This was just too good not to share. In case you didn’t know, Black Rock Solar doesn’t just gift low- and no-cost solar power to Northern Nevada institutions who can’t otherwise afford it, they are also spearheading an ambitious education and outreach program as part of their mission to promote alternative energy solutions. BRS’s Marnee Benson writes:

“It’s been a busy and rewarding week for Black Rock Solar education and outreach. On Monday March 21st, we teamed up with Burning Man Government Relations & Legal Affairs to meet with community members in Lovelock, Nevada and discuss economic development. Next up we visited Rainshadow Charter School in Reno to talk about energy efficiency and solar power. In 2010 Black Rock Solar installed a 30 kW array for the school, and this year the students are participating in GREENevada’s Sustainability Plan Competition.

On Wednesday we took part in the Nevada Inter-Tribal Renewable Energy Consortium meeting in Carson City, providing information about our work with Native American tribes across the region. Thursday saw Black Rock Solar twice at the University of Nevada Reno. The first was a presentation for the Davidson Academy, a free school for profoundly gifted learners, and the second was a lecture for UNR’s Energy Policy class, where topics discussed included state and federal policy, economic models in renewable energy, and internship opportunities.”

Phew! For more information, visit the Black Rock Solar website.

When our group got together to start FIGMENT in 2007, we never had any idea that it could ever grow this much, this fast. In 2010, our three-day NYC event had nearly 25,000 participants, and our Boston event, just in its first year, had something like 10,000 participants. It’s really amazing to see how quickly the community around FIGMENT has grown, and it’s exciting to see where it can go next.

Welcome to FIGMENT! (Image (c) 2010 NY_Man)

FIGMENT began in New York in 2007 as a way to bring three important resources together: first, Governors Island, a former Army and then Coast Guard base in New York Harbor that had just been turned over to New York City; second, the creative energy of artists in New York, often creating work without ample resources, often desperately in need of space; and third, the ethos that many of the founders of FIGMENT had learned from Burning Man, expressed in the ten principles—basically, teaching us how to work collaboratively together to make great things happen in a way that is participatory, generous, and free from commoditization.

The idea took off immediately, and, while we expected 500 people or so at our first one-day event, we had over 2,600 people, with thousands more turned away at the ferries. We haven’t stopped since. The New York event has grown exponentially each year, increasing how much art we cram onto the island’s 172 acres, growing in participation as art projects become more ambitious, growing in duration as we add increasingly successful summer-long projects every year, and growing in stability as we build a team that believes in this event and can keep it going.

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