Cathedral festival will look deep into space

Light projections, exhibitions, talks, walks and thermal experiments within the historic walls of Canterbury Cathedral are among the highlights of an art and history festival next week.

Called Questions of Space: A Festival of Ideas, it is being staged on Monday and Tuesday.

It is the result of a unique partnership between Cathedral staff and University of Kent artists, architects and historians.

It will help participants discover and learn about previously unknown, unexplored or secret spaces of the Cathedral.

The programme includes an experiment using helium balloons to track airflow within the Cathedral and a winding trail that reveals the stories and symbols on tombs, inscriptions and stained glass.

There will also be a concert in the crypt combining Chinese songs and blues rhythms and a talk that will reveal how Britain’s first Gothic building was once adorned in splendid colours.

Developed by the Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Humanities, Paul Allain, in collaboration with the Cathedral, Questions of Space will draw on hundreds of years of history to ask what this space means today.

The festival, which could become an annual event, also aims to engage new audiences with heritage as part of the Cathedral’s Canterbury Journey project.

For more information and to book, visit www.kent. ac.uk/publicengagement/ questions-of-space