Massive, fiery, metal beasts are kind of our thing. 

From the New York Hall of Science to the Black Rock Desert, from the Wisconsin State Fair to a grassy field in St. André-Avellin, Quebec, the Metaverse Arts collective has brought its unique brand of steel, flame, and performance art to dozens of locations throughout North America.

In 2017, we built Heavy Meta, a 30 foot-long, fire breathing steel dragon, an art car whose scale was unprecedented in Canada. Led by Marie Poliak, Matt Von Wilde, Stacy Campbell, Christiane Yerex, and Kevin Bracken, along with a dedicated core team and dozens of volunteers, we spent three years touring to public art events like the Toronto Light Festival, Maker Faires in nearly a dozen cities, music festivals like Elements Music and Arts Festival in New York, and our own event series, Metaverse, until the pandemic began.

The dragon was a follow-up to The Prodigal Swan, a beautiful and terrifying metal swan led by Dustin T. Hoffman. The swan was our first mutant vehicle, and now lives permanently in downtown Las Vegas, where it can be seen in locales such as Park on Fremont, Life is Beautiful festival, and EDC Las Vegas.

The team of people who worked on the dragon learned and taught welding, carpentry, theatrical special effects, electronics, and many more trades and practical skills. Many of those people are now professionals in the film and television industry (via IATSE Local 873), professional tradespeople, and professional artists, applying some of the very same skills they used to build the dragon.

The pandemic put a halt to many of the things we loved. Our community of artists, performers, entertainers, nightlife professionals, and restaurateurs suffered badly. Businesses shuttered permanently, and for some people, it felt like the world was literally on fire. What is left now looks like ashes to many.

Seeking a pathway forward, we decided once again to pick up the welding torches and angle grinders and make something bigger, brighter, badder, and louder than anything we have ever made before. To rise from the ashes, we will build the phoenix. As the world opens up, and humanity rises from its pandemic slumber, the phoenix will ignite and become aloft in many people’s lives.

The build is just the start of something new: a large community that centers on a workshop, which is a space for rapid learning and experimentation. The workshop where we built the dragon became the home of two more massive mutant vehicles: Tarna the Jackalope, and The Ark Car, plus a half dozen projects inspired by the pressure cooker/incubator environment the shop created.

Our mission is to make lives greater through art, music, and fire. We execute this mission with three principles in mind: Return on Community, or the idea that every decision we make should grow or enrich the larger community around us (read more about Return on Community on the blog); Perpetual Learning, the openness to new skills and knowledge, and generosity with what we know; and Unity, meaning we find common ground with other creative groups, support each other, and help each other grow.

We need you. We need artists, we need dreamers, we need donors, we need people who are willing to learn a new skill to be part of this crazy thing. Starting a big art project is a crazy thing to do, fraught with risk and fear of failure and a little bit of foolishness; however, one thing we have learned over the past year indoors is that the world needs more foolishness. Join us as we rise from the ashes.