The Chapel of the Chimes is a visual and auditory experience with history and love woven into each piece. The structure contains parts of Temples that have been installed on the National Mall in Washington, DC and in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery. It is partnership of playa and playa-adjacent. We need your help to bring the Chapel to Black Rock City.
On burn night, we will release over 100,000 prayers and hopes into the heavens as intended. All of the tablets from the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum's Temple by David Best and Crew will be transformed to ash. All of the sections from Catharsis on the Mall’s Temple with stories adorning the walls will be relinquished into the heavens.
During the event, people will be invited to hold ceremonies in the space and bathe in the sounds. There are over 40 chimes which are harmonically tuned to each other and play with the wind or by hand. It is intricately crafted both by hand and machine, merged into one seamless sacred space. Everyone is invited to leave their story on these temple’s walls.
We are so honored to be bringing this sacred installation to Black Rock City. Bringing something from so far away is always the biggest logistical and monetary challenge. Your contribution goes to the following areas:
Budget Break Down:
$6,300 for Transport
$4,500 for Burning Man Upgrades (BRC Only!)
$4,000 Specialty Labor (Engineering, CNC)
$1,500 Equipment Rental for Installation
(Update: We were able to use the crane at Burning Man instead of a scissor lift. Saved $1000!)
Any additional funds will catch items we missed and offset crew food costs during the build.
$20,000 Money already raised from previous Temple projects
Infinite Worth - hundreds of volunteer hours
This new vision of bringing the Chapel to Burning Man needs your help to be successful.
We are metamorphosing these parts from caterpillar into butterfly in its last flight from DC to Black Rock City. We bring with us the stories, memories, and hopes of hundreds of thousands of people from across the globe. These stories need to be burned, transformed, and released in this final sacred burn ceremony.
Thank you for helping bring this story to a close for so many.
Highlights
See all activity107Perks
We love bandanas! Here is your chance to get a silk screened bandana, made by us, for you! Bandanas are practical and stylin'! You can wear it, clean with it, sit on it.... its 30-inches-squared and cotton! Now thats a lot of surface area.
It's purple! Heathered to be exact. Some ink on the front and back in appreciation of our patrons. You tell us your size, we will personally screen you a cool shirt! It's that easy. T-shirts can be picked up in DC or BRC in August! If we have to ship them to you, it will come no-later-than October!
- 9 claimed
- 36 remaining
These resin-cast glass pendants are created using the glass that was burned in the Temple on the National Mall in 2018! We are going to clean up the glass and resin-cast it into a pendant to hang as a necklace. No two pendants will be alike. Limited supply. These glass-necklaces are also included in the Golden Patron Package!
- 1 claimed
- 7 remaining
These beautiful glass sculptures are under 12-inches and created from of the larger glass pieces of the Temple fire at Catharsis in 2018. Its primary construction will be glass, but may include metal or wood. These will be made by Michael Verdon and limited to 8. This also comes with a T-shirt, dusty postcard, and stickers from the team! The image shown is of a glass, wood, and steel sculpture made by Infinity Gathered in 2018 called the Goddess.
In 2018 the Catharsis Permiting Team had accepted that our likelyhood of burning something bigger than 5 feet was minimial... The design that year included parts that were longer than 6-feet with the intent of taking them back to the studio while the rest of the Temple folded into a 5-foot cube and burned! These glass lamps are made from the remaining walls that were not meant to be burned, but be reimagined and metamorphose into something beautiful! This will be built by our best woodworking team mates for you! Also includes a dusty postcard, t-shirt, and a sticker pack!
- 0 claimed
- 3 remaining
There will be 3 sculptures made from the remains (glass, metal, wood) of the Chapel of the Chimes. These sculptures will be created by Michael Verdon, under 3-feet in height, and each unique. This package also includes a t-shirt, dusty postcard, and a sticker pack!
Activity
We love bandanas! Here is your chance to get a silk screened bandana, made by us, for you! Bandanas are practical and stylin'! You can wear it, clean with it, sit on it.... its 30-inches-squared and cotton! Now thats a lot of surface area.
It's purple! Heathered to be exact. Some ink on the front and back in appreciation of our patrons. You tell us your size, we will personally screen you a cool shirt! It's that easy. T-shirts can be picked up in DC or BRC in August! If we have to ship them to you, it will come no-later-than October!
- 9 claimed
- 36 remaining
These resin-cast glass pendants are created using the glass that was burned in the Temple on the National Mall in 2018! We are going to clean up the glass and resin-cast it into a pendant to hang as a necklace. No two pendants will be alike. Limited supply. These glass-necklaces are also included in the Golden Patron Package!
- 1 claimed
- 7 remaining
These beautiful glass sculptures are under 12-inches and created from of the larger glass pieces of the Temple fire at Catharsis in 2018. Its primary construction will be glass, but may include metal or wood. These will be made by Michael Verdon and limited to 8. This also comes with a T-shirt, dusty postcard, and stickers from the team! The image shown is of a glass, wood, and steel sculpture made by Infinity Gathered in 2018 called the Goddess.
In 2018 the Catharsis Permiting Team had accepted that our likelyhood of burning something bigger than 5 feet was minimial... The design that year included parts that were longer than 6-feet with the intent of taking them back to the studio while the rest of the Temple folded into a 5-foot cube and burned! These glass lamps are made from the remaining walls that were not meant to be burned, but be reimagined and metamorphose into something beautiful! This will be built by our best woodworking team mates for you! Also includes a dusty postcard, t-shirt, and a sticker pack!
- 0 claimed
- 3 remaining
There will be 3 sculptures made from the remains (glass, metal, wood) of the Chapel of the Chimes. These sculptures will be created by Michael Verdon, under 3-feet in height, and each unique. This package also includes a t-shirt, dusty postcard, and a sticker pack!
