Burning Man 2010 Art Grants

In case you didn’t know, every year, Burning Man awards grants to artists to fund artwork for the playa. Yep, a portion of your ticket money goes directly to creating some of the amazing pieces of art that grace Black Rock City. Not bad, ‘eh? Right. So, thank you!

Our lovely and charming Grant Committee has sent us the following to relay to would-be submitters of grant proposals, and we thought it only right to pass it on to you. They say:

Hear ye! Hear ye! The Burning Man grant committee is now accepting applications for the 2010 grant season. In an effort to make the process easier, we’ve created a new format — an editable PDF. It asks all the same questions and requires the same information as we have always wanted, but now in a simple form. You can learn more and access the new PDF here. This new format is the new, mandatory format for applying for a grant. The deadline for grant application si 11:59 pm February 1st. This is a hard deadline — no late submissions will be considered. You can read more about it here.

Also as part of this year’s grant season, Burning Man is soliciting applications for the plazas — the 3:00, 4:30, 7:30 and 9:00. We’ve set aside some funds from our grant budget to cover these locations. It’s a unique opportunity to create something interactive, something thought-provoking, and something fun in the neighborhoods of Black Rock City. There have been amazing pieces in the plazas from such award-winning artists as David Best and Charlie Smith, and the pieces have been as thought-provoking and whimsical as Black Rock City has ever seen … like Bruce Bender’s “Ketchup!” for instance.

Ketchup by Bruce Bender

In addition, we are asking for grant applications for the Cafe portal. The Cafe ‘Front Portal’ Art is a specific art installation positioned just in front of the entry to the Café as it faces The Man. Though named the Front Portal, it is NOT necessary that this Art be a portal, arch, gateway or similar shape. See below for images of some Portal pieces from previous years. This is the first year we are including the process for selecting the Café Front Portal Art in the larger grant cycle – in the past these artists were hand-picked by Café leadership by virtue of their familiarity with the Café and prior playa works. Since 2000 (when David Best created the first Front Portal) the art location has evolved away from the structure itself, with large-scale Art proudly marking the front entrance to the Center Camp Café. This is notto be confused with the Keyhole location, the Front Portal is quite close to the Café structure. The Cafe portal position is a place of honor in front of the Cafe. Here are some images of previous Café Front Portal Art pieces: