More images have arrived and we could keep up this report for another couple of weeks, but, this is the last sequence of the 90th birthday party-Alumni Reunion event report.
James Horecka sent other terrific images and this came in this morning, showing the AVALANCHE BAR mixer, location under the pool, occasion the inauguration of the pool bracing project [more on this project upcoming]. This image was taken on Friday, June 19. 2009.
And here is a link to James Horecka flickr presentation of his visit for the birthday event.
James: "Optimized for monitors with aspect ratios of 4:3 (mine is 1600x1200), in a darkened room".

And Laura Powers sent a whole sequence of Russel Ferguson with Bergen Carlson-Price, son of Tom Price, on Friday afternoon, doing what Russel did a lot of over the years here at Arcosanti, building a rock wall, this one at the pool-bracing project.

The Saturday evening event closed in the Colly Soleri amphitheater. After the amazing FLAM CHEN performance, everyone drifted back into the amphitheater for the unveiling of the DREAM CAPSULE, presented by THE MAGPIE COLLECTIVE.

Alumna Melinda Barnadas brought collaborator's Tae Hwang and Chad Nielson from the Magpie Collective, and set up studio in the café. The project was for everyone's participation, to record individual vision for the future and have this recording, writing, drawing, put into a balloon. The balloons were inflated and put into a huge capsule, with small LED lights at the bottom and some quietly tinkling bells attached. And at the end of the evening of this amazing birthday celebration, a group of ‘handlers’ brought the glowing and tinkling dream capsule into the amphitheater and walked it from level to level, a sweet and calm closure to the days events that brought a big smile to everyone’s face.

This continues the photo report of the June 20. 2009 FLAM CHEN performance for Paolo Soleri's 90th Birthday party.
Many beautiful images were submitted and we could only choose a few.
Thank you again for the contribution of amazing images, Alfonso Elia, Tomiaki Tamura, James Horecka, Stu Jenks and Daniel Anderson.

[photo: the moment before bungee jumping from the top of the Vaults, right into the birthday party]

The photos speak for themselves.

Some very poignant and touching tributes were given to Paolo during the evening. One such was made by Ira Murfin.
Alumnus Ira Murfin, author, playright, actor and director, worked with Paolo Soleri for several years as Paolo's editor.

"The first time I saw Paolo was at a Morning Meeting the first or second day of my workshop. That particular gathering was marked by the presence of a live rattlesnake, trapped in the five-gallon bucket used for relocation to the desert. Those here who have put in their time at Morning Meeting know that such show and tell is not unusual.
We all gathered around – not too close, we stayed back several feet, peered in cautiously, and saw the snake coiled and resting at the bottom, small in his five-gallon prison. It was then Paolo, unmistakable to me even at first sighting in his sleeveless t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, walked by, when someone called out to him.
Without a hiccup in his gait, he turned toward the bucket and approached it, stood with exposed toes against the base and leaned his head down nearly to the rim. Unperturbed, with a look of curiosity and mild amusement, he tapped two fingers against the bucket’s side, twice, hard, as if trying to stir the inhabitant.
Everyone around him gasped, tensed, whispered careful, but Paolo stayed still, smiling down. No response. He shrugged, and shuffled on to the bakery as Morning Meeting continued as usual.

I keep returning to this story of course because the first time you see someone who will become so central in your thinking and your life always becomes a memorable occasion, but also because I think there is something metaphorically quite appropriate about this tableau and it is not only Paolo’s bravery in his approach – there are two things about it that remind me who Paolo is, what he’s done, and how he’s done it. First, it is that willful tap on the bucket, that jolt, and then there is the patient equanimity of his response.
Arcosanti has proved an effective and comfortable container for many of us. But our contentment alone is not what Paolo is after, as instigator he subjects life inside the laboratory to regular jolts of intellectual agitation. To live at Arcosanti is to engage in challenging daily inquiry into life’s organization, and life here within the project is no less subject to such challenge than life elsewhere. Paolo resists the temptation of trendy and reductive labels. Instead of “green”, he opts for “lean”. He is not being obstinate, rather accurate. Arcosanti is an urban laboratory, decidedly urban and decidedly a site for experimentation.

Paolo insists on specific language, he resists complacency and sentimentality when it comes to his accomplishments. If power consolidation were his goal, it would behoove him to simplify his message and fortify his theory against challenge by imposing on it a theological orthodoxy. But that is not his goal. His goal remains to consider the city, and indeed life and then reality, as a whole, a system. Paolo is not interested in making his work current or saleable, he is interested in making work that is, like all great cities and indeed all great projects, radical and in constant evolution.
In this Paolo stands also as an example of the power of quiet routine, of commitment in the long term, patience, and the practice of incrementally working through. To me this is Paolo, a true iconoclast, radical, revolutionary, but at the same time the most measured of men, living a life he himself has compared to the monastic, writing, rewriting, and writing again, approaching and re-approaching key words and ideas, drawing, carving, building, shapes and patterns repeating, working through.

We look at the arcology designs and see a radical novelty, the world as it could be. And we want Arcosanti built now, yesterday. We are impatient for the next implementation of arcology theory and the next. But one of the many gifts of working with Paolo on a daily basis for the couple of years I was privileged to do so was to witness such intricate design, such ontologically significant theory emerge from the steady determination of measured daily practice. Perhaps more than any human being I can think of, Paolo embodies this balance between the small, pragmatic tasks of the immediate and the evolutionary accrual of self-awareness. Rarely, if ever, does Paolo lose sight of one in favor of the other, and this has been a source of consternation for partisans of both approaches.

Nonetheless, when tonight’s festivities are through, Paolo will head off to bed, rise early on the morning of his 90th birthday as any day. There are some events to attend to tomorrow, but he will most certainly set aside a bit of time to put down some thoughts, as he would say, about the weekend, or the nature of reality, a new urgent variation on lifelong themes.

What I hope comes through for you in all this, Paolo, is the importance of the role you, both your work and your life, have played in the lives and thinking of so many people, those here tonight, the thousands more who have spent some weeks and months here and at Cosanti over the last half century, and the many, many, many more who have brushed against your writings, your designs, your buildings in one way or another and have found it changed their lives.

Arcosanti affects the life and work of so many more people than we see or know – it has entered the culture, it is irreversibly part of our understanding of the possibilities for the city and our understanding of human potential.
This is what we are here to celebrate, your prototype of life and its container, this example you’ve built and this example that you are, and the fact that, despite the measure of your accomplishments, you persist in regularly delivering new deliberate pragmatic and philosophical jolts to us all.

Thank you & happy birthday, Paolo!"

For many years the FLAM CHEN group visits Arcosanti during the summer [see posting of July 29. 2005], and always brings new and exciting performances of extreme theatre, new circus tactics, martial arts weaponry, all set in a medium of fire.

This year the group was accompanied by the ODAIKO SONORA drummers, and delivered an absolutely stunning and totally amazing event, starting with a group of dancers in the amphitheater ....

... after which the audience moved to the front of the music center to behold three of the dancers, the Three Graces, suspended from the crane above the pool ....


.... and above TRISTAN'S GARDEN, the pool shoring project.

There are so many gorgeous photos this year that we will stretch the report for a couple more postings.

Thank you so much, Daniel, James and Alfonso, for contributing these amazing shots.
More tomorrow, Friday, June 26. 2009.

This past week-end, Paolo Soleri celebrated his 90th birthday and about 300 alumni and guests came for the occasion. The official schedule started on June 19. and this first day was entirely devoted to alumni. There were ongoing events, Kundalini Yoga, a morning bell-carving workshop in the Ceramics Apse, an ongoing Silent Auction in the Gallery.
The Red Room hosted an exhibition with the newest renderings of CRITICAL MASS, future plans for Arcosanti. These same images were presented by the Arcosanti Planning Department on Friday morning.
The presentation lead to lots of questions and discussion, which continued in a fundraising meeting in the afternoon in the Colly Soleri Amphitheater.
There was a tour of the Soleri Archives and the beginning of an Oral History project in the archives.
Meanwhile the kids were entertained in the recreation room and the café was teeming with preparation for a huge dinner in the minds garden.
And all over the site people were visiting with each other, running into familiar faces from years ago and everywhere giggles and laughter and delighted exclamation.
Late afternoon everyone met for a mixer at the Avalanche Bar, located under the pool. Hors D’ oeuvres were served and introductions made of TRISTAN’S GARDEN, the shoring project of the pool, that Paolo Soleri and Dave Tollas are involved in.
After dinner there were visual presentations in the amphitheater, by alum of their time here or of projects that they are involved in now. The Vaults hosted a steamy techno party with lots of dancing, while the stage in the Ceramics Apse had spontaneous performances by a variety of talents.
The birthday celebration for Paolo started on Saturday with a gargantuan FRUGAL SOUP in the Vaults, gargantuan in the amount of people that attended.
[photos are of Frugal Soup and Dinner in the Vaults on Saturday, June 20. 2009]

The afternoon was devoted to alumni networking, also with a meeting with Paolo and his editor Lissa McCullough about a new book, not yet published, ESSENTIAL PAOLO SOLERI – Architecture in Quest of Coherence.
In the late afternoon everyone came together in the amphitheater for a social mixer.
A delicious dinner was served in the Vaults, with pre-dinner entertainment of a dancing duo, and a mid-dinner surprise of alum Russ Adams donation of the Paula Wittner painting, that was lost for 20 years and was discovered just recently, given to Paolo as a birthday present.
And there was a beautiful chocolate cake, very nicely decorated and served with raspberry sauce, very yummy.
[group photo taken by James Horecka, AIA, Architect on Saturday evening, June 20. 2009].


After dinner alum Jeff Stein hosted a tribute to Paolo Soleri in the amphitheater. Special Guests delivered very poignant and touching words for the occasion. We hope to have some of the text or footage in the near future.
Documentary film maker Geoffrey Madeja presented a short version of a video about Paolo and Tomiaki Tamura followed with a visual presentation Paolo’s life and work, and a pictograph especially choreographed for Paolo.

And then …. Flam Chen, oh my. Report continues on 6/26/09.

[photo of Pictograph "Quaderno 9" performance]

To talk about even a fraction of this weekends incredible amount of activities is beyond this reporters ability today. It was a beautiful reunion, participants from as far back as the early 1960's to the present visited, celebrated and talked a 'mile a minute'. It was an incredible weekend and an absolutely gorgeous 90th birthday celebration for Paolo.
The crew here worked so very hard to make the weekend a success and they succeeded in every way. Huge meals were provided with seemingly effortless grace, events were poignant and well organized and absolutely beautiful.
It was a visual and intellectual feast and we are stunned into silence and 'Thank You'.

More to come …

[image is of Friday, June 19. 2009 morning meeting of the alumni reunion, when only a fraction of the alum had arrived].

The alumni reunion for Paolo Soleri's 90th birthday party is in full swing.

Here are just a few snaps, more to follow.

We continue our report from 6/16 about last week-ends Juneteenth festival.
Sunday's schedule started with Cannonfire Ensemble with a beautiful set of pieces. Cannonfire musicians are Cal McCarthy, guitar, Randi Carter, drums, Ray Carter, bass Al Sarco, piano and event organizer Milt Cannon, saxophone.

Sunday afternoon continued wih a surprise performance by The Raft. Leo Starwind, guitar – vocals, Raven Wildchild, bass, Michael Combs, drums, and Mike Stewart, video game controller-djembe.

And last, but not least, photos of reggae group "Henry Turner Jr. and Flavour". The group has been part of this festival since it's beginning. Henry Turner Jr., guitar, Ronnie, drums, James Turner, bass and djembe, and Challa, keyboard. They opened this years event and closed on Sunday with the traditional "Limbo" jam. And they brought out lots of enthusiastic dancing feet on Saturday nights party in the Vaults.

The annual JUNETEENTH Celebration is a favorite event at the Arcosanti site. This is a two-day festival of music and art and delicious food, and it excelled this year with a lively, warm and mellow atmosphere.

For a little bit of back-ground, the festival commemorates the time in the beginning of June [the teenth of June], when most slaves first heard about President Lincoln's 1863 declaration of freedom.
And it symbolizes the joy of a call to freedom, and the responsibility to assist in developing a more inclusive and equitable society. The arts in general, and in this case specifically, African-American arts, are one of the most compelling sources for passing this message on. [photo: Cannon Fire Ensemble]

This annual event has been a musical highlight for many years and this year again, event organizer Milt Cannon put together a line-up of very talented musicians. Milt Cannon leads the Prescott Jazz Society PJAZZ and has conceived and organized JUNETEENTH at Arcosanti for the past 11 years.
The line-up on Saturday afternoon, June 13., started with a set by
reggae band from Louisiana, Henry Turner Jr. and Flavor,
Cannon Fire Ensemble with Cal McCarthy, guitar, Randi Carter, drums, Ray Carter, bass, Al Sarco, piano and with Milt Cannon, saxophone.
The wonderful voice of Karen Hunter. [photo: Karen Hunter with Cannon Fire Ensemble]

Henry of Henry Turner Jr. and Flavor joined the café staff and like last year, cooked a delicious dinner of soul-food [fried catfish, rice and beans, fried cornbread, collared greens].

There were lots of vendors with Art and Crafts. Husain Abdul-Alim of Spiritwood has been part of this festival every year with his beautiful hand carved wooden masks and a great selection of hand made jewelry, hats, eclectic clothing, incense and more.
Creations by Sylvia offered bags, shirts and T-shirts,
there was the creative art of Ayandè,
Mike and Darlene Little with Small World Trading Company brought handcrafted art from Africa,
artisan Karen Hammer of 'Crimson Fairy' offered jewelry, stained glass, leather and beyond,
ASIS Massage School was present with several massage tables and chairs and gave wonderful massages.
And 'Restaurant 28' from Glendale, AZ, brought super yummy North Caroline Style Soul Food Cuisine, very tasty ribs. And Arcosanti's own Arco Baba served Falafel and grilled cheese sandwiches.

This report continues on 6/17/09.

[photos from upper left: Booth of Husain Abdul-Alim of Spiritwood, Arco Baba's palace, booth of Ayandè and the booth of Small World Trading Company]

This is the 11th year that Arcosanti hosts the annual JUNETEENTH Festival.
Preparation activities are buzzing across the Arcosanti site. All of the crew got together to put up a large parashute to shade the amphitheater.

We welcome back event organizer Milt Cannon of the Prescott Jazz Society pjazz, who for the last eleven years has always put together a line-up of talented musicians.
This years theme "1964 Emancipation – 2009 Inauguration" and the festival offers live jazz, blues, reggae and gospel music, plus vendors with arts and crafts.
There is also a beautiful pool for swimming.

Featured are Louisiana's Henry Turner & Flavour, Prescott's own Canon Fire Ensemble and Lady 'J' Huston from Las Vegas.
Festival hours are Saturday, June 13. 2009 from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm and Sunday, June 14. 2009 from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm.
Admission is $10/day for adults, $5/day for teens and VIP passes are $25/day. For more information call the Prescott Jazz Society at [928] 237-7908 or visit pjazz.


This is totally off the subject, but should be mentioned:
You can see in the lower left photo a film crew from FICTION FACTORY, 1–2 SGWÂR MOUNT STUART, BAE CAERDYDD, WALES helping to put up the parashute.
The crew visited Arcosanti for two days, interviewed Paolo and filmed for an interesting project:
The project is a six part Welsh language documentary on recent Welsh history, told from an international context, and with each episode focusing on a different topic. The topic of the episode for which we are filming with you is “Being Green”. Wales has been something of a haven for the green movement since the seventies – John Seymour, the father of the self-sufficiency movement moved to a smallholding in South Wales in the seventies, and proceeded to pen the bible of the movement, ‘The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency’ while living here. Wales is also home to the largest centre for alternative technology in Europe, so it is a topic very close to our hearts, and there is often conflict between our ecology and our economy when it comes to the planners’ decisions.
The reason we have arranged to travel to Arcosanti to film is because Paolo Soleri has taken even bigger and braver steps to build a concept for a sustainable future, and has been very much ahead of his time doing so. We want to compare his efforts to the efforts of figure-heads of the movement in Wales, but equally we would like to compare the skepticism Mr Soleri has faced in America with the adverse reaction certain parties in Wales have expressed to the movement. Besides this, Arcosanti is architecturally stunning and the landscape you inhabit has a far grander scale than we do in Wales, so this will add another layer of texture to a varied programme.

Here are some of the Arcosanti residents, staff, volunteers and workshop participants. This photo was taken on June 3. 2009.

[upper row from left]:
Carrie Krueger [guest services], Darina Trendafilova [archives – café volunteer], Dan Weeden [maintenance], Brent Scott [landscaping volunteer], Peter Lindgren [café], Silvia Motori [visitor], Vittorio Leone [work-study scholarship], Rocio Montefiori [workshop participant, archives], Frédérick Michaud [graphics intern], Justin Harris [volunteer agriculture, utilities, archives], Travis Neal [construction volunteer], Robert Graddy [workshop participant, construction], Scott Riley [utilities manager], Taylor Scott [foundry], Valentina Lucherini [graphics volunteer], Andrew Woodard [construction], Erin O’Rourke [agriculture volunteer], and Kyle Engpian [construction-maintenance].

[middle row from left]:
Andy Chao [foundry], Colleen Reckow [ceramics], Laurence Chave [graphics intern], Matthew Blunderfield [workshop participant – landscaping], Brian Fritz [landscaping], Julie-Ann Ketchum [maintenance volunteer], Daniel Anderson [graphics volunteer], Induja Lakshmi [planning intern], Tanner White [work-study scholarship], Ricardo Campanella [workshop – construction, planning intern], Kwun Sau Chiu [workshop – maintenance, archive intern], Maria Cabrera [workshop – construction] and Sue Anaya [archives].

[lower middle row from left]:
Gen Yamamura [construction volunteer], Ron Chandler [landscaping], Jeff Buderer [construction], Rick Peterson [construction volunteer], Erica Bazzini [workshop – construction, planning intern], and Alfonso Elia [graphics].

[front row from left]:
Charlie Wicker, Tristan Tollas, Dave Tollas [construction], Murray Natkie [AIS], Paolo Soleri, baby Sasha Tollas and Nadia Begin-Tollas, Matteo Di Michele [Human Resources and Italian Project], Erin Jeffries [Public Relations], Youngsoo Kim [graphics-planning], Directors Mary Hoadley and Tomiaki Tamura.

Alumna Paula Wittner paintings are on exhibition at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa Arizona until August 9. 2009.

The exhibition is PARALLEL UNIVERSE.

The official opening is this coming Friday, June 12. 2009, from 7 pm to 9 pm.


Exhibition brochure:
Influenced by classical art, Arizona artist Paula Wittner uses humor and whimsy in her paintings to reference moments and characters in her life.
This body of work embodies the time she spent with her parents at the end of their lives and interprets universal themes like family, aging and death.

Paula Wittner:
I have always loved paintings, having seen them from an early age as a frequent visitor to The National Gallery of Art. At the outset of my career, my most immediate inspiration came from the painters of the Italian Renaissance. Combining that with childhood memories and my love of the Arizona landscape, I paint to entertain myself and others. I paint to illuminate our shared experience, and to hopefully add beauty to the world.

Other Solo Exhibitions:
2009 Mesa Center for the Arts, Mesa AZ
2005 Borderline Gallery, Patagonia, AZ
2004 Borderline Gallery, Patagonia, AZ
2002 Temple of Music & Art, Tucson, AZ
2002 Performance Art, Colly Soleri Music Center, Cordes Junction, AZ
1998 Union Gallery, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
1995 New Directions Gallery, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ
1993 Rancho Linda Vista Gallery, Oracle, AZ
1992 Rancho Linda Vista Gallery, Oracle, AZ
1987 Modestino Gallery, Cambridge, MA
1981 Cafe at Arcosanti, Cordes Junction, AZ
1978 Cafe at Arcosanti, Cordes Junction, AZ

Group Exhibitions:
2007 “Figuratively speaking”, Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ Group Exhibitions
2007 “Figuratively speaking”, Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2005 "Wherefore ART Thou?", Temple Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2003 "Chess In The Schools Gala Auction", Pan Am Bldg., N.Y., NY
2003 "Wittner & Bodnarchuk", Borderline Gallery, Patagonia, AZ
2002 “ready….set.. D’ART”, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
2000 Gallery of Heart, Tucson, AZ
1998 "Hindsight", Joseph Gross Gallery, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
1996 Alumni 12 x 12 Traveling Show, Rhode Island School of Design
(Providence, RI, Boca Raton, FL, San Francisco, CA, Philadelphia, PA)
1996 Life Through Art Auction, Doubletree Inn, Tucson, AZ
1995 Life Through Art Auction, Lowes Ventana Canyon Resort, Tucson, AZ
1995 "Arizona Biennial", Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
1995 "Earth Angels", Mother's Day Show, Rancho Linda Vista Gallery, Oracle, AZ
1995 "Dada and Momma", Men's Club, Tucson, AZ Group Exhibitions
1994 Mars Art Space, Phoenix, AZ 1994 "Of Angels & The Earth",
Tucson Jewish Community Center, Tucson, AZ
1994 "Far Out West Show", Congress Hotel, Tucson, AZ
1993 Life Through Art Auction, Temple of Music & Art, Tucson, AZ
1993 "Arizona Biennial", Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
1992 Life Through Art Auction, Temple of Music & Art, Tucson, AZ
1991 "Fine Art for Fine Causes", Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
1986 "Arizona Biennial", Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
1982 Unitarian Universalist Church, Tucson, AZ
1980 "Arizona Biennial", Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
1975 "Women Arizona '75", Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
1974 Janet Fleischer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Colloquium:
2006 “It’s Only Natural” Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO

Commissions:
1996 Book Cover, Same Blue Chevy by Gale Renee Walden,
The Chucha Press, Chicago Library Congress Catalog #96-60118
1986 Record Jacket, Faraway, Scott & Louisa Wise, Freemantle, Australia
1978 Oil painting, "Fellowship", Russell Adams, San Francisco, CA

Awards:
1994 Arizona Artists Material Fund Grant (Contemporary Forum, Phoenix Art Museum)

Collections:
Streich Lang Corp.
Scottsdale Center for the Arts
Scottsdale Museum of Art

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Today, we continue with a report on the landscaping of Arcosanti's new Visitor's Entrance.
The workshop participants helped with the project that teaches about use of local materials. Rocks from the surrounding desert were carefully selected and arranged, in order to form a protective drainage edge along the concrete paths.

Here, you see the result of this effort and also the blend between man-made and nature.

In this photo, our Landscaping Coordinator, Ron Cnahdler, has begun work on a retaining rock wall that will be used as a planter as well.

Finish work for the new Visitor's Center Entrance of Arcosanti continues.
Today's report shows the construction of handrails along the recently poured staircase (see reports from months of May and April, 2009).
Brent Scott, one of Arcosanti's metal-work crew-leaders , and Ron Chandler, Landscaping department coordinator, started the project by erecting the vertical posts for the handrail.
In the right-side photo, with a grinder in hand, Brent is cutting the post in order to adjust its height.

Here, you see Brent welding the pieces of round tube that form the handrail.

The work on Arcosanti's new Visitor's Entrance is nearly complete. We will continue with a report on the final touches of landscaping along the pathways.

On May 15. 2009, archive volunteer Darina Trendafilova took an early morning photo of a small motorized glider buzzing around the Arcosanti site.

This turned out to be Ernie Silva from Sedona, who visited later and graciously shared with us the photos he took that morning of the Arcosanti site.

This photo has a clear view of the new visitors entrance parking lot and the ramp for handicapped visitors.

Mr. Ernie Silva, THANK YOU very much for your kindness.