Art installation featuring 20-foot hanging moon to light up Long Island cathedral’s nave

[Episcopal News Service] Imagine attending an Episcopal worship service on Sunday, sitting down in one of the pews and facing ahead to see a 20-foot representation of the moon levitating over the altar.

No imagination will be required at Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, New York.

Starting April 11, the cathedral will welcome the traveling art installation “Museum of the Moon,” which features high-resolution NASA images of the moon displayed on a giant 3D canvas. The illuminated sphere will be suspended in the nave through May 4 as part of the cathedral’s nearly monthlong “Moon as Sacred Mirror” series of programming.

The centerpiece exhibit was created by British artist Luke Jerram, who has installed “Museum of the Moon” at a variety of settings and locations around the world, from India to England to the West Bank.

“Over its lifetime, the ‘Museum of the Moon’ will be presented in a number of different ways both indoors and outdoors, so altering the experience and interpretation of the artwork,” Jerram says on the installation’s website. The Cathedral of the Incarnation will be the first house of worship in the United States to host the artwork.

“We are honored to welcome this extraordinary installation to our cathedral,” the Very Rev. Michael Sniffen, the cathedral’s dean, said in a Diocese of Long Island news release. “The ‘Moon as Sacred Mirror’ program reflects our mission as Long Island’s center for prayer, learning, culture, and the arts, inviting all to engage with the intersection of faith and creativity.”

The coming weeks of programming centered on Jerram’s lunar artwork will include guided tours, a gala fundraiser, a Pink Floyd tribute concert (with songs from the band’s blockbuster 1973 album, “The Dark Side of the Moon”), yoga sessions, academic lectures with scholars from Adelphi University and an additional art exhibition presented by Trinity Community Arts Center. The cathedral’s online invitation describes Jerram’s installation as “a powerful theological and cultural focal point, bridging sacred and secular understandings of existence.”

“This installation is more than an artwork—it’s a bridge between the sacred and the celestial,” Sniffen said. “We invite the entire community to witness this remarkable experience, where art, faith and wonder unite.”