A Burning Man artist has responded to my request for feedback in yesterday’s post Follow the Money, with a most interesting tale.
From Anonymous Burner:
![BMHQ Artists meeting, 2014]()
BMHQ Artists meeting, May 2015
This picture was taken at the Follow Up Artists’ Summit held last May at BMHQ. This was the second meeting after the first one in 2014 where a group of artists tried to make changes in the artist contract for the event but were met with a meeting facilitator that broke everyone up to bitch in different sessions.
.
Then last May they held the follow up meeting. Whereas there were upwards of 50 at the first meeting, this one was poorly attended. Besides myself there was 2 other “Playa” artists and a bunch of newbies. No one would show up because they knew nothing was going to come out of this meeting. They had tons of food…
.
Looking at the pie chart, they state that for 2015 they would spend $3M on the art. For ease of discussion, look at 40% Grants, 40% Services, and 20% Administration.
,
1.2M for Grants (now includes Man and Man Base)
$600k on Admin? Pick a number of FTEs for BRC art at $100k each. They don’t have 6 FTEs working on BRC art and they sure as hell aren’t paying them $100k
$1.2M on Services? For the heavy equipment thats used to build the site and is already out there?
.
They won’t feed the artists at the Commissary. The art projects have to pay for water, fuel, light towers, wood, DG for burns, Etc, Etc. Plus pay for Port-o-Lets, feeding their crew, and everything else. How are these service and Admin amounts calculated?
.
Here’s the problem these folks have:
.
They can’t raise money for the BM Project because if you donate to it, what is your donation doing? I see lots of folks flying around the world talking. What specific programs can they point to to make a case for donating money to the BM project?
.
That leaves them trying to run the non-profit on the back of the event. Yes the event makes money, finally – they ran the outfit out of a cigar box for years – but leaves them unable to increase funding for the artists. And given the way these lemmings throng to get a spot on the cliff, why should they even consider it.
.
And now that they have to raise money for the BM project, where do they go? To the folks that have been funding these pieces and supporting the artists. It is a very shallow donor pool. The result is “donor fatigue” these folks are weary of being badgered by the Org and look for more permanent art installations.
.
At the same time, they have to be careful in getting the community to support the artists more – Larry’s latest efforts are lame in that he keeps referring to the moneyed class and most folks say “he can’t be talking about me, I don’t have any money”. My wealthy friends that have supported art projects in the past have been insulted by his “let the rich folks pay for it”. Many are taking the year off this year, as am I.
.
Well, I found that somewhat cathartic. Thanks for hearing me out.
burnersxxx:
Thanks very much for sharing that. The artist raises some good points.
Specifically, from a $3 million budget, the numbers work out to:
$1,290,000 Art (43%)
$570,000 Admin (19%)
$1,140,000 Services (38%)
Heavy Equipment Rental was $2.45 million in 2014.
From a $1.2 million Black Rock City art budget, in 2016 they are paying for:
60 Honoraria art projects. Partial grants, artists have to raise most of the project costs themselves
33 Guild Workshops. Regional projects. Projects required to raise almost all the funding and supply personnel themselves.
The Man
The Piazza
The “Turning Man” contraption
The Temple. Partial grant, artists who “win” the project have to raise most of the funding themselves
4 Belltowers
A blacksmith shop
Possible other sculptures
Is the $90,000 what gets spent on art across Burners Without Borders, Black Rock Arts Foundation, Burning Man Arts, and all the other non-Playa activities?
Filed under:
Art Tagged:
2016,
art,
artist,
banksters,
class war,
commerce,
commodification,
complaints,
da vinci,
decommodification,
evidence,
follow the money,
medici,
money,
rich,
truth ![]()
![]()
