Help Get Florentine Farms Out To Burning Man 2022

Dear friends and supporters,

 

I’ve been given the honor of bringing an installation to Burning Man. Some of you may already recognize this amazing organization whose principles of inclusion, self-expression, community and many more guide its mission. While I have been given a grant for this, it isn’t close to the transportation costs as a result of Covid inflation.

 

In normal times, it’s challenging to be an artist. The last two years have made it exponentially true. Let me give you a little history of my journey.

 

My name is Stephen Rhoades, and I am the founder of Florentine Farms, where our installations are built. I've been a working artist for quite some time, always evolving and changing what is expressed to the world. Using the help of grant money, we have been able to build some inspiring works and have created installations such as “The Infinity Temple” and “The Portals”. With experience in both private and public installation work as a designer, fabricator, and consultant, I have built full scale lighting installations for events such as Electric Forest and municipal lighting projects like the reillumination of Burlington VT’s Church Street.

 

As a two-time recipient of Electric Forest’s Plug-in grant as well as Burlington Vermont Highlight’s NYE grant, I have shown excellence and professionalism in designing, planning, managing, and completing lighting jobs/proposals on time, in budget, and strong enough to hold up to even the toughest crowds. Grants go just so far and because of recent events, total grant money has declined. Unfortunately, the cost of materials as far surpassed what is granted, and for us the biggest hurdle has always been transportation.

 

We have never asked for help, but we need it now in order to get out to our events this year, including Black Rock City for Burning Man 2022! Before Covid hit, we were on track to be self-sustainable. The past two years have set us back. If there are no public gatherings, there are no installations. We have hope for the future but have hit a snag in rebuilding. Just between transportation, gas, and installation upkeep our current grants only cover a small portion of our costs.

 

We know there are many in tough positions because of the past two years. To artists, creativity is the air we breathe. We do it for the passion, our belief that the arts are critical for humanity and for the people who get to experience our craft.

 

Getting "The Infinity Temple" out to Electric Forest and Burning Man alone is over 6,000 miles of travel. Ideally, we would like to be able to put a down-payment on a van, as the cost to rent a van has more than quadrupled since 2019!

 

 

 

Thank you for your support. We are grateful for any contribution.