Film Screening:
M.C. Richards: The Fire Within
Thursday, April 29th 7:00pm
Fine Arts Theatre, 36 Biltmore Ave.
$12 per person, advance tickets available
Followed by a Celebration of M.C. Richards' Life and Work at 56 Broadway, home of the black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.
The filmmakers will be present along with friends of M.C. from Black Mountain College and beyond.
"An inspiring film about a brilliant artist and teacher"
Arthur Penn, film and theater director & former BMC student
"This articulately perceptive film brings M.C. Richards close again, lets her make clear with all her unaggressive power that art is a gate, not a product, wisdom a source, not a judgment."
Robert Creeley, poet & former BMC faculty
"What M.C. Richards teaches isn't in the catalogues"
John Cage, composer & former BMC faculty
"It will change the way I work."
Mark Bell, potter
A new hour documentary "M.C. Richards: The Fire Within" is an adventure into discovering the source of our creativity told through the life of inspiring artist, teacher, and author, Mary Caroline Richards (1916-1999). Known for her underground classic Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person, M.C. was a central figure at Black Mountain College for many years, working alongside those who later became avant garde luminaries in the New York art scene: Robert Rauschenberg, Willem deKooning, Arthur Penn, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, David Tudor and others.
In the film, we see M.C. engaging in contemplative questioning regarding the nature of art, imagination, wholeness, community, and our place in the cosmos. She inspires us to live creatively, to believe in ourselves, to experience the sensuality of existence. The film, produced by Maine filmmakers Richard Kane and Melody Lewis-Kane, premiered in New York and Philadelphia on November 22 and 24, 2003. On Thursday, April 29th at 7:00pm it will have its first North Carolina screening at the Fine Arts Theatre, located at 36 Biltmore Ave. in Asheville.
In this thought provoking documentary, you hear from a cadre of her associates and followers as they carry on her important work of inspiring people to live creatively. The hour film features interviews with many renowned artists, poets, thinkers, and theologians including: Marjory Bankson, Paulus Berensohn, Julia Connor, Merce Cunningham, Adriana Diaz, Martin Duberman, Howard Evans, Matthew Fox, Gertrude Hughes, Karen Karnes. George Kokis, Judith Malina, Amy Evans McClure, Arthur Penn, and Robert Turner.
As the first English translator of THE THEATER AND ITS DOUBLE, by French actor/ playright/political activist Antonin Artaud, M.C. is credited by film director Arthur Penn and avant garde Living Theater co-founder Judith Malina, as being instrumental in changing the course of theater in America. M.C. was an important motivator in the New York avant garde scene in the early 50s when she lived in Stony Point, New York with composers John Cage and David Tudor, potters Karen Karnes and David Weinrib, and architect Paul Williams and children's author Vera Williams.
Considered one of the most influential art educators in America, the ideas of M.C. Richards and her seminal non-fiction work Centering have been chosen as the theme of next year's 2005 national conference of NCECA (National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts) to be held in Baltimore.
Books by M.C. Richards include:
Centering in Pttery, Poetry, and the Person (1962)
The Crossing Point (1973)
Toward Wholeness: Rudolph Steiner Education in America (1980)
Imagine Inventing Yellow (1991)
Opening Our Moral Eye (1996)
This program is sponsored by the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center with additional support from the Fine Arts Theatre, Highwater Clays, and Penland School of Crafts.
M.C. Richards: The Fire Within was produced with support from the following: Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Chester Springs Studio, Pennsylvania Humanities Council, North Carolina Humanities Council, Rudolf Steiner Foundation, Rudolf Steiner Institute, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Inc., and many individual donors.
The Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center preserves and continues the unique legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College for public study and enjoyment. We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibition, publication, and public programs.
