As requested by Open Collective as part of their public "What's Update," we wanted to share our answers to their questions - giving a brief summary of our 2023 year!

1.  What did you accomplish during 2023? How did you use money? 

In 2023, we created, and our volunteers built, the Temple of the Heart for Burning Man attendees. The primary purpose of our Temple was to hold a cathartic space for attendees to process grief and allow communal healing. Secondarily, we wanted to achieve this while adhering to sustainability initiatives, climate goals, and later, “Leave No Trace” during our deconstruction. 

We used funding for various build expenses, ranging from: hardware and tools, transportation and trucking, equipment rentals, food to feed volunteers, specialty services from third-party contractors, and more. 

2. What challenges did you face during 2023? What did your Collective learn? How did you change or grow? 

Our team experienced some challenges, including an unexpected extreme weather event that caused flooding during on-playa build leading up to the event - delaying our construction by multiple days while we waited for the surface to dry. During this time, our build team learned to work with nature rather than against it, practicing patience and rest while waiting.

We also faced some changes that needed to be made leading up to the event, causing our architectural renders to be slightly changed (ensuring budgetary and structural guidelines were met). 

 
3.  What are your plans for 2024? Anything exciting coming up? 

Our plans for 2024 involve closing out any remaining open items for our Temple, and (figuratively) passing the torch to the next chosen Temple designers!