Burning Man Arts proudly announces the opening of our 2016 grant cycle for our Global Art Grants program. We are accepting Letters of Inquiry (LOIs). Please refer to our grant criteria for a description of eligible proposals, and for an online example of the LOIs form and questions. LOIs are due December 1, 2015, and full proposals will be due in February, 2016. Grantees will be announced in Spring, 2016 (exact dates TBA).
We are pleased to debut a new online system (which will also be used by the Black Rock City Honoraria program) that will track all art project proposals, for both on and off-playa projects. This system allows us to move data easily between art programs, facilitating our support of the full scope of each art project’s lifecycle. More good news: this system will be free of charge to applicants (our previous provider charged each applicant a small fee). More information about this process is forthcoming.
About the Opportunity
The Global Art Grants program funds highly interactive, community-driven works of art that prioritize community involvement in their development, execution, and display. It does not fund art for the annual Burning Man event in Black Rock City (the Black Rock City Honoraria program does). 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 and that addresses an existing need of the community. The program offers small grants (between $500 and $10,000, most often around $5,000) to artists, collectives, and organizations. If this sounds like your project, consider applying for a grant. More information is available on the criteria and instructions page.
Global Art Grants History
The Burning Man Arts Global Art Grants program began when the founders of Burning Man created the Black Rock Arts Foundation (BRAF) in 2001 to support and promote the worldwide proliferation of art similar to that which they had seen develop in Black Rock City. They felt compelled to champion similarly forward-thinking public art projects with communities that stood to benefit. Since the first grants were awarded in 2002, the program has funded 126 public art projects in 27 countries. This program has grown from granting $11,000 in awards in 2002 to $100,000 in awards in 2015, giving to approximately 10–20 projects each year.
Grantee Projects
Our Grantees represent diversity, both in their chosen media and in their strategies of bringing art into their communities. Each project responds to a community’s interests, needs, current issues, concerns, and environment in an innovative and unique way. Read more about our wonderful past grantees. While we are always excited to hear about new approaches to interactive art, we encourage those who are interested in applying for a grant to peruse this archive to get a sense of the characteristics shared by the projects that we typically fund.
We eagerly await this year’s crop of proposals and can’t wait to read about your project!