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Planning to visit us this week? Here’s some tips to help you enjoy your visit during the heatwave

  • If you’d like to avoid the peak temperatures, we’ll be open from 10am – 5pm, Wed 24 – Sun 28 Jun
  • The shuttle bus will be running throughout the week, going between the Welcome Centre and the galleries/café
  • The galleries are climate-controlled, take your time exploring the art collections and exhibitions in the cool
  • The woodland area by the lake provides plenty of shade 
  • You can top up your water with our free water station in the café
  • Cold drinks and ice creams can be purchased at both the Welcome Centre and café

Living
Symphonies

22 April 2023 – 6 August 2023

Living Symphonies ran from 22 April 2023 – 6 August 2023.

Living Symphonies was a landscape sound installation that portrays the moment-to-moment activity of a woodland ecosystem at Compton Verney.

A group of people, including adults and children, walking along a wooded trail in a park or nature area.
Living Symphonies. Jones Bulley 2019. Photograph Gregory White.

About the
exhibition

Each organism within the forest is portrayed within the piece, creating a symphony that unfolds in real-time across undergrowth, trees and canopy, with each species — from fungi and moss to insects, birds and mammals — composed from thousands of fragments of sound, scored and recorded with an array of musicians.

Based on an in-depth ecological research period, working with local wildlife experts and volunteers, Living Symphonies continuously grows and evolves in the same way as the forest itself. Musical motifs swarm and flutter across the space, heard through a network of speakers hidden throughout the site. The piece responds to the time of day and real-time atmospheric conditions, with the composition transforming as the weather and light change through day and night.