RESEARCH CENTER SCHOLAR LECTURE

This lecture examines the production of earth and silt-cast bronze and ceramic bells at Paolo Soleri’s radical architectural settlement, Arcosanti. Established in 1969 in the central Arizona desert, Arcosanti is a planned community of multi-use megastructures. Soleri coined the term arcology, a fusion of the words architecture and ecology, to describe his utopian vision for models of low-impact living. Elissa Auther’s lecture describes how the casting of ceramic bells directly in the desert soil in the mid-1950s at Soleri’s smaller settlement, Cosanti, led to his later application of silt and earth casting to create the unusual, organic-like structures at Arcosanti. Soleri also designed the Paolo Soleri Amphitheatre in Santa Fe.

ELISSA AUTHER, Assistant Professor, Visual and Performing Arts Dept., University of Colorado.

Education Annex, 123 Grant Avenue.
Reservations suggested: 505.946.1039.
$5; Members and Business Partners free.