Dark Star Park
Overview
Encompassing landscape architecture, sculpture, and astronomy, Dark Star Park by Nancy Holt (1938-2014) is among the first major examples of “integrated public art” that is inseparable from its setting and creates a total environment to be experienced. The work also refers to the area’s history. Each year, on August 1st, at 9:32a.m., actual shadows cast by the poles and spheres align with permanent forms in the shape of the shadows on the ground beneath them. The date marks the day that William Henry Ross purchased the land that later became Rosslyn.
Learn more:
Learn more about the artwork when it was first dedicated in 1984: Dark Star Park Brochure
Learn more about Nancy Holt and the Holt/Smithson Foundation.
Read an essay by Arlington Public Art's Angela A. Adams: Nancy Holt's "Dark Star Park".
Read an essay by scholar Gretchen Ernster Henderson: Here Before & Where Beyond: "Dark Star Park".
Read a transcript of Angela A. Adams’ speech given at Nancy Holt's memorial on October 14, 2014 at the Whitney Museum of American Art.