Museum of the Moon
Sara Jaspan, Exhibitions Editor
First thing upon arriving at Stoke-on-Trent train station, skip the takeout coffee and head straight to King’s Hall where acclaimed contemporary artist Luke Jerram’s remarkable Museum of the Moon installation (recently profiled on BBC Radio 4) will be on show for just nine days before the next stop on its international tour.
The ethereal spectacle consists of a spherical floating moon sculpture measuring seven meters in diameter (each centimetre of which represents five kilometres of the Earth moon’s surface at an approximate scale of 1:500,000) pitted with craters traced with 120 dpi detailed NASA imagery, and bathed in a specially commissioned accompanying surround sound composition by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award-winning composer Dan Jones.
Jerram has described the artwork as a meditation upon the significance that the celestial body has played throughout history and the different beliefs, mythologies, identities and ideas that subsequent cultures have bestowed upon it. Take a seat or lie down beneath the luminous globe in a patch of pale moonlight and allow your mind to wonder at the simple, beauty and incomprehensible nature of our planet’s 4.57-billion-year-old natural satellite.
Afterwards, soften your return to terrestrial reality with a generously iced cake or homemade scone at the Alice in Wonderland inspired tearoom, The Rabbit Hole, less than a minute away.
Museum of the Moon will be accompanied by several related events. Check www.appetitestoke.co.uk for more details and discover more places to visit and things to do in Stoke-on-Trent this summer here.
