2025 Dark Skies Exhibition in review

IW Dark Skies Exhibition - in review

Celebrating the Success of our 2025 IW Dark Skies Exhibition

New Carnival recently hosted the IW Dark Skies Exhibition at 11 St Thomas’s Square, Ryde, with kind support from Ryde Town Council. This inspiring event ran from the 4th to the 8th of March 2025 and was a resounding success, attracting 150 visitors over its five-day run.

The exhibition featured stunning lantern sculptures by New Carnival’s creative team and artworks by Breakout Youth, New Carnival’s youth project ‘Isle of Creativity,’ Ryde School Pre Prep, and the Island Learning Centre. These creations beautifully showcased the island’s connection to dark skies, history, heritage, and nocturnal wildlife, while also supporting the bid to designate part of the island as a Dark Skies Park.

The idea for the exhibition came from the fact that so many beautiful artworks were created for the Merry and Bright Festival of Light 2024, but unfortunately, due to the poor weather, not as many people as hoped were able to see them. This exhibition gave people another chance to see the stunning artworks up close!

On Tuesday, the building also hosted the Living Well coffee morning, where attendees showed great interest in the exhibition. Gemma delivered a short presentation explaining the project and its significance, sparking lots of positive conversations with the group’s members.

One of the highlights of the exhibition was the free drop-in craft workshop held on Saturday, 8th March. Fourteen children participated, creating intricate dream catcher-style decorations inspired by the themes of the exhibition. Their creativity added an interactive and hands-on element to the event, further engaging the community in the importance of preserving dark skies.

New Carnival is thrilled with the positive response from visitors and the engagement of young artists in this project. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Ryde Town Council for their support, as well as to all the talented participants and visitors who made this exhibition a success. We hope to host more events and activities in this brilliant new space that Ryde Town Council has taken over for the benefit of the town.

The bucket collection at the exhibition raised £10, and we are grateful for every contribution. If you would like to donate to New Carnival to help us continue our work, please visit: Support New Carnival.

To find out more about the island’s dark skies, click here: Isle of Wight Dark Skies.

Stay tuned for more exciting events and projects celebrating art, community, and creativity!