Bunnyhenge

Officially titled Bunny Henge and installed in 2012, the work by Los Angeles artist Carolyn Atkins consists of 14 over-sized white concrete bunnies arranged in a Stonehenge-style ring on the lawn of the Newport Beach Civic Center. Each bunny is about waist-high and looks vaguely unimpressed.

The intended reading is gentle: rabbits as a symbol of fertility and rebirth, the circle as a connection between people and place. The local reading was different — the council was widely mocked for spending public money on garden ornaments. Whatever you make of the art, the bunnies are now one of the most photographed spots in Newport. The civic center grounds are open and free; the bunnies are a five-minute walk from Fashion Island.

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The 14 white concrete bunnies in a circle at the Newport Beach Civic Center cost the city around $221,000 in 2012 and immediately produced one of the most amusing public-art controversies in Orange County history. Critics accused the city of throwing taxpayer money at oversized lawn ornaments; the bunnies refused to comment and went on attracting wedding photographers.