Imaginary Landscapes: Black Mountain College Architecture and Design

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

September 25, 2026 – January 9, 2027

Pictured: Wooden Plates by Miriam (Mim) Sihvonen, c. 1948. Desk for Black Mountain College Students designed by Josef Albers, c. 1939; Conversation Chair, stool, and side table designed by A. Lawrence Kocher, c. 1942; Studies Building: Summer 1950 by Jacqueline Gourevitch, 1995.

This exhibition traces the far-reaching impact of Black Mountain College’s design philosophy deeply influenced by Bauhaus ideals across disciplines and generations. It will explore how experimental approaches to materials, pedagogy, and collective living reshaped not only how things were made, but how artists, architects, and thinkers understood the relationship between form and function, people and place, and imagination and environment.

At its core, the exhibition asks: How do creative ideas take root in specific places? In turn, how do those places shape the evolution of those ideas? Through these questions, the exhibition will highlight Black Mountain College as both a physical site and a generative force: a place where radical design, interdisciplinary learning, and collaborative experimentation transformed modern art and architecture and continue to inspire new ways of thinking today.

Imaginary Landscapes is organized by Jeff Arnal, Alice Sebrell, Michael Beggs, Tyler Housholder, and Frédérique Davreux-Hébert, a curatorial fellow made possible through the generous support of the Lyle Bongé Fund, established by the Dusti Bongé Art Foundation.

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