‘Large-scale xylophone’ to be installed in downtown park as public art

Edward R. Murrow Park, a small green space across from the World Bank headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, will be equipped Thursday with a unique musical instrument: a “large-scale xylophone” that can play “the Polish birthday and anniversary song ‘Sto Lat,’” according to the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID). The installation is dubbed “Hurrah!” and is meant to commemorate the U.S. and Poland’s diplomatic rapport.

“Created by a team of Polish and American designers led by Polish designer and Pratt Institute professor Karol Murlak, Hurrah! is an urban musical instrument designed in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Poland and the United States,” the BID says in a release. The project, which will remain on display until August 2020, originally debuted in Times Square in New York City earlier this year for the annual NYCxDesign event. Here in the District, it will be the first in a series of international art installations on the west end of Pennsylvania Avenue NW, notes the BID.

Golden Triangle Business Improvement District

Murlak as well as BID and Polish officials will unveil the display Thursday at noon. It is being sponsored by the business group and the Polish embassy, with additional support from the Polish Cultural Institute New York. The BID and its partners, including the local and federal governments, plan to remake the streetscape on the west side of Pennsylvania Avenue NW.