The team behind the 11th Street Bridge Park project has selected four installations by local creatives to enliven the seven acres of new park space set to open in Southeast D.C. in 2025.

All four of the pieces have been designed by women, which is becoming a bit of a theme for the park’s larger art collection. Last year, the nonprofit that is raising money to build the park announced it had commissioned a large sculpture by mother-daughter-duo Jackson Jarvis Studio.

The works include a mural inspired by conversations and research with the Piscataway Indian Nation; a hanging light sculpture based on casts of plants native to the area; a grove of woven hammocks hung from posts displaying collages of prints and typography inspired by D.C. culture; and one project — which is less art installation than creative business model — a mobile kiosk where local entrepreneurs can sell their products.

The multimillion dollar 11th Street Bridge Park project is expected to transform the old bridge across the Anacostia River that once connected wards 6 and 8 into the District’s first elevated public park, suspended 30 feet above the Anacostia River. It’s a collaboration between the D.C. government and the Ward 8 nonprofit Building Bridges Across the River (BBAR), which also manages THEARC arts complex in Southeast.

The works include:

“Hammock Grove”

Syreeta C, a D.C.-based fashion designer and one of the artists behind “Hammock Grove”,  says she and her collaborators, artists Aliana Grace Bailey and Rhea Beckett, were inspired by a message tagged onto a concrete structure at one of the entrances to Anacostia Park: “Yes, there is more here.”

The team plans to conduct workshops with the community to hear them speak on specific themes, stories, or places relevant to native Washingtonians, and then print a collage on each hammock post that depicts a different theme.

“Our goal is for D.C. natives and long term residents to feel seen,” Syreeta said in a Zoom conference Thursday where the selected artists explained their concepts. “Current residents already understand the value here. They need not be effaced.”

“Biophilia”

Baltimore artist Becky Borlan will make this based on cyanotype prints of native plant species created by community members. The 10-foot diameter disc will hang from the underpass on the Navy Yard side of the bridge. At night, it will be illuminated by colorful LED lights. “At night we can activate this underpass space and transform it from something dark and forbidding to a place where you can have this mesmerizing encounter, and be engulfed by these different shadows and colors and plant forms,” Borlan said during Thursday’s announcement.

“Our Land”

Mickey Demas and Nicole Bourgea conceptualized “Our Land” mural as a tribute to locals who have lived and cared for D.C.’s land. It features members of the Piscataway Indian Nation in a field of tobacco plants and JJ Boone, senior farm manager at THEARC, tending to a native pawpaw tree. The artists say they consulted with leaders of the Piscataway and that a tobacco blessing ceremony will be part of project.

“This mural is a story about cultivating abundant public spaces where all communities are welcomed to gather and enjoy nature,” Bourgea says. “In caring for our land, native species, and precious natural resources, we believe that we care for each other.”

“Small Business Kiosk”

The River East Design Center will build this trailer-like kiosk, designed by artists Anna McCorvey and Sophie Morley. When it’s complete, business owners will be able to move the unit across the bridge and create pop-ups at events. The organizers say they will begin looking for local business owners in 2023 to be prepared for the park’s eventual opening date in 2025.

11th Street Bridge Park’s construction has been pushed back for years — it was originally scheduled to be finished by 2019 — and it has sparked concerns about the potential for neighbors east of the river to get priced out of the area. Studies have shown that new parks, such as New York’s High Line, have a tendency to drive up housing prices and cause rezoning headaches for residents.

The nonprofit Building Bridges Across the River’s equitable development task force released a plan in 2015 to show how the project will work to benefit communities on both sides of the river. The organization has since said it will make over $3.6 million in investments for various events and programs east of the river, including a new pilot program that covers closing fees for first-time homebuyers in Ward 8.

Scott Kratz, who’s directing the project, says the bridge park will be completely designed and contractor selected to construct it by the end of the year.