Yucca Valley Material Lab Launches Public Phase of $1.5 Million Campaign for Creative Access

With more than $1.2 million raised, YVML seeks the final $285,000 to build an accessible adobe arts facility in California's Mojave Desert.

YUCCA VALLEY, Calif., Aug. 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Yucca Valley Material Lab (YVML) has launched the public phase of its $1.5 million Campaign for Creative Access, a capital and endowment campaign to establish a permanent, accessible home for the nonprofit arts organization in California's Mojave Desert.

YVML has already raised more than $1.2 million—over 80 percent of its goal—through early support from individuals, foundations, and partners. The organization is now inviting the broader community to help raise the remaining approximately $285,000.

"For nearly two years, I have been quietly asking people to believe in something that did not yet exist," said Heidi Schwegler, Founding Director of YVML. "We now have architectural plans, a functioning community adobe brickyard, major accessibility improvements underway, and a clear path toward construction. We are ready to invite our wider community to help us finish it."

At the center of the campaign is a new approximately 1,700-square-foot Sustainable Studio, a fully ADA-accessible, all-electric adobe building designed by Terrain. Constructed with locally sourced soils, high-thermal-mass adobe walls and passive cooling strategies, the facility is designed specifically for the environmental realities of the Mojave Desert.

The studio is projected to use approximately 67 percent less annual energy than a conventional code-minimum building and reduce operational carbon emissions by approximately 75 percent. In June, YVML received a $100,000 Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Implementation Grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation to support the project.

For YVML, the building itself is also curriculum. Adobe bricks are being made on site by hand from local earth, creating opportunities for artists, students, and community members to learn through the construction process.

"We aren't simply creating more space for our programs," Schwegler said. "We are asking what an arts facility in the Mojave Desert should be and what it can teach us."

Accessibility is central to the expansion. YVML also received a $40,000 grant from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation in 2026 to support ADA improvements to its existing artist residence and studio and the acquisition of adaptive tools.

Founded in 2019, YVML has served more than 1,000 students, provided residencies to more than 60 artists, writers, and musicians, and awarded 49 scholarships. The new campus will expand year-round workshops, residencies, youth programs, research, workforce training, exhibitions, performances, and public events.

A portion of campaign gifts will also build YVML's endowment, supporting artists, scholarships, accessible programming, and long-term operations.

Learn more at campaign.yvml.org.

About Yucca Valley Material Lab
Yucca Valley Material Lab is an artist-founded 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization dedicated to hands-on making, material exploration, and meaningful exchange in California's Mojave Desert. Learn more at yvml.org.

Media Contact:
Heidi Schwegler, Founding Director
[email protected]
(760) 209-6368

SOURCE Yucca Valley Material Lab