Six weeks ago we walked into an empty warehouse on West Grand Avenue with a stack of plywood and a plan. Here’s where your dollars have landed since then:
– 72 fence panels built and shipped — the threshold that marks the edge of sacred space, out on truckload #1 – The first moon gate is complete — the entryway people will walk through to cross into Temple ground – 10 inner petals assembled, clad, and sent off on truckloads #2 and #3 this past weekend – Outer petals are fully framed — cladding starts this Saturday – 319 individual volunteers have come through the shop since we opened the doors, 150+ of them on a single day during the first build weekend – Tool School runs every Saturday — newcomers learning the miter saw, the impact driver, the brad nailer – Closing in on $25,000 raised! Every dollar already in lumber, screws, fasteners, cladding, and diesel for the trucks
This past weekend the truck pulled away with the inner petals strapped down. A month of weekends, rolling out of the bay door in a single afternoon. They’re real now, and they’re moving.
What’s next is the part the build crew has been pointing toward since day one. With the outer petals framed and heading into cladding, the floor will soon open up for the petal arms and the central spire. The pieces that lift the whole shape skyward and give the Temple its silhouette against the desert horizon. We start cutting as soon as we have the space.
If you’ve given already: this is what your gift has become so far. Plywood that turned into a wall of pattern and shadow. A finished moon gate standing in the shop. A row of clad petals. Three trucks of finished pieces, on their way to Nevada. Thank you, sincerely.
If you’ve been thinking about sharing the campaign, the central spire is the part of the build that’s going to be visible from a quarter mile away on the playa. It also needs its share of lumber.
The Temple’s outermost fence is pierced by eight moon gates, each one marking a different phase of the moon — from full, through waning and new, and back to full again. Walking through a gate, you pass beneath a faceted plywood arch, with ten panels curving overhead and around you.
We want those panels to carry the work of our community. So rather than designing the artwork ourselves, we are inviting you to submit designs. The eight strongest submissions will be cut into plywood on a CNC mill and installed in the Temple’s moon gates.
If you’ve ever wanted to leave your mark on the Temple, this is your chance.
What We’re Looking For
A complete submission is a single design concept that spans all ten panels of one moon gate’s archway. The panels read together as one piece — think of them less as ten separate canvases and more as ten facets of one continuous artwork.
Designs can be abstract or representational. A representational example: a moon rising over the ocean, with the lower panels reading as water and the upper panels as sky and moon. An abstract example might be a flowing pattern, a geometric meditation, or a hand-drawn texture that transforms as it climbs the arch. Both are welcome. Surprise us.
Each of the 8 gates is meant to represent a single phase of the moon. The artwork for a given gate doesn’t need to match that moon phase, but we do invite artists to be inspired by a given moon phase. This diagram illustrates the 8 moon phases:
Lit From Within
Each gate will be backlit by LEDs set inside the moon gate structure, so every cutout becomes a window of light. By day, the design reads as shapes carved out of plywood. By night, those same shapes glow. Please design with both states in mind — your negative space is the lightwork.
Panel Specs
NEW: 3D model which you can download, available in both .STP and .3DM formats.
Each of the ten panels are the same size:
28″ tall × 23″ widex ½” thick
1½” margin on all sides — keep your design inside that margin. So your area for artwork is 25” tall x 20” wide.
This photo shows a moon gate under construction with the ten uncut panels in place
CNC Constraints
Because these will be cut on a CNC mill out of plywood, the designs need to live within two physical limits:
No more than 50% of the panel area can be cut away. The plywood needs to hold itself together.
Every cutout must be at least 1/4″ wide at every point, to make room for the cutting bit. No hairline details, no narrow slivers — if you can’t fit a quarter-inch dowel through it, it won’t cut.
Designs that ignore these constraints can’t be fabricated, no matter how beautiful, so please plan around them from the start.
File Format
Submit your designs as vector art, ideally in Adobe Illustrator (.ai) format. Other vector formats (.svg, .pdf, .eps) are acceptable if .ai isn’t available to you, but .ai is strongly preferred so the files drop straight into our CNC pipeline.
Please send all ten panels in a single file or a single zipped folder, clearly labeled with which panel goes where in the arch. Panel 1 is the lowest panel on the left side, facing toward the temple, then the panels are numbered clockwise, with panel 10 being the lowest panel on the right side.
How to Submit
Email your submission to [email protected] by noon on Friday, May 15. Late submissions can’t be considered — we have to start cutting. Download the 3D model for reference or design, available in both .STP and .3DM formats.
Please include:
Your name (and how you’d like to be credited)
A short paragraph about the design and what inspired it
The vector file(s)
How We’ll Choose
We’re using a decentralized selection process. Once submissions close, all entries will first be evaluated for cutting feasibility. Entries that meet the criteria listed above will be shared back with the community, and the community itself will vote on its favorites. The eight designs with the most support become the artwork for eight of the moon gates.
Questions?
We have created a group in our Temple of the Moon whatsapp community where you can ask questions, talk through ideas, share your work in progress with others, and see what others are working on. You can join that group by following this URL: https://chat.whatsapp.com/CNuzJ5zF4Z1IrS90LGsInM
You can also ask private questions by emailing [email protected], though we encourage artists to post questions publicly so that others can learn from your answers!
We can’t wait to see what you create! Thank you for your time and consideration on this!
We’re excited to announce the launch of the official crowdfunding campaign for the Temple of the Moon at crowdfundr.com/2026temple
Even more exciting: within the first wave of support, we’ve already crossed the milestone of our first $1000 raised.
The 2026 Temple is being built through collaboration, creativity, and massive collective effort. Every contribution helps support materials, fabrication, logistics, and the countless volunteer hours that go into creating a space for reflection, connection, and shared experience.
Crossing the first $1000 is just the beginning. The campaign will continue to grow as more people join in to help shape what the Temple becomes.
Please support the project and share it with others, visit the campaign and track the progress here:
