Norwich – St. Peter Mancroft Church (Gaia Earth Art Installation)

I missed this Gaia art installation by a couple of days when it was in Hull a few weeks ago, so I was pleased to see that it was coming to St. Peter Mancroft Church in central Norwich. The installation is designed by Luke Jerram to encourage people to think about environmental issues and also our place on the planet.

The earth gently revolves and there’s some background music as well to support the whole arrangement.

The installation certainly brought lots of visitors to the church and apparently it was popular with families last week during Half Term. There was a friendly team of volunteers at the entrance to the church who were giving Gaia bookmarks out and welcoming people, which I thought was rather lovely. I also saw the church’s shop doing a brisk trade in various different items such as Christmas cards, so it seems to have been a worthwhile project for them.

There are a few similar installations to allow for multiple events, but there’s a list of where Gaia is going to be in the future at https://my-earth.org/tour-dates/ and it’s at Keele for three weeks this month, which I can imagine will look suitably exciting in the chapel. This is all free of charge for visitors and I liked the whole air of optimism behind the project, which seemed evident in the friendliness and warmth of the volunteers. An uplifting experience I’d say.