This Saturday (July 17), just days before the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s famous 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing on 20th July 20, you’ll be able to take your own ‘walk on the moon’ at Peterborough Cathedral.
The building is hosting One Small Step, a giant representation of the lunar surface created by the renowned artist and sculptor Peter Walker. The 36m x 7m artwork uses imagery from NASA to show all the craters and details of the lunar rock. It will transform a huge area of the floor in the Cathedral’s north and south transepts into an image of the moon’s terrain for visitors to walk on.
The exhibition will be on display at the Cathedral until October 31 and during this time lunar-themed events are planned. From August 2 – 7 One Giant Leap will offer children a fun ‘astronaut training’ session, including a teddy bear parachute jump.
On selected dates there will also be Moon with a View, an opportunity to see the artwork from above and then climb right up to see the view from the top of the Cathedral tower.
On July 24 mezzo soprano Gabriella Pineda-Rodrigues will give a concert of Songs to the Moon, accompanied by the pianist Kate Wishart, and on August 11 the Cambridge Science Centre will be visiting with their show, Safe in Space.
A silent disco with Dancing on the Moon will take place on July 31 and a special series of services entitled Space for God will take place on Sunday evenings.
During the October Half Term the National Space Centre in Leicester will bring their Inflatable Planetarium to give a tour of the sky at night, and there’ll also be a chance for families to get together and Meet you at the Moon when the cover band Shakeout entertains. Full details of all the events are on the Cathedral website.
Canon Tim Alban Jones, Vice Dean of Peterborough, said: “As we slowly emerge from the restrictions of the global pandemic it’s truly wonderful to have the opportunity to see things from such a different perspective. I hope that this close-up glimpse of somewhere that is normally hundreds of thousands of miles away will help visitors have a sense of the vastness of God’s universe and to think about our place within it.”
The artist, Peter Walker, said: “This is an artwork designed to let us think about exploration, about possibilities and about how that one small step we might take in our own lives could bring us closer to our own understanding of the vastness and otherness of existence.
“It is an artwork designed for those who wish to examine closely the surface of the moon which we have all looked up and considered, but it is also designed as a playful space for family adventure. More than anything this is a fantastic opportunity to tell everyone that you have been somewhere quite different this summer and take a selfie on the moon.”
Entry to the Cathedral and the exhibition is by donation. The opening hours for One Small Step are usually 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday, and 12 noon until 3pm on Sundays. On Thursdays during the school holidays the exhibition will also be open from 6.30pm until 8.30pm. Times may vary and it is advisable to check the website before visiting.
Visitors are asked to ensure that they wear flat heeled shoes to walk on the moon surface. More information is at www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/onesmallstep.
The exhibition is being supported by sponsors Henson Crisp Ltd, Independent Financial Advisers and Speed Agency.