TALK: COMMUNITY AND INFINITY IN THE ART OF JOHN BIGGERS AND DANIEL MINTER

October 14, 2021 | UNC Asheville + Zoom – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. This presentation by Rachel Elizabeth Harding explores thematic parallels in the work of painters John Biggers (1924-2001) and Daniel Minter (1961). Separated by more than a generation, and each with his own unique professional trajectory, these creative artists share Southern roots, diasporic visions, and sensibilities grounded in both the materiality and the mysticism of African American life.

TALK: ART + RELIGION IN THE 21st CENTURY

October 13, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} + Zoom – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. It is time to set aside old assumptions about the antagonism between art and religion and look again with fresh eyes. In this lecture, Aaron Rosen, a leading scholar on religion and contemporary art as well as a practicing curator and critic, explores some of the key ways in which artists today are reframing how we think about religion and spirituality and driving new approaches to ethical issues including climate care and racial justice.

PERFORMANCE: DUET FOR THEREMIN AND LAP STEEL

September 30, 2021 | Streaming – Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel is Scott Burland (Theremin) and Frank Schultz (Lap Steel guitar). Burland and Schultz bring their mesmerizing duet to BMCM+AC for a live recorded session in the gallery. Presented in conjunction with the Fall 2021 exhibition Don’t Blame it on ZEN: The Way of John Cage & Friends.

PERFORMANCE: KATHERINE YOUNG / TIM DAISY DUO

September 2, 2021 | Streaming – Chicago-based percussionist Tim Daisy and bassoonist, improviser, and composer Katherine Young (a recent Atlanta, GA transplant) bring their two-decades-long collaborative experience to the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center for a live recording of improvised duets. Investigating a wide array of sonic territory from laser-focused pointillism to extremes in density and texture, Katherine and Tim aim to use the art of listening combined with their shared performative experience to create a unique blend of sound-making, taking full advantage of the unique instrumentation involved.

BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST NOSTALGIANOID

August 27, 2021 | 103.3 Asheville FM – Each month, a BMC Radio Artist’s work will be featured in various programs on Asheville FM with an exclusive interview kicking off their featured month. At the completion of the broadcasts, a culminating listening session will be held at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center to celebrate the work of the five radio artists: Mike Holmes (Nostalgianoid), Thom Nguyen, Cilla Vee, Zazie Productions, and Michael Hatch. Presented in collaboration with Asheville FM and Make Noise.

PERFORMANCE: CHRISTOPHER-RASHEEM MCMILLAN

August 19, 2021 | Streaming – “The Long Way Home,” a new solo work by Christopher-Rasheem Mcmillan, poses a way of contending with the Black body as a composite body, one that is connected to, affirms, and disrupts the archive and Historiography. Through this solo dance performance, McMillan tracks the Merce Cunningham technique through diaspora, emphasizing that the diaspora is never the homeland: it’s never home, it’s always somehow both exile in migration and in travel; different from, yet somehow always in dialogue with, its genesis.

CALL FOR ARTISTS: BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE RADIO ART

103.3 Asheville FM, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, and Make Noise announce an opportunity for artists living in Western North Carolina (WNC) to create new short works for broadcast on the radio. We invite artists in WNC to propose projects that reflect the experimental and innovative spirit of Black Mountain College. Artists are encouraged to take risks. Projects should be between 3-5 minutes long and no more than 12 months old. New work is strongly encouraged. The work does not have to be music. Projects can include any sound recording, cellphone recording, field recording, meditation, movement score, text score, sound collage, spoken word, audio art, experimental DJ work, etc.. The LOI deadline is July 20, 2022.

BMC-TV: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY ART EVENT

August 5, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} + Streaming – A Happening meets variety show, this premiere episode of BMC-TV connects a wide range of the Asheville area’s most innovative performers, musicians, artists, and craftspeople. For over 25 years, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) has bridged the history of Black Mountain College with its lasting legacy in Western North Carolina and beyond. Broadcast from the stages, studios, and streets of Asheville, BMC-TV brings together our friends and collaborators who stoke the flames of experimentation sparked at BMC.

PERSPECTIVES: SOUTHERN EQUALITY STUDIOS

June 16, 2021 | Streaming – A conversation with artists Liz Williams and Al Murray of Southern Equality Studios, a program of the Campaign for Southern Equality. A layered installation by SES was featured in our exhibition I AM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. The works “You’re Welcome” and “Building a Better Table” invite participants to consider their role in creating a more equitable world, holding space for the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.

LISTENING SESSION: 2021 Black Mountain College Radio Artists

December 16, 2021 at 7PM | BMCM+AC – The 2021 Black Mountain College Radio Artists have been selected by BMCM+AC, AshevilleFM, and Make Noise for a series of innovative works for the radio inspired by the experimental spirit of BMC artists. This year’s artists are based in Western North Carolina, with a focus on pushing the limitations of sound art, music, and performance.

PERSPECTIVES: SHERRILL ROLAND

July 14, 2021 | Streaming – A conversation with Sherrill Roland, featured artist in the exhibition I AM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD, on his installation “After the Wake Up” (2017 – present). Roland is an artist based in Raleigh, NC, well known for The Jumpsuit Project, an ongoing work developed during his MFA at UNC Greensboro and inspired by his experiences with the justice system following a wrongful conviction and incarceration. In this conversation, we will discuss how “After the Wake Up” fits within the artist’s larger body of work and what citizenship means in the face of systemic violence.

FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH AVIYA KUSHNER

July 7, 2021 | Streaming – A conversation and reading with author Aviya Kushner. Kushner’s debut poetry collection, Wolf Lamb Bomb, revives and reimagines the Book of Isaiah in an intimate conversation between woman and prophet. In the aftermath of September 11th, ongoing violence in the Middle East, and resurgent antisemitism, Kushner reflects on a Biblical understanding of humanity and justice.

Spaceship Earth: A Global Community

Back to I AM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD Masato Nakagawa, students with first large-scale Geodesic Dome, built under the instruction of R. Buckminster Fuller. BMC Summer Session 1949. Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina. Spaceship Earth: A Global...

Figurative Abstraction: Constructing Identity

Back to I AM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD Helen M. Post (b. 1907 Bloomfiend, NJ; d. 1978), Xanti Schawinsky’s Spectodrama (digital print). Western Regional Archives, State Archives of NC. Figurative Abstraction: Constructing Identity The language of abstraction expanded...