Interactive Art Display Coming To Alexandria Park

ALEXANDRIA, VA — An interactive art display is coming to Alexandria's new Waterfront Park as the city celebrates the opening of the park on the Potomac River shoreline, at the foot of Old Town.

The city announced that a ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, March 30, in the park at 1 King St. The celebration will continue with festivities from 2 to 9 p.m. to mark the opening of "Mirror Mirror," a new sound-responsive, interactive public art installation. Events will occur rain or shine.

Commissioned by the city, the 25-foot diameter, eight-foot tall installation "responds to sound with illuminated color, bathing visitors in rainbow-hued light as they talk, sing, and play," according to a city statement.

"Mirror, Mirror" is the first for "Site/See: New Views in Old Town," a new annual series of temporary public art installations in Waterfront Park. It was created by SOFTlab, a New York-based design studio led by artist and architect Michael Szivos, and was inspired by the historic Fresnel lens of Alexandria's Jones Point Lighthouse. It will be on display from March through November.

The new Waterfront Park will combine the original King Street Park and Waterfront Park sites with the sites of the former Old Dominion Boat Club building and parking lot "to create a seamless transition between Old Town's historic retail corridor and the water," the city said.

The park features an open plaza, a waterfront promenade, shade structures, "and a modular space that can adapt to different purposes throughout the year," the city said.

In several years, Waterfront Park will close so that flood mitigation infrastructure can be constructed and more amenities added before the permanent park reopens.

(For more information on this and other Alexandria stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)