Bringing Art to Engulf: Guidelines and Registration
All placed, roaming, or performance art must be registered. You may register your art for placement at any time starting Saturday, May 17 2025. When you register you may optionally apply for an art grant! Art grants are funded in two rounds.
Main art grant applications due: Sunday, July 13, 2025
Small second round applications due: Sunday, August 31, 2025
Registration for placement only will close September 21, 2025
For an example of a grant application budget Excel spreadsheet (XLS), please visit here.
For an example of a completed art placement application (PDF), please visit here.
For an example of a completed performance art application (PDF), please visit here.
Vision
Engulf is an experiment in community and community building. Art makes Engulf special and everyone is encouraged to register a piece. We believe that art helps to bring our community together in unique ways: artists and builders working together, art that gives voice to and helps shape the Engulf experience, and art helps gather people on the swampy playa.
Engulf also believes in the aesthetic, environmental, and economic benefits of using reclaimed, non-toxic, and found materials, especially driftwood and fallwood.
Challenge
We challenge you to create something that will inspire, engage, question, puzzle, amuse, seduce, and otherwise influence the citizens of Engulf. Interactive art is our particular obsession as it convenes society around itself. It generates roles and it provokes actions. It transforms participants into active contributors to a creative process.
The challenges to creating art for a burn are many. You must consider the physical conditions, the time commitment, and the logistics of transporting tools, building materials, and equipment to the Engulf site. You should also consider the environment Engulf itself will create.
All of these are aspects of the medium in which you are working, so plan carefully and be patient. Your creation may not happen in precisely the way you envision it, but that’s okay! The struggle to adapt and to survive is an essential part of this experience and can lead to unexpected discoveries, both about you and your art.
Responsibility
Whatever you decide is your artistic contribution, anyone making a commitment to creating art at Engulf must take responsibility for all aspects of that creation. From filling out the art installation registration form, participating in a dialogue with us, protecting your art, to cleanup accountability, every aspect of creating art must be taken seriously.
Artwork must be sufficiently secured against high winds, rain and other intense weather conditions that can arise at the Engulf site. If you use guy/guide wires they must be flagged.
Artwork must be sufficiently illuminated at night, including rebar, guy/guide wires and any other part of the installation that somebody could crash into. This includes lighting your build materials before you finish creating your art installation. Note that it’s a darn good idea to use something that cannot be stolen or removed.
The Engulf Board has the right to prohibit the erection or request the dismantling of any art work or structure that it deems unsafe or otherwise inappropriate and/or prohibit attendees from climbing on any art or structure.
Camping is not allowed at any art installation.
Cleanup Accountability
You will start with a clean blank canvas. And that is the way you should leave it. Everything you bring to create MUST BE REMOVED. Nothing, absolutely nothing, should be left at your art site or camp when you leave. Cleaning up and Leaving No Trace are paramount. As citizens of Engulf we are held to a higher standard.
Registration and Communication
After you fill out the art installation registration form (due September 21, 2025), someone from our Art Department will be contacting you, ready to help and assist you. We need as much information as you can possibly give us, including a description and diagrams of your piece. Participating in a dialogue with you about your artwork will enable us to help make your art experience the best it can be.
What does a Grant Cover?
To qualify for an artist grant, the piece of art must be either original to Engulf, or have documented upgrades, improvements and/or enhancements from a piece that has been seen before. This covers placed art (art that is installed somewhere at Engulf but not in a camp and can include sculptures, screens, lights, sounds, etc), roaming art (carts, newspapers, buttons, scavenger hunts… anything that doesn’t live in a singular spot and attendees would need to find), performing art (plays, performances, soliloquies, etc), and mutant vehicles (that must be interactive for participants). We give preference to applications that are geared towards a unique art/experience based around our theme IE: costumes, special effects, changing lyrics/themes, etc and encourage you to think how your work ties into it or could be modified to tie in. While we provide a range of grant amounts large and small, if you’re looking to do a big project, we would recommend getting your projects in during the first round of funding (due July 13, 2025).
For Performance Artists, 50% of their performances at Engulf must be at Center Camp (or an org-designated space, like the effigy field for fire performances). This may impose limitations on the time/day we can book the performances and it will help us if you apply early! Applicants will be considered more strongly if they are doing more than 1 performance during the burn, but it is NOT a requirement for a grant.
What an art grant DOES fund:
Art supplies and raw materials for creation (paint, canvas, wood, nails, screws, fabric)
Props, components, costume pieces, string lights, etc.
Burnable fuel (propane, etc)
Studio time for rehearsals, or building art
Gear rentals (sound equipment, aerial rig, etc)
Specialty transportation (IE: a trailer to bring the art up, a vehicle necessary for the art/production.
What an art grant DOES NOT fund:
Artists buying their own tickets, or tickets for anyone assisting them.
Alcohol as a gift to viewers/attendees
Performance fees/loss of income for attending Engulf
Gas money to get to/from the event
New or updated equipment (projectors, speakers, tools, etc)
Offerings at a theme camp: the art piece can be adjacent to a theme camp to share resources, but the theme camp should not be based 100% around the art piece & its needed supplies.
You can download a sample template of a budget spreadsheet here.
You can download an example of a completed art placement application (PDF) here.
You can download an example of a completed performance art application (PDF) here.
Engulf would like to prioritize funding marginalized community members and is always striving each year to make improvements to the grant application process towards that goal. If you any questions or suggestions towards this, please contact us at art@engulfburn.org
Main art grant application deadline: Sunday, July 13, 2025
Secondary grant applications deadline: Sunday, August 31, 2025
Placement deadline: Sunday, September 21, 2025