Northern Lights will illuminate York Minster during October half term to help raise funds to conserve the cathedral’s medieval stained glass and stonework.

Platinum and Light is a new projection and sound artwork from artists Ross Ashton and Karen Monid, who created the Northern Lights installation which ran at York Minster in October 2019.

The new show, which will run for eight nights from Thursday 20 to Thursday 27 October, is inspired by the Minster’s architecture and historic collections, using precious metals through the ages, including gold, silver and platinum, to journey through key moments in York’s and the Minster’s history and their royal connections.

The artwork is part of the cathedral’s activity in 2022 to mark Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee year.

The events will help raise funds for the Minster’s current project to conserve the medieval St Cuthbert Window, which is one of the largest surviving narrative windows in Europe, and the stonework of the surrounding South Quire Transept.

Tickets are available now via the cathedral’s website at and cost £7.50 each, or £25 for a family ticket for up to two adults and two children.

Luke Jerram’s artwork Gaia can also be found in Southwark Cathedral this October from 11 – 30 October with a full events programme to allow visitors to reflect on the issues raised by the artwork.

Luxmuralis’ work can be seen at other cathedrals this Autumn and Winter too – Bristol, Canterbury, Salisbury, Peterborough, Sheffield and Liverpool.

Please check the cathedral’s individual websites for up to date information.