September 3, 2026
for immediate release
Kira Houston, Outreach Manager
828.350.8484 | kira@blackmountaincollege.org
A. Lawrence Kocher, Plans for the Studies Building, c. 1937. Architectural blueprint.
Collection of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.
Imaginary Landscapes: Black Mountain College Architecture and Design
September 25, 2026 – January 9, 2027
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
EXHIBITION
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.
VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
The exhibition will include Black Mountain College artists including Josef Albers, Hazel Larsen Archer, Ruth Asawa, Robert Bliss, Buckminster Fuller, Trude Guermonprez, Karen Karnes, Lawrence Kocher, Alvin Lustig, Dorothea Rockburne, Mim Sihvonen, Sewell Sillman, Peter Voulkos, and more. To create an immersive atmosphere, the exhibition will feature a reconstruction of a student study room from the historic BMC Studies Building, which visitors can interact with, alongside a recreated scale architectural model of the original building plan by Kocher and a large scale Geodesic dome modeled after Buckminster Fuller’s 1949 dome at BMC. These elements will allow visitors to step into BMC history, from physical structures to conceptual frameworks.
CONTEMPORARY CONNECTIONS
Imaginary Landscapes will feature an installation by contemporary artist Olafur Eliasson, whose large scale sculptures and site specific installations employ natural elements like light, water, and air temperature to create visual experiences and immersive environments that challenge our understanding of perception. The exhibition will also include work by contemporary artist and former BMC Active Archive Artist Resident Beatriz Monteavaro and an installation entitled Konami Dream, part of the expansive alternate reality project Eternal September created by William Brittelle, Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, Brown University students Is Ali, Cassius Hall, and Luca Suarez, and guest artists Phong Tran, Rohan Chander, and Andrew Garman.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
ReVIEWING 16: Black Mountain College International Conference
October 2 – 4, 2026 | International Conference | Co-hosted by BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville
The annual ReVIEWING Black Mountain College conference is a forum for scholars and artists to contribute original work on topics related to Black Mountain College and its place in cultural history. This year’s three-day program, open to the public, celebrates the opening of the museum’s exhibition Imaginary Landscapes: Black Mountain College Architecture and Design.
With presentations focused on figures like Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Charles Olson, and more, the 16th Annual ReVIEWING BMC Conference will feature more than 70 scholars, artists, and multidisciplinary researchers throughout the weekend. Highlights include a series of panels celebrating the centenary of the poet Robert Creeley; archival explorations into the history and future of the iconic Black Mountain College Studies Building; and a hands-on workshop with Fritz Horstman exploring the interaction of color. The conference is located at the UNC Asheville Reuter Center, with excursions to BMCM+AC and the historic Lake Eden campus.
More about the ReVIEWING Conference: https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/reviewing
ABOUT BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
Founded in 1933, Black Mountain College was one of the leading experimental liberal art schools in America until its closure in 1957. After the Bauhaus in Germany closed due to mounting antagonism from the Nazi Party, Josef and Anni Albers readily accepted an offer to join the Black Mountain College faculty. During their 16-year tenure in North Carolina, the Alberses helped model the college’s interdisciplinary curriculum on that of the Bauhaus, attracting an unmatched roster of teachers and students including R. Buckminster Fuller, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Mary Caroline (M.C.) Richards, Ruth Asawa, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) was founded in 1993 to celebrate the history of Black Mountain College as a forerunner in progressive interdisciplinary education and to celebrate its extraordinary impact on modern and contemporary art, dance, theater, music, and performance.
The Museum is committed to educating the public about the history of Black Mountain College and promoting awareness of its extensive legacy through exhibitions, publications, lectures, films, seminars, and oral histories. Through our permanent collection, special exhibitions, publications, and research archive, we provide access to historical materials related to the College and its influence on the field.
BMCM+AC provides a forum for multifaceted programming in a dynamic environment in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Our goal is to provide a gathering point for people from a variety of backgrounds to interact – integrating art, ideas, and discourse.
More about BMCM+AC: blackmountaincollege.org