During this year’s events at Lichfield Cathedral leading up to Christmas in the period of Advent, The Artist Peter Walker created an installation artwork entitled’ Starry, Starry Night’. The installation, a bespoke work created specifically for Lichfield Cathedral, was a large scale project that incorporated working with different schools and members of the public within the Lichfield Diocese as part of its production. The artwork created saw a transformation of the space adopted for use within the Cathedral using light and sound projection. The installation was created from 6,200 hanging gold and silver mosaic paper stars, each star had been decorated by a schoolchild or member of the public and had an individual message written on it – either in form of a prayer, Christmas message, or wish, the activity of making the stars was part of children’s school lessons in art, or religious education. The installation was set to music by composer David Harper written specifically for the artwork entitled ‘Constellation’. The Stars were then lit with projected light depicting the night sky and star constellations.
The installation artwork was put together by the Artist gathering and hanging the 6,200 individual stars within the Chapter House and Pedalavium areas within the Cathedral with help from volunteers. The Installation was open to public display from 1st December to 6th Jan. It was also on show during the Cathedral Illuminations that occurred for six nights before Christmas.
‘Great that the Cathedral is attracting those who may not otherwise visit’
‘ beautiful family experience’
‘Please do it again next year’
‘well done! Good organisation and just wonderful’
‘This event was very uplifting, sharing your Cathedral and Christmas with 16000 people is a wonderful thing’
‘10/10 would come again’
‘This was a very lovely experience with lovely decoration, with very lovely staff’
‘I’m an atheist but still enjoy looking at the architecture etc.’
‘Great for Christmas, it reminded me of going to Walsall illuminations as a child, although this was far more classy and artistic!’
‘I think it’s really elaborately thought out, like you look at it and you feel the Christmas mood, you feel happy and joyful, to be around with the people you love, so yeah it’s a really nice experience.’
‘It makes you feel very Christmassy; probably more than anything else we have done this Christmas.’
‘ ‘We really enjoyed this evening, it’s just been a really a lovely atmosphere, lovely people, my son really enjoyed the star room, it’s really beautiful, we read a lot of messages on them, which is really lovely, a nice way to start Christmas.’
‘I enjoyed all of the stars in the room’.
The project was supported by funding from the www.artscouncil.org.uk – and support from Lichfield Cathedral – www.lichfield-cathedral.org
