For millennia, people all around the world have looked to the night sky and noticed a small but striking cluster of stars and told stories about their origin and meaning. Whether known as Pleiades, Subaru, Karatgurk, Dilγéhé, Makali’i, or countless other names, this constellation has held deep spiritual significance for different peoples throughout history. Mysteriously, several unrelated cultures separated by oceans have told uncannily similar stories of these stars being seven sisters fled into the night sky. 

Seven Sisters will be an installation at Burning Man 2026 that will share the magic of these stars and the stories told about them from around the world. Consisting of seven star lanterns mounted on 20-30 foot masts, it will be a three-dimensional model of the star cluster's actual arrangement in space, giving the unique opportunity to view a familiar constellation from new perspectives. From the temple, one will see the same pattern of stars we see from planet earth, but as one bikes around the playa they will get to see how the stars appear to distant planets on the other side of the galaxy.

We have the vision, the plans, and the team to build this piece, but we need your help to get us out of the sketchbook and into the dust. We are thrilled to have been accepted for Burning Man's Honorarium grant, but this only covers a portion of our costs and we need to raise additional funds to cover material costs, solar power equipment, and transportation to and from playa. We are very fortunate to have found a very generous benefactor willing to match any donations up to $5,000 meaning every dollar you donate to this project is doubled in impact.

Any excess funds raised will be donated to DarkSky International, a non-profit committed to fighting light pollution and preserving access to beautiful, star-filled night skies around the world. https://darksky.org/

We know there are many worthy causes that you could be donating to, so we are brainstorming some out of this world perks and designing some celestial swag for all of our star contributors - stay tuned!

 Learn more about the project at https://www.7sisters.art/