Fable Bound - The Idea

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From Idea to Grant Application

Between November of 2023 and October of 2024 I led a team of volunteers to build the largest and most complex piece of art I have completed to date. This will be one of many posts on Fable Bound so lets start at the beginning and talk through the idea and grant process for Burning Man.

Fable Bound started with an idea driving out of Burning Man 2023. Leanne and I were throwing out concepts for art pieces we could build, as you do after a week of creative inspiration. We had just finished watching Vikings on Netflix and listening to "The Twilight of the Aesir" from Dan Carlin so we were steeped in Viking stories. This was to be the first project for a new collective of artists in Denver and I wanted something fun and multi-discilinary to appeal to a wide range of people. The ship was by far the most fun of the ideas we came up with and quickly set in as the concept to run with.

We spent a few months talking through ideas for the ship with friends and family. We knew we wanted the ship to move and we wanted it to be an interactive installation. The initial idea was a seesaw where rowing oars on the ship would move the ship up and down using a hydraulic system. Though we didn't know exactly how this was going to come together we had enough of a concept to apply for the Burning Man Honoraria and see if we could get some funding help.

The Honoraria Application Process

Leanne and I were taking a much needed and long vacation from work at the end of 2023 and the initial 3D Models, project plan, budget and story were drafted on an iPad while flying between counties in Southeast Asia. I taught myself enough 3D Modeling using Shaper3D to submit drawings for the Burning Man Honoraria application. Not as full featured as Fusion 360, Rhino or SolidWorks but powerful enough that I could model the basics of the ship. You can also use it for free until you need to export models or create more than two designs.

The first big milestone was getting commitments from potential team members before we submitted the proposal. Leanne, Alex (Maki), Nathan (Half Hour), and William (Willow) were all on board with a starting skill set that gave me confidence we would figure out how to build the ship. I can't stress enough how important having a reliable crew is for a large volunteer project like this. Not just having people with skills who could make the project easier but working with people who make the project fun.

In my mind every project should start with the team and finding out who is going to help build before anything else. One skill set we did not have on the initial team was graphic design or artistic drawing. So we used ChatGPT to render the concept images for the project. I've heard plenty of complaints about this but for me AI drawings are a great way to visualize the things in my head and speed up the time it takes to get an image you can use to explain the concept to others. It may only get you part of the way there and you might still want to work with someone who can draw but even going to a designer with something makes it much easier to explain what you are looking for compared to starting from a blank page. It is your vision after all.

There are two parts to the application process for the Burning Man Honoraria. The first is a Letter of Intent and then a full proposal if accepted to the second round. The full text of our proposal is available here along with the initial budget proposal and images sent with the proposal. This was the first time I had submitted a large art grant proposal and I had a hard time finding advice or resources online specifically about the Honoraria.

I called around to anyone I knew who had submitted a proposal in the past and tried to get as much information as I could about what the Org was looking for in a submission. I also sent out the proposal to several friends and family members for editing, review and feedback. More eyes was helpful in refining and condensing the information.

Some thoughts on the process and advice I received:

• Remove the fluff and explain what you are building. Use the philosophy section for your sparkly language but everywhere else get to the point!
• Consider the importance of story telling and ritual. We started crafting a narrative at this point in the process that carried through the build. (More on this in another post)
• You don't need to fill every field to the character limit. Say what you need to say and move on.
• Write the entire proposal. Put it down, send it to other people and come back to it. Work on your designs, on your budget, on your timeline and come back to the proposal with new ideas and a clearer concept each time.
• Start early. You're idea is going to evolve through this process as you think through the details.
• Really dig down in your budget. Ours included screws, bolts, nuts, paracord, wire, eye protection, shade structures, rakes. Anything you think you might need between starting your build and striking on playa.
• Your initial budget items may not match your final product but the more detail you can include the more wiggle room you have for moving things around.

We got the announcement that we were being awarded a grant for 40% of the project budget on December 21st, 2023. Happy birthday to me! As soon as we returned to Denver in January we got started on initial prototyping on the most complex pieces of the build, the pneumatics and hardware controls for the ship movement. I always like to start a new project with the most complex pieces first. This helps answer the questions about what you don't know and get a better idea of how long something is actually going to take. To me, the movement was also the most important piece of the entire build.

At this point we set up a website with a volunteer form for collecting information. do this before Burning Man puts out the JRS post about the art that is going to be on playa if you are hoping to recruit volunteers from outside of your immediate friend group. Half of our core crew and a significant number of the occasional volunteers for our build days found us through the Burning Man artist posting.

I also setup an LLC in Colorado with a bank account to receive any incoming grants and donations. I used Northwest Registered Agent to handle the filing. It was worth the money and you could include this cost in your budget for the grant proposal. With an LLC formed I could open a bank account for the business and keep all the expenses for the project separate from my personal accounts. Always a good idea for tax purposes.

At this point we were ready to send out an invite for our first build day, see who would show up and get started with the people in the room.