Art season has arrived! Read on to see the list of art installations selected for 2016 Black Rock City Honoraria grants.

Da Vinci’s Workshop is going to be a spectacular theme. You’ll see Leonardo’s influence everywhere; think flying machines, the movements of the heavenly bodies, lighthouses and lenses and optical illusions. There will even be a functioning, participatory blacksmith shop — the Piazza de Ferro — built by the Iron Monkeys. Sparks will fly!

On the other end of the spectrum of Leonardo’s fascinations, this year’s submissions contained lots of animal, anatomical forms: a whale, a giant insect, gorillas, an octopus, a bear, a boar, a herd of horses, and a 12-foot tall fire-breathing Kaiju MechaGator!

There was an unusually high number of mushroom-themed submissions this year. Maybe Leonardo was into that, too!

But not all the news is about what’s new; Black Rock City 2016 will see the return of some of the greatest art and artists in its storied history. We are thrilled to announce that David Best will return with his crew to build the Temple this year for the ninth time. His most recent Temple in BRC was 2014’s Temple of Grace. Remember that one? The one called “Grace” that collapsed with a perfect pirouette into its own footprint when it burned? We can look forward to something new and equally amazing from this year’s Temple.

Other Black Rock City favorites returning to the playa this year will include Kate Raudenbush, HYBYCOZO, Michael Christian and Christopher Schardt. Medusa Madness will also return for an encore, and if you didn’t see it come alive at the end of last year’s event… well, get ready.

Burning Man Arts is funding BRC art to the tune of $1.2 million this year, including these Honoraria recipients, as well as the sculptures, the bell towers, and the 33 Guild Workshops in the Piazza around the Man.

Seven international projects received Honoraria grants, two in Canada and one each in England, India, New Zealand, Russia and Spain. Four Honoraria recipients have never been to Black Rock City, and 21 more are leading a project for the first time. And no report on Burning Man art would be complete without mentioning that, of the 60 projects granted BRC Honoraria, 20 of them will play with fire.

Of course, most of the art in BRC is stuff people just decide to up and do, with or without outside funding. So take a virtual stroll through the 2016 BRC Honoraria projects, and if you have some vision that is missing from the list, you are warmly invited to make it happen.

Full project descriptions with images will be available later in the season.

2016 Black Rock City Honoraria Recipients

10 Benches of Sitting Man, The — Amber Coutts — Felton, CA

Adventure Vending Machine — Rick Rothbart — Oakland, CA

Automata Equis — Heather Stewart — Oakland, CA

Awakening — Ryan Elmendorf and Nick Geurts — Wheat Ridge, CO

Black Rock City Supper Club — Carlyn Perona and Dave King — Reno, NV

Black Rock Lighthouse Project, The — Max Poynton and Hel Skelter Inc. — San Francisco, CA

Burntanical Garden — Lynn Gamroth — Washoe Valley, NV

Cadillac Ranch Remixed — Keith Muscutt — Santa Cruz, CA

Catacomb of Veils — Dan Sullivan — San Francisco, CA

Celestial Mechanica — Jessika Welz — San Francisco, CA

Chiminea Planetaria — Spencer Kane Edgerton (AKA Ranger Quicksilver) — Tucson, AZ

Chronosydra — Kathryn Greenberg and Dust Crusaders — San Francisco, CA

DaVinci Virus — Brennan Steele — New Orleans, LA

Dreams of Flight — Michael Gard — San Francisco, CA

Dust City Diner — Michael Brown — San Francisco, CA

Dusty Supper, The — Jamie Joyce — Winter Park, FL

Enunciation — Taylor Harrison — Los Angeles, CA

Firmament — Christopher Schardt — Oakland, CA

Flocons — Anna-Gaelle Marshall and Dusty Visions — Portland, OR

Fractal Rock — Pooja Shah and Stijn van der Linden — Fremont, CA

Giant Weta, The — Andrew Benson and Auckland Burners — Auckland, New Zealand

Grove — Shilo Shiv Suleman, Saba Ghole, Sean Stevens — Bangalore, India

Helios — Kate Raudenbush — New York, NY

Horizon Lines — Tyler Buckheim — Key West, FL

HYBYCOZO – Heart of Gold — Yelena Filipchuk and Serge Beaulieu — Oakland, CA

Identity Reorganization Portal — Michael Emery — Santa Cruz, CA

Imago — Kirsten Berg — Berkeley, CA

Intention — Will Buchanan — Oakland, CA

Jar of Sand — Trish Dolman — Vancouver, Canada

“Jedi Temple” – “ Dog Temple” – “Jedi Dog Temple” (Working Title / Kids Temple) — Sagan Bocskor — Las Vegas, NV

Koi Pond, The — JoeJoe Martin — San Francisco, CA

Last Apothecary, The — Shing Yin Khor and the Black Rock Civilian Defense Corps — Los Angeles, CA

Le Attrata — Therm — Oakland, CA

Lord Snort — Bryan Tedrick — Glen Ellen, CA

MAHALYCH (Birding Man) — Vasily Shchetinin / Василий Щетинин — Saint-Petersburg, Russia

MechaGator, The — Ryan S. Ballard — New Orleans, LA

Mechan 9 — Tyler FuQua — Eagle Creek, OR

Mechanica Musica — Douglas Ruuska — Brighton, MA

Medusa Madness — Kevin Clark — Petaluma, CA

OCTAVIUS — Peter Hazel — Verdi, CA

Oid (Working Title) — michael christian — Berkeley, CA

Piazza di Ferro — Iron Monkeys — Seattle, WA

Plug ’N Play — John Parts Taylor/David Bacchus Marglin — San Francisco, CA

Pulse Portal — Davis McCarty — Chicago, IL

Renaiximent – (Renaissance) — Miguel Arraiz Garcia — Valencia, Spain

Roshanai (Illuminate) — Charles Gadeken — San Francisco, CA

RotoFuego — Leo O’Brien — Oakland, CA

Rube Awakening Magic Bike Rack — Mark Melnick — Las Vegas, NV

Seeing humanity for what it really is — Laurence Vallières — Montréal, Canada

Sharky-Go-Round/Ghost Shark — Kirk McNeill — Santa Cruz, CA

Shrumen Lumen — Foldhaus Artist Collective — San Francisco, CA

Space Whale, The — Matthew Schultz and the Pier Group with Android Jones — Sparks, NV

Spire of Fire — Steve Atkins and Eric Smith — Washoe Valley, NV

Tangential Dreams — Arthur Mamou-Mani — London, England

Temple Project — David Best and the Temple Crew — Petaluma, CA

The Light is Inside You — Yelena Filipchuk — Oakland, CA

Traveling Sound Museum, The — Mike Rosenthal — Brooklyn, NY

Ursa Major — Lisa and Robert Ferguson — Alameda, CA

Wittgenstein, Da Vinci, Rachmaninoff: A Recursive Wooden Design — Landon Committed Goldberg — Eugene, OR

Top image: The Koi Pond by JoeJoe Martin, illustration by Sherry Wong