I think we could dream something for this - note the announcement is post-seminar
Itś 3-6k usd to off-playa art - thinking of some sort of version of cubes perhaps or more tech-infused art
Mission Statement
This program funds highly interactive, community-driven works of art that prioritize community involvement in their development, execution and display. We fund art that is accessible to the public, civic in scope and prompts the viewer to act. We like art that can be experienced in more ways than visually – art that is touched, heard or experienced as well as viewed. We prioritize funding art that involves the audience in its conception, creation and presentation. This program’s impact is driven by a willingness to take risks and be the first to give a grant to a project or to work with artists and projects that other funders might avoid, as well as a focus on community-driven processes that have effects far beyond the artwork itself.
About Burning Man Global Art Grants
Burning Man has a long and rich history of granting seed money to new and emerging artists around the world. To date, we’ve granted over $950,000 to help fund 202 projects in 34 U.S. states and 34 countries.
As a nonprofit, part of the mission of Burning Man Project is to facilitate and extend the culture of Burning Man into the larger world, and one way we achieve this is by providing a spark of funding for artists to bring interactive, community-driven creations to locations all over the globe.
Global Art Grants support artists and makers who create art outside of the annual Burning Man event in the desert because, as Caveat Magister so nicely put it, “Burning Man isn’t a ‘place you put art’ – but a ‘context in which art is created.’“ It really is true you don’t have to have been to Black Rock City to be a Burner, and the artworks, art spaces and events created with the support of the Global Art Grant Program are a great example of this.
Global Art Grants Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Will this grant fund art destined for Black Rock City?
A. No, this grant program DOES NOT fund any work for the annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City, NV. A separate LOI is needed for requesting an honorarium for an artwork at Black Rock City. More information about the BRC Honoraria program is available here. While we have given grants to projects that have also appeared in Black Rock City, in these rare cases the Global Art Grant funds were used for off-playa display of interactive artworks only.
Q. Will this grant fund art destined solely for a Burning Man Regional event?
A. No, this grant program does not fund projects destined solely for a Regional event. One of the core goals of the Global Art Grant program is to move art into public spaces, where everyone has access to view the artwork free of charge. We are unable to fund projects that do not fit this criteria.
Q. What types of projects does the Global Art Grant Program fund?
A. We support projects that envision creative ways to increase interactivity and community engagement. We look for projects that not only allow audiences to participate with the final product, but ones in which the community itself drives the conception and creation of the project. We fund projects by artists and makers who have brilliant, perhaps even wacky, ideas who have yet to find anyone else willing to take a chance on them.
Q. What are your criteria for awarding grants?
A. Please review our funding criteria here.
Q. When may I apply for a grant?
A. The online form to submit a Global Art Grant Letter of Intent (LOI) will open on November 13, 2019 at 12:00pm (noon) Pacific Time and close on December 18, 2019 at 5:00pm Pacific Time.
Applicants will be notified in January 2020 whether their projects were selected to submit a full proposal. Full proposals will be due February 12, 2020, and final grantees will be determined in April 2020.
Please see How to Apply for a Global Art Grant to learn more about how to apply for a Burning Man Global Art Grant.
Q. How many grants are awarded?
A. We typically fund around 15-20 projects a year and receive as many as 300 Letters of Intent (LOI).
Q. How much money should I ask for?
A. Our grants range between $500 and $10,000, and we most commonly award between $3000 and $6000. Many of our grantees receive funding from other sources, aside from this grant. Applying for partial funding or a matching grant to funds you’ve received from other sources is encouraged. While we typically fund only a portion of a project, we do occasionally fund 100% of a project’s budget.
Q. What should I expect if I’m awarded a grant?
A. The payment schedule for each grant is specific to the project and based on the timeline submitted in the application. Burning Man is committed to working with each artist and/or artist group to arrive at a schedule that best suits the needs of the artist(s) and the project. Usually, grants are awarded in two or three payments over the course of approximately a year, with the first payment sent on the signing of a grant agreement and each subsequent payment being contingent on a report of the project’s progress.
Q. Do I, or my organization, need to have a fiscal agent or fiscal sponsor?
A. Because the Burning Man Project is a 501©(3) public charity itself, neither individuals nor organizations need a fiscal sponsor to receive this grant.
Q. What is fiscal sponsorship?
A. Fiscal sponsorship is an activity by which a public charity facilitates tax-deductible donations to a project by providing financial and some programmatic oversight of projects that serve a public benefit but do not have their own non-profit status. This allows participating artists to receive tax-deductible contributions and potentially open up other sources of funding, hopefully easing the burden of fundraising.
For more information on fiscal sponsorship, visit the National Network of Fiscal Sponsors and the Fiscal Sponsorship Directory.
Q. Do awardees have to pay taxes on Global Art Grants?
A. Grant awards such as this are often considered taxable income to the recipient, at least in any amount in excess of the project’s costs. We will send both you and the IRS a form 1099 documenting the grant payments. We cannot offer any tax advice or information. Please consult a tax professional if you have any tax questions.
How to Apply for a Global Art Grant
2020 Grant Cycle Timeline
- The Letter of Intent (LOI) form will open November 13, 2019 at 12:00 pm (noon) Pacific Time.
- The Letter of Intent (LOI) form will close December 18, 2019 at 5:00 pm Pacific Time.
- Selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal mid-January 2020.
- Full proposals are accepted by invitation from among the LOI applicants only.
- The full proposal form will close on February 12, 2020 at 5:00 pm Pacific Time.
- Late LOIs and proposals will not be accepted. No exceptions. Please read our application instructions below for more details on how to apply.
- Full proposal notifications will be sent in April 2020.
Application Submission Instructions
If your project or program fits our eligibility criteria and aligns with our mission and values, please follow these instructions to be considered for funding. Full proposals will be accepted by invitation only. To be invited, you must submit a Letter of Intent (LOI).
It’s mandatory that you submit your LOI through our online process; we will not accept applications via email or mail.
Letter of Intent (LOI) Instructions
Our online Letter of Intent will give you the opportunity to provide us with the following:
- Contact information
- General information about your project
- A brief physical description of the project
- A brief statement of how the project fits the mission and criteria for this program
- One to three images showing how the project will appear (a rough sketch is fine at this stage)
- Some information about the funding you are seeking
In order to access our online form, you will need to create a Burner Profile. Please note, the Burning Man Global Art Grant program uses Burner Profiles as an intake enrollment form similar to that required by other grant applications. The Global Art Grant program will not share, rent or sell your personal information to any other entity. For further information, please read Burning Man Privacy Policy.
Once you create a profile, you can navigate to the form through the Burner Profiles site (click on “Participation Forms”) or go directly to Burner Profiles – Burning Man Art Grants.
If you have any technical issues with the submission form or Burner Profiles in general, feel free to ask for help via the technical support contact form. You will get a faster response from this form than contacting anyone individually.
A copy of the 2020 LOI questions is available as a Google doc here. We recommend you compose and edit your responses in a word processor before beginning our online form, and pasting the responses into the form so you do not risk losing work if your browser or our website crashes during the process of submitting.
Full Proposal Instructions
Invitations for proposals will be extended to projects selected from the pool of those submitting an LOI. If selected, you will be invited to fill out our full application online. Uninvited proposals will not be considered.
In our online application, you will have the opportunity to describe your project and tell us about its goals, audience and interactive potential.
A complete proposal includes:
- The completion of the online proposal (available through Burner Profiles). We do not accept printed and mailed proposals.
- A timeline. Our online form contains fields where you may describe your timeline.
- A budget. We require applicants to submit a budget using our template.
- Supplemental images and materials. You will have the opportunity to upload images or other media files. We highly recommend you submit visual representations of your proposed project; sketches and/or photos of other, similar precedents of work may be submitted as representations of your proposed project. In the full proposal, you may also submit samples of your previous work. If you are an emerging artist and don’t have photos, sketches or renderings of your proposed or previous projects, please submit anything you feel is relevant that will demonstrate your ideas and/or creative skills to the committee.
A copy of the 2019 Full Proposal questions that applicants answered is available as a Google doc here. Similar to the LOI process, we recommend you compose and edit your responses in a word processor before beginning our online form, and pasting the responses into the form so you do not risk losing work if your browser or our website crashes during the process of submitting.
Thank you for taking the time to read and digest this information before applying.