Immersive Exhibition Merges Art and Science to Tell the Story of Bees

Immersive Exhibition Tells the Story of Bees Through Sights, Sounds, and Smells

Female Nomioides (Photo: © Pete Carr Photography / National Museums Liverpool)

An innovative exhibition at Liverpool's World Museum merges art and science to bring the public into the fascinating world of bees. Bees: A Story of Survival is a tale of 120 million years of adaptation and survival. Designed and produced by artist and sculptor Wolfgang Buttress, the exhibition is a full sensory experience.

This isn't just an exhibition with bee specimens displayed in cases. The show uses video, sound, and cutting-edge technology to tell the tale of how bees are vital to our ecosystems and essential to human existence. The public is invited into eight immersive rooms that range from a hive-like environment that features a live stream of a real hive to a trail into a wildflower meadow that uses sounds and smells to demonstrate their role as pollinators.

“This exhibition was imagined to be like no other. The intention is to create an emotionally engaging and sensory stimulating experience to express the wonder and diversity of bees,” shares Buttress. “I want the audience to feel empathy as well as an understanding and appreciation of these incredible creatures. If we love and respect bees a little bit more after seeing this exhibition, then we may well make the earth a better place for them and us to live in.”

Given the World Museum's extensive entomology collection, which includes over 30,000 specimens of bees, it was a natural fit to host the exhibition.

“Bees and other pollinators are vital to our planet’s ecosystems and essential to our own lives,” says Anne Fahy, head of World Museum. “But their existence is under threat. Using World Museum's nationally and internationally important entomology collection, and with the artistic vision of Wolfgang Buttress Studios, we want to shine a light on the plight of bees and the devastating impact a world without bees would have on humanity.”

Bees: A Story of Survival is on display at the World Museum in Liverpool, England, through May 5, 2025. Scroll down for more images from the exhibition, as well as stunning close-up photography of bees by Pete Carr to get you excited by the wide variety of bees in the world.