Crowd expected for iron pour

The loss of higher-education foundry programs is the gain of Mesalands Community College's annual Iron Pour, now in its 22nd year this week.

Joel Kiser, a longtime member of the college's arts faculty, said many colleges and universities have shuttered their foundries because of their cost, a lack of space and its intensive maintenance.

As a result, Mesalands' Iron Pour continues to attract instructors and students from across a wide area, in addition to artists who lack facilities in their areas for creating artwork with molten metal.

"Their facilities can't handle anything on this scale," Kiser said Friday in front of a chalkboard that contained a to-do list before the event. "We've got one of the best academic foundries in the country, as over time a lot of art foundries are closing None of the other institutions can do what we do."

Kiser said the Iron Pour this week will draw participants from South Carolina, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Minnesota. It will bring in art professors from Clovis Community College, Highlands University, Eastern New Mexico University, Institute of the American Indian Arts, University of New Mexico and institutions from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The big event - the actual iron pour - is scheduled for noon Friday in Mesalands' Building D off 11th Street. Last year's iron pouring didn't start until 2 p.m. because it took awhile to heat the furnaces to the proper temperature. Kiser said this year he and other staffers will preheat the furnaces so they'll be ready at the appointed time.

"We want to rock 'n' roll when it's time to go," he said.

Kiser anticipates about 30 to 35 people will be at Building D all week to prepare for the Iron Pour, with about 60 attending the Friday iron pour.

In recent years, the Iron Pour had up to 50 people in the facility all week and about 100 at the iron pouring because of publicity from a feature in New Mexico Magazine.

Kiser said that time was "chaotic" for him and other faculty and volunteers - mostly because of the additional safety training required for the week. He said the current number he's expecting seems more manageable.

This year's Iron Pour is adding new wrinkles. Mesalands will have two co-supporting artists. One is Nathan Eyring of Albuquerque, a professional mold-maker; and Anthony Guntren of the University of Colorado, who specializes in ceramic-shell sculpture.

Fellow Mesalands arts faculty member Yousif Del Valle also performed research on different resin-bonded sands that would allow the embedding of metal supports in molds, thus leading to the creation of larger artwork.

The Iron Pour will continue to offer the public the chance to carve sand-block molds for $15 apiece that will be made into a small iron sculpture. The annual Meet the Artists also will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Kiser said he appreciates help from Mesalands volunteers from the student affairs office and wind energy program.

The Iron Pour also continues to accept donations of cast iron, including bathtubs and radiators, for the event. (Anyone locally with such items can call Kiser at 461-4413, Ext. 167 to make arrangements.) Kiser said communities from two to three hours from the Iron Pour also have offered scrap iron, including discarded sewer pipe.

"The word's getting out," he said. "It's wonderful."

Kiser said the event receives help in other ways. While shopping at a local retail store, someone offered a case of water for Iron Pour participants. Another resident also has donated about 10,000 pounds of fine sand from his property for the molds.

"The community comes out and supports us 100%," Kiser said.

Kiser said the annual event often includes Mesalands alumni.

"We only get to see those people once a year, and it's here," he said.

Del Valle said preparations for to this year's Iron Pour have been remarkably free of turbulence, mainly because "we learn from our mistakes."

"I think this will be one of the smoothest Iron Pours we've had," he said.