Planet Parade - Neptune at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery

The Solar System in the City

Planet Parade, bought to you by the National Space Centre, is a free, city-wide trail that transforms Leicester into a walkable solar system. Created by around 250 local children working alongside artists, each planet is represented through bold, imaginative artworks installed at venues across the city centre. Families are invited to explore all eight planets – plus the Sun at the National Space Centre – while discovering Leicester’s proud space heritage, learning fascinating science facts, and enjoying creativity at every stop.

Marcus Dove is a Leicester based artist who harnesses the raw power of pyrotechnics to create mesmerizing and thought-provoking figurative and abstract paintings. Employing unconventional tools such as gunpowder and smoke grenades, Dove pushes the boundaries of artistic expression and challenges traditional methods of creation.

With a deep-rooted fascination for the transformative nature of destruction, the artist brings hazardous elements into the artistic process, channeling their explosive energy onto the canvas. This unique approach allows the artist to explore the delicate balance between creation and destruction, ultimately offering a meditation on the cyclical nature of existence itself.

Dove has worked with children from Ellesmere Primary School to create the fantastic artwork that can be seen at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery from 30th March to 31st May 2026. Below you can see a photograph showing the process of creating the artwork which looks like a lot of fun!

"Working with the kids at Ellesmere was a fun & messy time. By allowing them to be free on the canvas to do what they want with a specific colour palette created the right space for sporadic mark-making. I felt honoured to tie it all together with my signature use of pyrotechnics and bring Neptune into the picture."

- Marcus Dove, Artist

• Planet Parade Information