The 35th Anniversary of Dark Star Park

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Project Details

Location: Dark Star Park and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Date: July 31-August 2, 2019

Every August 1st at 9:32 a.m., Nancy Holt’s Dark Star Park (1984), in Arlington’s Rosslyn neighborhood, aligns with the sun.  Shadows cast by the spheres and poles of this landmark outdoor sculpture align with their permanent forms on the ground, marking the moment of Rosslyn’s founding. For the 35th anniversary of Dark Star Park, Arlington Public Art partnered with the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and Holt/Smithson Foundation for a series of activities at the Hirshhorn, as well as at Dark Star Park, including:

In Conversation: Time in Public Sculpture (Hirshhorn Museum)
Holt/Smithson Foundation’s Executive Director Lisa Le Feuvre led a panel discussion exploring the ever-evolving nature of sculpture in the public realm with Arlington Public Art Founding Director Angela Anderson Adams, Hirshhorn Associate Curator Anne Reeve, and the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum Director Brett Littman.

• Listen to an audio recording of the panel discussion.

The Alignment at Dark Star Park with Janel and Anthony Performance (Dark Star Park)
In coordination with the shadow alignment, Cuneiform recording artists Janel and Anthony performed an original site-specific composition. The Rosslyn Business Improvement District provided refreshments and hospitality.

• View a video clip of the shadow alignment and performance by Janel and Anthony.
• View a time lapse video of the alignment.
• Hear the studio recording of the site-specific composition by Janel and Anthony.

Nancy Holt Film Screenings with an introduction by Lisa Le Feuvre (Hirshhorn Museum)
Screening of Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels (1978) and Nancy Holt, Art in the Public Eye: The Making of Dark Star Park (1988).  The films reveal the making of visionary land artist Nancy Holt’s earthworks, serving both as documentation of her best-known land art sculptures and as artworks in themselves.