Program Status Update: 2024
After careful consideration and many years of dedicated support to the community through our Global Art Grants program, we have made the difficult decision to conclude this initiative. We are deeply grateful to all the artists, supporters, and volunteers who have been part of this journey. Our commitment to fostering creativity and supporting the arts remains unwavering.
As we move forward, our focus is shifting towards collaborating with organizations that share our vision and are doing similar work. We aim to amplify and support their work, continuing to empower artistic expression in communities. In Black Rock City, we will continue to fund art that not only enriches our event but also has the potential to be placed in communities worldwide, in collaboration with local governments, artists, and community groups.
While we are ending the Global Art Grants program for now, our support for the arts is not diminishing. We may occasionally make grants to artists outside of the Black Rock City grant process, ensuring that art in civic places remains a vital part of our mission. We encourage our community to engage with local Regional Network communities, and with Burners Without Borders, to explore new ways to activate art in your localities.
This is not an end, but a transformation of our journey in supporting art and creativity. We look forward to this new chapter and the innovative partnerships and projects it will bring.
Questions? Email globalartgrants@burningman.org.
A Brief History of Burning Man’s Global Art Grants Program
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. One way we achieved this from 2002 through 2020 was by granting seed money to new and emerging artists to bring interactive, community-driven creations to locations all over the globe. During this time period we granted over $950,000 to help fund 202 projects in 34 U.S. states and 34 countries.
This program funded highly interactive, community-driven works of art that prioritized community involvement in their development, execution and display. We funded art that was accessible to the public, civic in scope, and prompted the viewer to act and interact – art that could be touched, heard or experienced as well as viewed. We prioritized funding art that involved the audience in its conception, creation, and presentation.
This program’s impact was driven by a willingness to take risks and to be the first to provide grants to artists and projects that other funders might disregard, and to focus on community-driven processes that had effects far beyond the artwork itself.
Global Art Grants supported artists and makers who created 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 that 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 living evidence of this.