A 23-foot replica of the moon was hung Saturday at the WaterFire Arts Center in Providence, part of a month-long exhibit that will anchor a variety of events, including a WaterFire visit by astronauts on July 20.

PROVIDENCE — Barnaby Evans figures it was a common career aspiration for an American teenager in July 1969.



He wanted to be an astronaut.



As humans neared the surface of the moon for the first time, Evans was a 16-year-old counselor at a Boy Scout camp deep in the High Sierra mountains with no televisions and no radios.



The scouts could see the moon in the daylight, he recalls.

“We were talking about it and how much it was going to change the future,” says the ponytailed creator of WaterFire. “So it’s interesting to look back 50 years later.”



Looking back on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission — and looking forward, too — are motives behind the endeavor that brought an enormous re-creation of the moon to the exhibition space at the WaterFire Arts Center this weekend.



The sculpture is the focal point of “Museum of the Moon,” a month-long exhibition provided by the artist who built the artificial version of the actual celestial body, Luke Jerram, and by the NASA-RI Space Grant, with support from Brown University.

The moon exhibit, say organizers, anchors a vast array of moon-related displays, performances and lectures to unfold this month in Providence, including a July 20 WaterFire lighting that will draw NASA astronauts Jeff Hoffman and Woody Spring. At an exhibit in Market Square that night, people will be able to touch a rock that came from the moon.



As part of WaterFire’s windup to the extravaganza, the giant inflated moon, which is also illuminated, made its ascent Saturday afternoon in the cavernous display area of the WaterFire building on Valley Street.



The cratered surface of the exhibition moon is based on NASA’s imagery of the actual lunar surface.



Each centimeter on the surface of the astronomical sculpture represents 5 kilometers of distance on the actual moon — where Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk its surface on July 20, 1969.



The moon exhibit, which came to Rhode Island from Minnesota and will travel to South Carolina for its next stop, allows an observer to see relationships “all over the place,” says Peter Schultz, director of the NASA-RI Space Grant.



Schultz is a Brown University professor who specializes in planetary geology.



The earth, says Schultz, heals from its collisions with asteroids, but the moon does not.



Other than really spectacular video, nothing other than the traveling moon exhibit helps a person feel so close to the moon, says Schultz.



“It’s not looking at a postage stamp on the screen of a computer,” Schultz says. “You’re looking at everything. You’re seeing the entire globe. So you’re able to see a relationship.”



“When you walk in ... It’s kind of like you’re approaching the moon like an astronaut.”



One major goal of the moon series is to inspire young people to think about careers, particularly in science, technology, engineering, the arts and math.



The menu served up by Evans’ latest collaboration — one of WaterFire’s largest ever — mixes easy-to-digest scientific lectures on planets such as Mars and Saturn with artsier offerings such as a gigantic mural of the Milky Way, done in charcoal.



On Monday night’s opening reception for the exhibit, composer Judith Stillman will present a world premier of chamber music for piano with six string players and two narrators.



The work is titled: “Small Step, Giant Leap: A Lunar Fantasy.”



To learn more about the events, including a parade commemorating the moon landing that will be held in Conimicut village in Warwick on July 20, go to http://waterfire.org/moon.



While Evans didn’t make it there as an astronaut, he has felt the moon’s influence on his career. The moon inspired Beethoven, he says. The tidal effects of the moon have always governed the WaterFire schedule.



“The moon is considered the companion to the arts,” Evans says.



“I’m happy to be an artist, and we’re still working on those environmental issues.”