Tweaking, fixing, and repurposing are skills many have learned out of necessity in Black Rock City. Making and repairing things are two of the most creative and subversive habits you can take on during this era of easy consumption and waste. Wherever you are in your maker journey, there are all kinds of resources available to teach you skills, share tools, and spark ideas.
Need Some Ideas?
Gather Your Crew for a Community Work Party. Put some of those Burner tools, skills, and infrastructure to work by offering to do manual work and repairs for a local family, school, or community organization. Better yet — loan them some of your camp infrastructure.
Learn to Repair and Repurpose Broken Stuff. The world is filled with junk that is one fix away from being useful. Indulge your curiosity by taking stuff apart to see how it works. If it stops working because you tinkered with it, turn it into art!
Burners Out There Doing It
The Gerlach Workforce Development Center (GWDC) is a physical open learning community in Gerlach, Nevada that offers trade, leadership, and career-focused training programs. Follow GWDC in Hive or email gerlachwdc@burningman.org to learn about upcoming courses.
Participate in a Fly Ranch Stewardship day. All are welcome to join a full day of working on the land, followed by a sunset soak in the Fly Geyser hot springs.
Roll up your sleeves and join a TrailBlaze event at Burning Man Project’s Northern Nevada properties. Read more here: Why We’re Building a Permanent Hub for Burning Man Culture & Community.
The 360 is Burning Man’s newest makers ranch at the edge of the Black Rock Desert supporting theme camps, art projects, mutant vehicles, Black Rock City teams, DPW, and independent creators of all kinds. To get involved, email 360events@burningman.org.
Get Involved With Your Local Makerspace. Whether you want to play with electronics, learn how to use tools, make costumes, or create digital art, makerspaces and hackerspaces are open to one and all for co-learning, co-working, and building everything under the sun. Find the closest makerspace to you.
Across the US and around the world, Burners are coming together to learn and construct wonders that illuminate Black Rock City and beyond. No skills? No worries. You’ll learn. Here are just a few of many Burner makerspaces out there in the world:
The Crucible: Oakland, California
ACE Makerspace: Oakland, California
Seaport Studios: Richmond, California
NIMBY: Oakland, California
The Box Shop: San Francisco, California
SD CoLab: San Diego
BIG ART LABS: Los Angeles
The Generator: Reno, Nevada
Makerspace NYC: New York, New York
L’ESPACEMAKER: Montreal, Quebec
Xanadu Community Center: Boise, Idaho
Lloyd the Warehouse, Austin, Texas
Pumping Station One: Chicago, Illinois
i3Detroit: Detroit, Michigan
The Right to Repair Movement advocates for repair-friendly policies and standards. Repair clinics and cafes are popping up everywhere. The Culture of Repair Project lists repair events in the Bay Area. Peruse this map to find a repair cafe near you.
Making your own burn barrel is one easy way to stay warm, and gather storytellers everywhere you go. All you need to do is acquire a barrel, and ask your Burner friends how it’s done (or follow this generic, non-Burner but very detailed Wikihow tutorial). Speaking of burn barrels, next time you’re longing for Home you can run this nonstop Black Rock City burn barrel video as the background to your week.