Feed the Artists: Building community through art & food

Because of the open-throttle building frenzy of the week before the festival opens to the public, Burning Man has inadvertently helped redefine the notion of the "starving artist." This, according to founder Keith Rinzler, is the main reason Feed the Artists came into existence.

"In the years that I have gone to Burning Man, I naturally loved the intricate and fascinating Playa art installations and wanted to meet the artists who built them. But every time I tried, I found it difficult because they were working 18-20 hours a day, didn't eat, and when the Burn came around, they went and hid."

It was in an Atlanta restaurant in the Spring of 2007 that Rinzler, who goes by the Playa moniker "Colonel Angus," sat down with BM artist Zach Coffin and first discussed what would become "Feed the Artists," a grassroots project to show support and appreciation for the many assembled art crews by preparing them exquisite meals throughout the building process. Coffin explained to him how the smaller and newer crews in particular have little time or energy left at the end of the day to think much about food.

"Consequently," he explained, "their energy, enthusiasm, vitality, happiness and overall experience diminishes more each day as they feed themselves with whatever pre-packaged, processed junk foods they can grab, if they even eat at all, until finally, they are so exhausted and burnt out that when the festival actually begins in earnest, they are too worn out to enjoy it."

Rinzler got together with Bay Area Chef JP Weingarten and made a plan to get out to the Playa early and make some meals for the art crews. Through a relationship with The Grand Hotel at Ashram Galactica Camp, three Feed the Artist dinners were prepared on consecutive nights for three individual crews.

What they created was essentially a community art grant though food and a means for the Burner community to give back, to step up and show support and appreciation directly to the artists whose work they get to enjoy throughout the week. The response was overwhelming, and many commented that the dinner reflected the spirit of Burning Man on a larger scale: gifting, shared community, and support for the arts.

“The dinners created an intimate bond between myself and the artists and their projects that I had never previously experienced at Burning Man," Rinzler continues. "I felt connected and deeply vested in the projects’ success. I had, by extension, become part of the artists’ crew, and I began to see art at Burning Man in a completely different and more meaningful way." That flipped on a light in his head about the potential for the future, and the gratitude expressed by the art crews motivated FtA to repeat in 2008.

The next year, after adding front-of-house manager Steve "Ice" Berg and back-of-house manager Mark "Abo" Gibson, Feed the Artists was hosted by Entheon VIllage, one of the largest and most innovative theme camps in recent years. Through this expanded team, FtA put together a network of eight other theme camps who all provided artist meals. They produced four gourmet, vegetarian dinners which fed over six hundred artists, crews and other guests comprising over twenty artist groups, including the entire Basura Sagrada Temple crew.  In total, every artist group that responded to FtA's request for information--over 30 of them--received a dinner, and everyone else was invited to a breakfast, so that almost every funded artist group on the playa--over 850 people--received at least one meal, and in most cases, several meals.

Since the idea behind FtA was not to build a big organization itself, but to encourage all theme camps who arrive early to offer meals to art crews, FtA produced a comprehensive “Theme Camp Guide” which provides camps with all the info they need to throw a successful FtA dinner.

"This is a really critical year for us. It's not just about feeding artists this year, its about changing the minds of the theme camps to get them all to provide food for the artists and crews while they are there during pre-festival. This year we're going to have at least 20 theme camps involved. If we do this, it means we can feed every artist on the Playa."

One thing you wont find on the FtA website is an explanation of how far this vision extends. Rinzler's intensity brims over as he explains how he wants the project in its next phase to spread to Burning Man regional events. In order to facilitate the implementation of a wide-scale food program, Rinzler & Co are building an online reservation system where each regional event can put together an FtA-style meal plan prepared and served by their own volunteers.

"We could spread this all over the world via the regional vehicle, but it even goes beyond the BM community. Using food as a means to thank people for their work, or help, is the next phase in food awareness. It began with organics, and then localization became the second phase. Now we come along with the next level and ask, what else can you do with that local organic food? And the answer is, you can use it to show support and appreciation to anyone anywhere its needed. If Burners Without Borders goes to do disaster relief, people can swoop in and feed them using the FtA system. If there is some big event in your community, the FtA model can help you bridge gaps in that community through food."

Stop by an FtA meal if you're on Playa early and see for yourself.