Sam Van Aken is Associate Professor of Sculpture in the School of Art at Syracuse University. His recent work includes the Open Orchard on Governor’s Island, which is a permanent yet continuously changing public orchard of hybrid trees containing fruit varieties that are native to or were historically grown around New York City and which are threatened by climate change and industrialized agriculture. The project gives New Yorkers the chance to see and taste fruits that have not been grown for decades or even centuries. His Tree of 40 Fruits project is a conservation effort that features single trees that have been grafted with forty different types of stone fruit such as peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries and almonds.