The Upper Agua Fria Watershed Partnership, consisting "of area stakeholders, residents of the various communities, ranchers, members of community groups and public service agencies in the study area" meets at Arcosanti every first Tuesday of the month.
The group met yesterday to conclude a three part series of meetings aimed at creating a vision statement and a mission statement for the organization, and to set goals for the future of the Partnership.
Member Kip Hersted, in attendance, remarked that all the objectives for the triad of meetings were accomplished. The meeting was professionally facilitated, funded by the Prescott National Forest.
Arcosanti residents and Partnership members Hersted and site coordinator Mary Hoadley have been instrumental in the group's development and progress since 1999.
There was a positive air in the Red Room on Tuesday morning, as various members of the Partnership came together to plan for the future of the Upper Agua Fria's precious water.

Welcome to Group Motion Dance workshop participants.

Group Motion Company is a professional dance theater ensemble of versatile artists, melding dance, theater, music and visual arts into a provocative and innovative performance experience.
The group from Philadelphia has held one-week workshops at Arcosanti, starting about 20 years ago.

Group Motion was originally founded in 1962 as Gruppe Motion Berlin, a chamber dance company evolving from the Mary Wigman School of Dance. In 1968, under the direction of Brigitta Herrmann, Helmut Gottschild, and Manfred Fischbeck, the company relocated to Philadelphia and was quick to receive critical success - making historic appearances at Judson Church in New York in 1968 and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in 1969 and joining the NEA touring program in the 1970s.
Group Motion came under the sole artistic and executive direction of Manfred Fischbeck in 1989 and has continued to develop within the forefront of contemporary dance, working with nationally and internationally known choreographers and artists and creating a substantial body of more than 45 dance theater pieces.
The company began a world-wide touring program in the mid-1990s and has since taken its repertory to France, Argentina, Japan, Germany, Cyprus, and Taiwan as well as to locations throughout the United States. Group Motion has also continually expanded its scope as a performing arts organization, with its performance series, workshops, and co-creation of the Kumquat Dance Center.

We continue our report from 7/30/08 on work in the Bronze Foundry.
After the melted bronze is poured into the snap-flask molds, it takes only minutes to cool back to its solid state. At this point, the bells are 'broken' out of their sand molds, given a quick hammer, and a flash of compressed air to clean off excess sand particles.

Then, these bells are tossed into metal cages to be taken down to the lower deck. Here, they are taken to the grinder where the edges are smoothed and sprus sawed off [to be melted again in subsequent pours].

Once the bells are 'cleaned up' a bit, a hole is drilled through the top of each bell. This makes it possible to attach the clapper and ft-links [which can comprise the hanging chain attachment off the tops of the bells].
This is otherwise known as the Assembly Process. Following this stage, the bells are given a patina - but, this can be explored next time ...