• Swindon & Wiltshire Education, training and skills
• Tuesday September 15 2026

Giant pollen grain comes to Bristol as part of Uni celebrations

An artist known for making planets small enough to fit in a room has made a giant immersive pollen grain the size of a small building, which will visit his home city next month for one day only.

Pollenarium, by Bristol artist Luke Jerram and US designers Pneuhaus, will be on display at the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus on Saturday, October 10 as part of the University of Bristol’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

The 20ft-tall Pollenarium will use more than 100 lenses, each one working as a camera obscura, to reveal an upside-down mosaic of the local landscape, showing how bees see the world.

This will be only the second time the artwork has been shown in public after it premiered with Creative Barking and Dagenham at Barking Riverside in London on Saturday.

Luke Jerram has a long-standing relationship with the University of Bristol. The artist donated Palm Temple, a strikingly colourful installation inspired by Florence Cathedral, which now sits outside the School of Chemistry.

The University has also hosted several other artworks, including the trilogy of celestial installations, Museum of the Moon, Gaia, and Mars.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts and public engagement, Jerram was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University in 2020.

Pollenarium will be one of 80 activities taking place at the University’s Clifton Campus and the new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC), which opened on September 7 next to Bristol Temple Meads station.

Luke Jerram will also take part in a talk on biodiversity and the role of pollinators alongside Nick Wray, Curator at the University of Bristol Botanical Garden, in the new Sloane Robinson Building at TQEC.

Luke said: “I would like Pollenarium to inspire people to think about the insects they rarely notice. I have been preoccupied with the hidden and overlooked for a long time in my work.

“We need bees and insects to pollinate our food and feed our birds. In parts of China, they are already hand-pollinating fruit trees with little brushes; we really don’t want to be in that position. It would be a complete disaster.”

Judith Squires, deputy vice-chancellor and provost at the University of Bristol, said: “It’s incredibly exciting that Luke Jerram is bringing his newest installation to Bristol and that visitors joining us for our 150th anniversary celebrations will be able to experience our new campus from a bee’s-eye perspective.

Luke’s work encourages us to see the world differently and sparks curiosity about our relationship with the natural environment.

“As a university committed to addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainability, we are delighted to host an installation that inspires reflection, conversation and action.”

Image credit: David Levene