Significant Dates for 2025 Honoraria Artists
- Early March: 2025 Honoraria artists selected and notified; public announcement
- Mid-March: Deadline for Honoraria artists to fill out the Art Installation Questionnaire via custom link
- March: Kick-off Meeting with the designated Artist Liaison from Burning Man’s Art Department
- March/April: Contracts are signed. First payment is issued after the contract is signed and accurate accounting documents have been submitted.
- May/June: Fire safety and engineering/construction meetings (if applicable)
- June: Meeting with designated Artist Liaison (if required)
- June 1: Art Support Services (ASS) resource request due
- Early July: Crew members finalized, names for tickets and setup access passes submitted
- Sunday, August 24, sunrise: all Honoraria art projects are fully installed
- Sunday, August 24, 6pm: Burning Man event officially begins
- Monday, September 1: Burning Man event officially ends, Honoraria projects begin deinstallation and clean up
- October 1: final report and high-resolution image due
- November 15: performance deposit payments sent
Contract and Questionnaires
- Honorarium artists must sign a written agreement (i.e., a contract) with Burning Man Project which establishes terms for the management and execution of the project from conception through installation, deinstallation, and clean up. The contract also outlines the support services and coordination that will (and will not) be provided by Burning Man Project. Note that Burning Man Project must report Honorarium payments to the IRS with form 1099-MISC. Artists receiving an honorarium, particularly for larger projects, may wish to consider the tax and other financial implications of receiving this grant money. Some projects choose to form an LLC or other organization. Burning Man Project cannot give specific legal or tax advice, and encourages artists to seek professional counsel.
- Artists selected to receive funding from Burning Man must also submit an Art Installation Questionnaire by the deadline listed in the grant acceptance letter and coordinate and comply with all Art Department requirements for playa art. Honorarium artists will be assigned an Artist Liaison who will serve as the main point of contact for project leads regarding all issues of playa art management. Art Department staff will determine art placement and coordinate all support services.
Camping
- Art groups not planning to be part of a theme camp but wishing to receive reserved camping must fill out a Placement Questionnaire to register for an art support camp. An art support camp does not require artists to have the interactivity of a theme camp since the art installation is their offering. If you do not submit a camp questionnaire, you will need to camp in open camping areas of the city or you can contact Placement on playa to see if any space can be flagged out for you. The Placed Camp Questionnaire for art support camps closes in late April.
Meetings
Being a Black Rock City Honoraria artist requires a significant time investment, including several mandatory meetings. Below is a list of those meetings, their purpose, and the team members who should be involved. Please note that additional meetings may be required. Meetings will take place via phone/video conferencing.
|
Meeting |
Purpose |
Role(s) Attending |
| Kick-off Meeting (March) | Review submitted artwork proposal, materials, team size, arrival dates, etc. | Project Lead(s) |
| Fire Safety Meeting (if applicable) (May/June) | Review fire-specific information. Burn days and times will be determined around mid-June | Art Project Lead(s), Fire Safety Liaison, Burn Lead, Perimeter Leads |
| Engineering and Construction Meeting (if applicable) (June/July) | Review structural engineering and on-playa assembly plans | Art Project Lead(s), Build/Construction Lead, Engineer(s) |
| Meeting with Designated Artist Liaison (if required by Artist Liaison) (June) | Review shipping & logistics, work access passes (WAPs), on-playa driving passes, etc. | Art Project Lead(s), Build/Construction Lead, Camp Lead |
On-Playa Resources
Burning Man makes certain on-playa resources available for purchase by Honoraria artists. These items are requested pre-event, confirmed by Art Support Services, and delivered at the event. The cost of on-playa resources used by an Honorarium artist will be subtracted from the project’s performance deposit. A tracking of on-playa resource use will be shared post-event.
Other Expectations
- Early Arrival: Funded artists are required to have their installations completed by sunrise on the Sunday that the event begins. Their build crew must be available to arrive on playa during the week prior to the event (or in rare cases earlier, if the project is exceptionally large/complex). In their kick-off meeting with their Artist Liaison, they will determine an exact date and number of Setup Access Passes (which allow for arrival before the gates open) for their project.
- Departure: Honorarium artists are expected to keep their projects installed until the final Monday of the event, when the event ends. Exceptional circumstances may allow for negotiation of an earlier de-installation date, but expect that the standard is to start teardown on Monday and no sooner.
- Timeliness and Deadlines: As part of our collaboration to bring an Honorarium project to life, we make requests of artists throughout the season (i.e., response to emails, signing up for meeting dates, providing crew lists for tickets/work access passes). We ask that artists respect our deadlines and be as prompt as possible in responding to our requests. We know that some deadlines can seem early in an installation’s development, but these deliverables affect other teams and timelines. If an artist cannot make a deadline, we ask that they let us know as quickly as possible; it may be possible to negotiate a slightly different date.
- Significant Changes: If an Honorarium artist wants to make any significant changes to their art project from what we have agreed to fund, they should talk to their Artist Liaison prior to June 1st (and preferably earlier). Depending on the changes, the Artist Liaison may ask that the artist put them in writing to receive approval in writing. We know there are evolutions to installations as they move from concept to reality, and we want to make sure we are in the loop about any requested changes.
Required Reading
As you begin planning for your art project, we ask that you read the information found here: