Program Areas

Burning Man Netherlands provides infrastructural tools and frameworks to support our community in applying the ten principles in four interconnected program areas:
1. Arts
2. Culture
3. Civic Involvement
4. Education

These are four of the six program areas which were developed in 2011 by the six founders of Burning Man USA and their nonprofit and legal advisors, who were crafting the long-term vision for the new nonprofit which became the Burning Man Project. These are not distinct, independently operating programs. They are aspirational, and represent what they have been doing and what they intend to do. Each year they focus on certain areas more than others, but together they paint the bigger picture.

They want you to know that they’re thinking big about Burning Man’s potential influence on the world (we often talk about Burning Man’s 100-year plan), and we invite you to think big, too.

Arts Program

The Mission of the Arts Program of Burning Man the Netherlands is to change the paradigm of art from a commodified object to an interactive, participatory, shared experience of creative expression.
Activities in the art program may include facilitating creative self-expression by encouraging people to integrate art with daily personal and public life in ways that are interactive and collaborative, promoting social architecture, and providing opportunities for people to create and display mobile and wearable art (such as art cars, art bikes, and art clothing). BMNL will accomplish that through art grants, art exhibitions, art festivals, public art placement, directories and catalogues of art and artists who work in this genre, and by other means. Burning Man the Netherlands will collaborate with Burning Man (USA) in a mutually supportive manner.

Culture Program

Burning Man the Netherlands Culture Centers Program will establish and operate urban and rural cultural centers and spaces that incubate and showcase collaborative and interactive arts, culture, and community participation. BMNL’s Cultural Centers may be permanent or temporary, physical or virtual.
Activities that generate and preserve culture will include the establishing of a physical [ Freespace ] a Urban Cultural Center in the Netherland that will provide collaborative gathering and gallery spaces, classrooms, workshops, a library, archives, sites for ritual and ceremony, shared office space for multiple community- based non-profit organizations, and eventually a café and Burning Man museum store. The Urban Cultural Centers will be using as a model the [ Freespace ] organisation in San Fransisco. In the longer-term future, rural retreat centers, artist colonies, and camping sites may provide opportunities to generate interactive, collaborative community and culture in natural settings. This program will locate, evaluate, acquire, manage, operate, and maintain all Project facilities, sites, networks, and real estate, which will be developed and operated using innovative technologies and renewable energy.

Civic Involvement Program

The Civic Engagement Program of Burning Man Netherlands will foster civic responsibility and volunteerism in pursuit of a civil society and to provide economic development and human services, using interactive and collaborative methods that are consistent with the Ten Principles.

Activities in this program may include organizing community celebrations, parades, festivals, and other events through a network in urban and rural areas, and in the virtual world. In creating these events, BMNL will encourage broad participation and engagement with city, state and federal agencies to permit display of public art and to permit creative self-expression. BMNL events will offer the public opportunities to participate in and experience a way of life lived consistently with the Ten Principles and to collaborate in creating a values-based civic code. Urban Cultural Centers will aid development of cultural districts and bring life back to cities’ long-depressed urban zones, and will seek to provide important services and needed amenities in low- and moderate- income neighborhoods, contributing to neighborhood economic self- sufficiency. BMNL rural activities will contribute to economically blighted areas by means of art and civic engagement projects. BMNL will expand the nascent Digital Playa and virtual “Burn” events, allowing those without means or resources to participate in Ten Principles events.

Education Program

The Mission of the Educational Program of Burning Man the Netherlands is to teach the philosophy, principles, and practice of Burning Man culture and experience in our region.

Activities in this program may include BMNL providing classes, skills training sessions, workshops, lectures, conferences, seminars, coaching, mentoring, and certification programs via many educational modalities, such as in person, on line, peer-to-peer, and through interactive, and experiential and service-learning programs.  Topics will include the nearly infinite range of ways the Ten Principles apply to various fields of endeavor, from the philosophical to practical. Skills training may include how to: create interactive art, create flame effects, make costumes, recruit and retain volunteers, facilitate town meetings, engage effectively with government agencies, manage a project, raise funds, write art grants, set up a nonprofit, produce an event, or install monumental public art. BMNL may teach about collaborative communication, active listening, emergency management, dispute resolution, collaborative leadership, disaster preparedness and relief, and a myriad of other topics. Staff, consultants, and volunteer teachers — professionals, experts, and knowledgeable people — will come from the Burning Man community and beyond, to educate the Burning Man community, in everything from impromptu sessions to formal classes.
*Our values, mission, and vision are rooted in these Ten Principles