ROSSLYN, VA – The Rosslyn Business Improvement District (BID) will mark Rosslyn’s 148^th birthday with food and public art fun at 9:00 a.m. Friday, August 1 at Dark Star Park, 1655 N. Ft. Myer Drive.   The Rosslyn BID will serve free coffee, donut holes and cereal sticks – which celebrate the giant spheres and steel rods of the public art work. 

 

Dark Star Park is Arlington’s first major commissioned public art project and was designed to commemorate the day in 1860 when William Henry Ross acquired the land that became Rosslyn. At 9:32 a.m. the sun casts shadows from the poles on the traffic island side of the piece that align with patterns on the ground in the park.  

 

The name of the park and its large spheres are a reference to extinguished, fallen stars. Artist Nancy Holt completed the project in 1984 and used concrete spheres, asphalt, precast concrete tunnels, plantings, pools of water and steel poles to enhance the park site, formerly home to a gas station. 

 

This “earthwork” is reminiscent of other environmental art pieces, such as Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake, Utah, and considered a prime example of the American land art movement that began in the 1960s. Such artwork finds inspiration in works from antiquity, like England’s Stonehenge, that harness site specific natural phenomena and organic materials to mark the unique qualities of a particular location. 

 

Rosslyn BID Executive Director Cecilia Cassidy says the Dark Star Park Day reminds people of what’s great about Rosslyn. “Dark Star Park is a symbol of Rosslyn’s continued transformation to an enjoyable urbane community. Monumental public art and improved spaces will be something Arlington can continue to celebrate year after year.”