Mission

High Desert Test Sites is a platform for art and experiences that enable us to step outside everyday life and envision new possibilities. The organization is based at A-Z West—Andrea Zittel’s 80-acre compound and artwork—where it brings together artists, writers, and thinkers to create projects that engage the desert and its communities. 

THE EXPERIMENT:

1. To challenge traditional conventions of ownership, property, and patronage.

2. To insert art directly into a life, landscape, or community.

3. To encourage art that remains in the context for which it was created.

4. To initiate an organism in its own right—one that’s bigger, richer, and less organized than the vision of any single artist, curator, or architect.

5. To create a “center” outside of any preexisting centers.

6. To find common ground between contemporary art and localized art issues.

7. To contribute to a community in which art can truly make a difference.