Five reasons to visit Newfields' art park while "Funky Bones" is closed
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Photo: Indianapolis Museum of Art/Getty Images
Funky Bones, the beloved large-scale installation in The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park at Newfields, is temporarily closed.
The big picture: The group of 20 white bone-shaped benches, made famous in the movie "The Fault in Our Stars," is undergoing conservation work.
- It will reopen later this summer.
Yes, but: There are plenty of other treasures at this hidden gem of a park that's free to visit and rarely busy.
- Here are five things to do and see while its best-known attraction receives a little TLC.
🌳 Park of the Laments is a quiet, contemplative space hidden away through a cool, dark underground concrete tunnel.
- Moving towards the light ahead, you enter a tiered area through trailing plants and up a set of stairs into a peaceful square with simple wooden benches. Walls surround the space, setting it off from the rest of the park.
🦅 Bird watching is a treat at the park, with its diverse landscape of forest, wetland, prairie and 35-acre lake.
- It's home to more than 100 species of birds.
🦋 The park is home to a 1.85 acre pollinator meadow, composed of more than 80 species of native plants and nearly 50,000 individual plants — the largest such garden in the city.
- We're about to enter the meadow's peak bloom season, with cone flowers, milkweed and black-eyed susans preparing to pop off.
- While you're strolling the paths that wind through the meadow, enjoy the view of the back of Lilly House, on Newfields' grounds.
🌊 Walk the 1.5-mile lake loop trail for gorgeous views of the lake and peeks of the White River on a mostly cool, shady path.
- Trails from the park also connect to the canal towpath, if you're longer for a longer route.
🏠 Funky Bones isn't the only art installation in the park. The Hawryluk Sculpture Green features three interactive works that explore the concepts of home and shelter.
If you go: Open every day from dawn until dusk and always free.
- The parking lot address is 1850 W. 38th Street — about one-half block west of the main Newfields entrance — and located off the exit ramp for North White River Parkway East Drive.