YOU’RE INVITED TO ‘SEE THE LIGHT’

An array of innovative lightworks will be coming to Grimsby Minster and St James’ Square over the weekend of 17 - 19 April, to complement Luke Jerram’s awe-inspiring HELIOS installation – all hosted as part of North East Lincolnshire’s Our Future Starts Here programme.

SEE THE LIGHT consists of five installations and a groundbreaking dance performance, from quality regional and national artists, all exploring nature and environmental themes.

Audiences will be able to enjoy the artwork for free thanks to National Lottery players, as it forms part of a five-year partnership programme for the region, the purpose of which is to inspire change through creativity.

More than Human, an evolving new concept by Tom Dale Company with The Light Surgeons and Chronic Insanity Theatre, promises an immersive, ‘soft-cinema lounge experience’ combining visuals and electronic sound across dual screens to create a sensory environment.

The installation invites visitors to lie back beneath a suspended screen and look up, to explore intelligence as something to be shared and distributed across living systems (plants, animals, fungi, ecosystems, and technologies) rather than as something that belongs only to humans or machines.

SURGE: OPEN AIR, created by Tom Dale, Ital Tek, Jemima Brown and Vent Media, invites audiences to experience the pulse of the future, together, under open skies. An electrifying solo performance, SURGE: OPEN AIR draws audiences thrillingly close to the action. This groundbreaking work fuses live vocals, mesmerising movement, and cutting-edge projection, resulting in an unforgettable performance outdoors. Audiences feel totally immersed and often leave the show feeling like they have ‘never seen anything like it before’.

Sunshine on the Fallen Tree, by Sheffield-based Pif-Paf, is a beautiful and emotional sound and light sculpture that audiences can walk in and around. Made from Sheffield-sourced Ash trees, which have been felled due to Ash dieback [when a tree begins to die due to disease or an unfavourable environment], visitors are invited to walk through its branches and be seated while bathing in its light, as Eleanor Hooper and Kate Griffin’s sound composition takes you through ‘sonic memories’ of the tree. The experience invites you to reflect on the decline of the Ash Tree; however, taking into account that science from 2025 shows that many Ash trees themselves are seen to be fighting back, bringing hope and meaning to us all. The original accompanying sound composition can be heard, and if you like, bought on bandcamp. Sunshine On the Fallen Tree was commissioned for Wentworth Woodhouse’s Chapel for We Wonder Noir in Winter 21/22 and has toured extensively both indoors and outdoors since then.

LIGHT / LEAVES by Grimsby-based Let There be Light Studio comes in the form of three, captivating, large-scale leaf sculptures – Oak, Alder and Ash. The work is designed to draw attention to common British tree species that we often take for granted, but that have, over time, become endangered largely due to human impact.

Chris McClean’s Migratory Light (to be hosted inside the Minster) is an original walk-through artwork that transforms bird migration into moving light. Migratory Light traces the seasonal movements of birds that pass through our region, translating flight and rhythm into coloured streams that flow around and above visitors. Audiences can choose to view or interact with the behaviour of the light. The bird sounds heard as part of this installation are field recordings of the Eurasian curlew by Merlyn Driver. Merlyn’s multi-artist album Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds was released in 2022 in partnership with the RSPB to raise funds for curlew conservation.

This commission was made possible through funding from Arts Council England’s Place Partnership Fund and Create North East Lincolnshire as part of the Exploring Digital programme.

Resonant Pulse by Lucy Mager is a multi-channel sonic installation that brings to life the sounds of Cleethorpes beach to create an interactive and meditative experience. Sound speakers will be arranged in a circle, facing inward, inviting the audience to stand or move within.

This commission was made possible through funding from Arts Council England’s Place Partnership Fund and Create North East Lincolnshire as part of the “Exploring Digital” programme.

SEE THE LIGHT is produced by The Culture House, alongside the Helios programme, with more events, further details, timings and activities to be announced.

Culture House artistic director, Charlotte Bowen, said: “We’re very excited to be presenting a fantastic number of quality touring light installations with purpose and meaning, in North East Lincolnshire, none of which have been seen in Grimsby before. The SEE THE LIGHT programme will help connect people to nature and environment themes, provoking reflection and thinking beyond our everyday human existence”.

SEE THE LIGHT follows the arrival of Luke Jerram’s ‘Helios’, which rises at Grimsby Minster this April to signal the official launch of ‘Our Future Starts Here’, a 5-year programme funded by the National Lottery.

Supported by partner organisations and headline sponsor Ørsted, this will be the first time Helios, originally commissioned by The National Trust and displayed at Cork Midsummer Festival, Liverpool Cathedral, Old Royal Naval College, and University College London, the appearance of this major, has been exhibited in the North East of England.

An immersive experience, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and sponsored by Ørsted, the artwork is internally lit and features detailed imagery of the Sun’s surface.

It is accompanied by a specially created surround sound composition by Duncan Speakman and Sarah Anderson.

Bookings are now open to see the exhibition, which opens during the Easter holidays and into May, including Bank Holiday Monday 4 May. Find out more at www.ourfuturestartshere.co.uk