Beanfield
Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
Summer 2006 – autumn 2008
Beanfield site, spring 2006
Overlooking the central Ohio State University campus green (known as the Oval), The Beanfield, is a work of ecological, educational, and social encounter recalling the agricultural roots of OSU as a land-grant college. Inspired, in part, by the 2 1/2 acres of beans cultivated at Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau, this 500 square foot demonstration plot included 49 sets of poles planted with 4 varieties of beans—Kentucky Wonder Brown, Rattlesnake, White Half-runner, and Blue Lake Stringless. I harvested the beans and distributed them as free food for thought and seed for the imagination. The Beanfield, was a project for the Living Culture Initiative in the Department of Art in partnership with the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Social Responsibility Initiative in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
OSU Orton Hall with crop planting, circa 1889
Setting bean poles, spring 2006
Tending the Beanfield, spring 2006
Early summer
First harvest
Seed packets
Late summer
Related reading
Beanfield Sprouts on Ohio State Campus: Wexner Project Celebrates Culture, Agriculture, in OARDC Report, November/December 2006
Field of Beans, in Ohio State Alumni Magazine, November-December 2006
More than a Hill of Beans, by Bill Mayr in The Columbus Dispatch, August 20, 2006