Fallen Fruit of Columbus

Help us cultivate fruit parks in urban Columbus! Ohio State’s Wexner Center for the Arts is bringing together art, food, and the community to beautify and nourish two diverse, rapidly changing Columbus neighborhoods. Created in partnership with Los Angeles-based artists David Allen Burns and Austin Young, the Fallen Fruit of Columbus project will establish public fruit parks in the University District’s Weinland Park and Columbus’s South Side neighborhoods. These two parks, to be installed in April on now-vacant lots, will feature fruit trees and berry bushes in new public gathering spaces, complete with new signage, walkways, and benches. Neighborhood teens will be hired to work on the parks, and volunteers from all over the city will help plant and prep the sites; grafting workshops will be held to spark propagation of additional plantings throughout the neighborhoods. A unique mix of the arts, health and wellness, environmental stewardship, neighborhood beautification, youth engagement, and community collaboration, Fallen Fruit of Columbus will have a positive and lasting effect on these two urban neighborhoods, providing new spaces and fresh fruit for residents and visitors of all backgrounds, ages, and socioeconomic circumstances.

With its focus on a sustainable solution to food access, Fallen Fruit of Columbus responds to the University’s Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation, while also supporting components of President Drake’s 2020 Vision, including the focus on food security. The project also enhances all four of the University’s Discovery Themes.

Help us grow these parks! Watch this site for updates, new photos, and videos throughout the month. Thank you!