How Burning Man’s Katie Hazard Chooses the Art at Black Rock City [Podcast]

Right now, over 400 artists are preparing to unveil their avant-garde installations at Burning Man 2024. Staged annually at Black Rock City in the Nevada desert, the festival is a huge undertaking and massive success, thanks in no small part to Katie Hazard, the festival’s director of art. In today’s podcast episode, host and NOT REAL ART founder Scott “Sourdough” Power sits down with Katie to discuss her decade-long career managing the art at Burning Man—quite possibly the coolest job in the world.

In this episode, Katie previews the incredible work selected for Burning Man 2024 and how it fits this year’s theme, Curiouser and Curiouser. Burning Man 2024 celebrates puzzles without answers and embraces the irrational and absurd—festival-goers should expect the art to reflect this. Katie also gives insight into her job, including the meticulous planning involved in installing hundreds of massive artworks every year. While managing the work keeps her busy, Katie’s mission centers on empowering artists with the freedom to experiment.

Our conversation with Burning Man’s Katie Hazard illuminates the hard work and planning behind the awe-inspiring art that seems to appear from nowhere in the Nevada desert every year. Don’t miss this episode if you’re curious about Burning Man and its mission to fuel creative expression in Black Rock City and beyond.

Key Points From This Episode:

How Katie ended up with arguably the coolest job in the world
The power of saying “yes” to unlock amazing opportunities
The incredible variety of people who make Burning Man what it is
Why Burning Man isn’t like any other music festival, party, or camping trip
Curiouser and Curiouser: this year’s theme and what went into choosing it
An overview of the painstaking process of arranging all the art installations
What Black Rock City is like for children and when to take them
Steps taken to make the event more radically inclusive and diverse each year
The skills and relationships that make the experience so magical for Katie
How Burning Man acts as a "permission engine” for experimentation
How Katie’s yoga and meditation practice enhances her role as art director
Awe, magic, serendipity, and the profound effect Burning Man has on festivalgoers
The impact of technology on the culture of Burning Man

Quotes:

“We like saying that anyone can bring art to Burning Man.” — Katie Hazard [0:23:07]

“It's the unexpected and the weird that makes [Burning Man] special.” — Katie Hazard [0:30:28]

“There's nothing else like the art at Burning Man, but there's something so magical in what happens along the way of getting there.” — Katie Hazard [0:39:49]

Longer Quotes:

“You have to get to know all of these projects and get a feel [for each one]. Is this a contemplative piece? Or do you want this further out? Or does this have a lot of interactivity? Or is this going to be loud and bother the other people near it? Or does this have something where it's great to have a mutant vehicle pull up next to it because it has sound-reactive lights? So, we'll put it where the mutant vehicles tend to play. There's lots of factors [that go into artwork placement].” — Katie Hazard [0:29:00]

“[In] our grant program, we've never inquired about demographics. We don't explicitly do that now, but we talk much more about diversity and wanting to see a more diverse population and more diverse art. On the grant application, now we talk about how your project will advance these values. We've paid much more attention to who we're giving money to and what that looks like.” — Katie Hazard [0:36:05]