Guiding Lights

Guiding Lights opens across Plymouth on Monday 6 July, with more than 40 lighthouse sculptures popping up on the city's streets, the waterfront and in neighbourhoods across town. It's a public art trail run by St Luke's Hospice in partnership with Wild in Art, and it stays in place until 13 September, with extra events running on through to 1 October.

Each sculpture is 2.4 metres tall and has been decorated by a professional artist — Brian Pollard and Mrs Murals are among them — with local businesses sponsoring the individual pieces. The lighthouse theme fits the city's maritime history, with Smeaton's Tower on The Hoe as a well-known local reference, but it's also meant as a metaphor for the support St Luke's provides to patients and families facing life-limiting illnesses. Beyond the art, the whole thing is about raising funds and awareness for the palliative care the hospice provides across Plymouth, southwest Devon and east Cornwall.

There's a few ways to work your way through it. You can download an interactive app for £1.99 to track the sculptures, or pick up a printed map for a suggested donation of £2. There's also a 'Little Lights' project involving local schools, so the trail isn't just the professional pieces. The whole thing wraps up with a charity auction of the sculptures, with the proceeds going back to the hospice.

So, from 6 July to 13 September, you'll find these 2.4m lighthouses scattered across Plymouth's streets and waterfront, with the app at £1.99 and printed maps for a £2 donation.