Urban Fruit Trails Celebration to Take Place Sunday

Los angeles, CA, July 15, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Join Heart of LA (HOLA) and Fallen Fruit for the Urban Fruit Trails Celebration, including a fruit giveaway, lemonade stand, fruit factory, marching band, watermelon eating competition, picnic, local artists....and much, much more!

When people think of Los Angeles, it isn’t usually a bountiful landscape teeming with public fruit trees that comes to mind. But the artists of Fallen Fruit – Austin Young and David Burns – are working with local communities to transform the neighborhoods surrounding Downtown Los Angeles into a walk-able network of Urban Fruit Trails.

HOLA and Fallen Fruit have been working together for the past several months to create the City’s very first Urban Fruit Trail: a trail that by the end of the year will have over 150-fruit trees planted in public and publicly accessible places in the MacArthur Park neighborhood. But, the project has not been without its challenges. Last week, nearly all of the 30 newly planted trees in and around Lafayette Park were damaged or destroyed. The outpouring of support from the community was incredible, and instead of losing hope, everyone involved in the project rallied around and less than 48 hours later, all but two of the trees were replanted and/or replaced. Thanks to our partnerships with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and Los Angeles Housing Partnership (LAHP), today, 12 fruit trees in MacArthur Park, 12 fruit trees in Lafayette Park and 14 fruit trees at LAHP properties, including 8 on Wilshire Blvd., are thriving.

HOLA students have been researching where the trees can be planted, planting them, and mapping their location. During weekly workshops with Fallen Fruit, HOLA’s young artists have been creating artworks based on the places, people, cultures, and trees they discover along the Trail; and their actions and artworks are being documented for geo-tagging in a free downloadable app.

The MacArthur Park Urban Fruit Trail is the pilot for Endless Orchard, Fallen Fruit’s groundbreaking global-scale public art project, which will provide often-overlooked urban communities with public walking trails lined by fruit trees. The trees will be planted, sustained, nurtured and harvested by the public.

“We’re thrilled that our students are creating the roots for such a significant project,” said HOLA Visual Arts Director Nara Hernandez. “Fruit trails can create an abundant neighborhood and celebrate a community of sharing,” explained Austin Young. “It’s about transforming our relationship to the city and each other,” added David Burns.

Urban Fruit Trails invite the people of Los Angeles to experience the City as a fruitful place, to collectively re-imagine the function of public participation and urban space, and to explore the meaning of community through creating and sharing new and abundant resources.

The fruit trees planted along the Urban Fruit Trail will reflect the natural ripening of fruit during a season: plums and peaches in the summer, pomegranate and persimmon in the fall, and citrus – lime, lemon, orange, and kumquat – over the winter and spring. At the heart of LA’s Urban Fruit

Trails a “Monument to Sharing” will be installed at the Los Angeles State Historic Park alongside an orchard of citrus trees.

Endless Orchard is a Creative Capital awarded project. This pilot project, Urban Fruit Trails, is supported by a grant awarded to HOLA by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s

Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Program, which supports fearless and innovative collaborations in the spirit of Robert Rauschenberg: www.rauschenbergfoundation.org.

Fallen Fruit is an art collaboration originally conceived in 2004 by David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young. Since 2013, David and Austin have continued the collaborative work: http://fallenfruit.org/about/

Heart of Los Angeles provides underserved youth with exceptional programs in academics, arts and athletics within a nurturing environment, empowering them to develop their potential, pursue their education, and strengthen their communities: http://heartofla.org

Fruit as public resource: http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/del-aire-fruit-park.html