Here’s why a grove of citrus trees is now growing at the Whitney Museum

A grove of citrus trees growing in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District would be unusual enough. But a grove of live citrus trees growing inside a Meatpacking District museum is even more surprising.  

Astonishingly, 18 citrus trees are now in bloom inside the Whitney Museum of American Art, and you can walk through the grove on the museum’s eighth floor through January 1, 2025. The exhibition, “Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard,” was conceived in 1972 by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. This groundbreaking eco-art project is on view at a museum for the first time since its debut more than 50 years ago.

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Back in 1972, the Harrisons were inspired by the growing awareness of vulnerable ecosystems—systems that feel even more threatened today. In response to that environmental momentum, they created several "Survival Pieces," or installation projects that served as works of art and calls to action. Portable Orchard explores the need for a sustainable food system in an imagined future where natural farming practices are obsolete. The artistic duo imagined the indoor orchard as a survivalist antidote for a potential future devoid of the citrus trees that gave Orange County, California its name. 

They sketched out an instruction manual for “Portable Orchard,” which is a part of the Whitney’s permanent collection. Now the exhibition itself lives in the museum—the first standalone museum presentation of the grove since its debut more than 50 years ago. 

The Survival Pieces are eerily resonant today, more than 50 years after their making.

“The Survival Pieces are eerily resonant today, more than 50 years after their making,” says Kim Conaty, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator at the Whitney. “The Harrisons’s collaborative and community-focused work put ecological research at the center of a unique creative practice that tapped into some of the most urgent issues of their time, from sustainable agriculture to climate justice. A visit to Portable Orchard will be an immersive, unconventional gallery experience, and we hope that it will also spark dialogue and exchange around environmental awareness and climate action today.

The installation provided some logistical challenges that museum curators overcame. This showing made some small tweaks (with permission) that relate to the Whitney's environment and ecosystem. Curators sustainably sourced the trees from a family-owned orchard in South Carolina. As for the planter boxes and light boxes, they used recycled wood from former New York City water towers and reclaimed redwood from a local mill. 

Over the course of the exhibition, the living sculptures will change and grow harvestable fruit that will be used in public programs. In addition to the orchard, the exhibition features archival documents, books and the original drawing explaining all aspects of building an indoor orchard. 

When the exhibition closes next year, the trees, wood and other materials will be replanted, reused and recycled. But it's worth hoping that even after the exhibition ends, its important environmental message will live on in those who visit it.  

As the Harrisons put it, they hoped their Survival Pieces would resonate "first in the mind and thereafter in everyday life."