The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park

Newfields

open sunrise - sunset

‘Tis the season to enjoy a stroll around the lake in The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. Site-specific contemporary art abounds, along with a 35-acre lake and the largest native pollinator meadow in Indianapolis. Open from dawn to dusk every day and always free, Fairbanks Park is the perfect place to enjoy art and nature simultaneously.

A few of the impressive site-specific contemporary art guests will experience while in the park include:

Free Basket, by the art collective, Los Carpinteros founded in Cuba in 1992 welcomes guests to Fairbanks Park parking lot and is a fabulously interactive sculpture that fits right in in the Hoosier State. Bring your basketball if you’d like!

Playful yellow benches titled Bench Around the Lake by artist Jeppe Hein, out of Copenhagen and Berlin, snake throughout the 100 acre urban park. As the name suggests, some can even be found on the far end of the lake. Take a rest and take in the scenery on the benches—if possible!

Alfredo Jaar’s Park of the Laments invites guests through a chilly concrete tunnel before welcoming them into a secluded garden filled with 3,000 individual plants from 53 genera.

Funky Bones by Dutch artist Atelier Van Leishout is not to be missed. Made famous from John Green’s young adult novel, The Fault in Our Stars, Funky Bones is a wonderful place to enjoy a picnic. Young guests are thrilled by jumping all around the 20 fiberglass bones.

The Hawryluk Sculpture Green

Newfields has announced a new series of outdoor public art installations for The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park that will activate the park and create dynamic opportunities for engagement and exploration. A transformative $3 million gift by longtime Newfields patron and philanthropist Kent Hawryluk, will support the ongoing commissioning and presentation of large-scale sculpture, creating The Hawryluk Collection of Art in Nature. This evolving series will be hosted on The Hawryluk Sculpture Green, opening in June 2023.

Pollinator survey

See what all the buzz is about. Newfields is collected data and we need your help. Data on pollinating insects will help us better understand how they use our campus and learn how to support pollinator diversity in The Garden and Fairbanks Park. We'll be sharing the data you collect through this survey with our local partners and national organizations for the support of pollinators worldwide.

TAKE SURVEY

Bird Guide

Get to know all the winged guests of the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park. Get tips on where to spot birds around the Newfields campus, learn more about their habitats, and pick up a fun fact or two. Thanks to support from Wild Birds Unlimited, you'll be well acquainted with all the frequent flyers in no time.

BIRD GUIDE

Pollinator support Packet

Nesting Platform

This view is of the avian nesting platform in the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. The platform, sitting atop a 50-foot utility pole, has more than 25 square feet of surface area constructed to simulate a previous nest user. The platform is suitable for several bird species including: ospreys, great horned owls, great blue herons, black-crowned night herons, egrets, and bald eagles. Staff at Newfields are working hard to increase suitable nesting structure for a number of bird species, and continually rehabilitate the entire habitat in and around The Park.

Accessibility

Parking

Free and accessible parking is available at The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres.

The parking lot entry is located at 1850 West 38^th Street, about one-half block west of the main Newfields entrance.

Restrooms

Accessible restrooms are located at the Ruth Lilly Visitors Pavilion. Please be advised the pathways to the pavilion can sometimes flood, making the trails impassable.

Mobility Access