It’s time again for the annual Homer Burning Basket.

Build week for the interactive, collaborative community art installation begins Sunday, Sept. 1. Community members are invited to come out to Mariner Park at the base of the Homer Spit from noon to 8 p.m. through Saturday, Sept. 7 to help with the project.

The basket burning will start at sundown on Sunday, Sept. 8.

This year marks the 21st annual Burning Basket, or what artist and organizer Mavis Muller called “an autumnal tradition of community-supported, volunteer-dependent, weather-affected labor of art and love” in a press release provided to Homer News on Thursday, Aug. 22.

Muller has led the annual project since 2004. Her chosen theme for this year’s installation is “Give – Basket of Remembrance and Unburdening.”

“The burning of the basket symbolizes the releasing and dispersing of our positive intentions, remembrances and burdens of the heart,” she wrote.

At the conclusion of build week, but prior to the basket being set on fire, members of the public are invited to add their own touches to the collaborative installation. Community members may decorate the outside walls of the basket with remembrances of departed loved ones, add personal touches with embellishments, or tuck private sentiments inside the basket.

“The result is a personal, poetic, collaborative collage,” Muller wrote.

A second interactive art installation will be placed next to the basket — a circular ground path designed during build week by elementary students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Community members are welcome to add to this 18-year-tradition by decorating the path and enjoying a meditative walk.

The students’ build time on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 5-6, will also coincide with residents from the Homer Senior Center being bussed to Mariner Park to help with the project.

“(It’s) special to have the span of generation on-site to share creativity,” Muller wrote.

Muller also shared about the loss of a community member who had been involved with the project since its inception.

“The grandmother of Burning Basket, Florence Penrod, who has been providing many dozens of homemade cookies each year for the volunteers for the entire 20 years of the project, died at age 101,” she wrote. “She brought us cookies last year at age 100. We will miss her.”

Community drummers and a fire-spinning performance will accompany the basket burning on Sept. 8.

Burning Basket is a free, no-alcohol, no-dogs event. For more information, contact Muller at 907-299-1478 or find the event on Facebook.