March 16 + 17, 2018 | The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts {Downtown, Asheville} – BMCM+AC, in partnership with UNC Asheville, presented the Southeast Premiere of Dance Heginbotham and Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty, a new evening-length dance theater work by choreographer John Heginbotham and author/illustrator Maira Kalman. Adapted from Kalman’s New York Times column turned book of the same name and described by the two artists as an “absurdist travelogue,” Principles of Uncertainty marries the nostalgic whimsy of Kalman’s illustrations with Heginbotham’s controlled yet playful choreography to create an evening that explores life, death and everything in between. Heginbotham directs and choreographs the work, while Kalman oversees all elements of design—sets, props, projections and costumes, bringing her 2D illustrations to life on the stage. Kalman is also present on stage, alongside Dance Heginbotham, actor Daniel Pettrow and members of The Knights. Composer Colin Jacobsen—a member of string quartet Brooklyn Rider, chamber ensemble The Knights, and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble—serves as Music Director of the project. Principles of Uncertainty premiered August 17, 2017 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival followed by a New York Premiere at BAM Next Wave Festival and travelled to Durham, North Carolina after this Southeast Premiere in Asheville.
Related Events Included:
Wednesday, March 14th – Maira Kalman Reading and Book Signing at Malaprops Bookstore for The Principles of Uncertainty (2007) and her new book, Beloved Dog (2017.)
Wednesday, March 14th – Dance Heginbotham Workshop at NC School for the Deaf
Wednesday, March 14th – Dance for PD Masterclass with John Heginbotham
Saturday, March 17th – Coffee + Conversation with John + Maira
Wednesday, March 14 – 6pm {Malaprops Bookstore, 55 Haywood} Maira Kalman, writer and illustrator of such books as The Principles of Uncertainty and The Pursuit of Happiness will hold a reading and signing for her new book for Penguin Press, Beloved Dog. Join us March...
Saturday, February 17, 7pm {56 Broadway} First Harvest: Celebrating the book Jonathan Williams: The Lord of Orchards This book of essays, images, and shouts aims to bring new eyes and contexts to legendary poet and publisher (and Black Mountain College student)...
Wednesday, December 13, 7pm {69 Broadway} Australia-based scholars and artists Caleb Kelly, Pia van Gelder and Peter Blamey will make a rare North American appearance at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center to discuss and perform works that examine the...
Saturday, December 16, 7:30pm {69 Broadway}
An evening of poetry, organized by Asheville-based writer/educator Eric Steineger, showcasing five of Asheville’s favorite and most celebrated poets: Richard Chess, Tommy Hays, David Hopes, Felice Lopez-Bell, and Eric Steineger.
Thursday, December 7, 7pm {69 Broadway}
Presented in collaboration with the Asheville Butoh Collective, this evening includes dance performances, investigations, improvisations, and dialogue about the Butoh dance form.
Commission | November 17 + 18, 2017 | BMCM+AC {69 Broadway} – ACTIVE ARCHIVE is a stream of programs that pairs the museum’s extensive collection with contemporary artists, curators, and cultural thinkers. It launches with an exhibition featuring the museum’s permanent collection curated by Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist Martha McDonald.
McDonald brought the ideas of Black Mountain College alive through an exhibition of artwork and ephemera from BMCM+AC’s collection and a live performance drawing on the rich history of experimental performance at BMC. The exhibition, across both galleries, focused on the importance of process and material exploration at BMC.
McDonald’s performance activated her installation of objects and costumes drawn from Xanti Schawinsky’s 1936 experimental theater piece, Spectodrama, which formed the basis of his Stage Studies course at BMC. McDonald’s piece, in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Laura Baird featured music inspired by John Evarts’ collaborations with Schawinsky at BMC from 1936-38.
Wednesday, November 29, 7pm {56 Broadway}
This documentary traces the story of the Bauhaus from its founding in 1919 to its closing in 1933. An understanding of the Bauhaus as one of the primary influences on Black Mountain College is essential to a full understanding of BMC.
Friday, November 3, 7pm {56 Broadway}
Presented in conjunction with the First Friday Art Walk, this poetry reading is organized by MadHat Poetry Prose & Anything Goes.
October 27 + 28, 2017 | {22 London Rd} – Silvana Cardell’s Supper, People on the Move is a dance performance inspired by themes of migration and the complex experience of dislocation. Physical bodies moving between physical places define migration and the immigrant journey at the heart of humanity’s ability to survive. This Asheville engagement was accompanied by an exhibition of photographs and narratives by Philadelphia-based artist Jennifer Baker and local photographer Steve Mann, “Portraits of People on the Move” featuring stories of those in our WNC community. Audiences were invited to share in a group meal to discuss and connect over the themes brought forth by Cardell Dance Theatre’s performance. Supper, People on the Move was hosted at Randy Shull and Hedy Fischer’s 22 London Road Studio/ Exhibition Space.
What began for choreographer Silvana Cardell as dance borne of her personal history, evolved into an examination of the human experience of all people on the move, looking for new horizons. The immigrant journey is at the heart of a human’s ability to survive. Physical bodies moving between physical places define immigration. It is only appropriate that dance performed by virtuosic, striking dancers, is the art form to explore this experience and create a work of art from it. From the beginning of history people have migrated; it is at the soul of human evolution. Supper takes the movement of migration and transforms it into art, into a dance that transcends its literal origins yet is grounded in them. In performance, the art of the movement of human migration is revealed.
Wednesday, October 11, 7pm {56 Broadway}
Listening Sessions at BMCM+AC examine the evolving culture of listening and investigate the larger lineage of music and interconnected styles. This session will investigate the relationship between time-based art forms and the highly defined and uses of musical notation.
September 29 + 30, 2017 | Diana Wortham Center for the Performing Arts {Downtown Asheville} – The Southeast Premiere of the acclaimed work Black Mountain Songs. Presented as part of ReVIEWING 9. Commissioned and produced by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and BAM, and curated by Bryce Dessner (The National) and Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Black Mountain Songs is inspired by Black Mountain College, its prolific community of artists, and their work, and rekindles the College’s utopian spirit. The Chorus performs music written for them by eight composers: Dessner and Parry, as well as Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, Aleksandra Vrebalov, John King, Tim Hecker, and Jherek Bischoff. Featuring contributions from filmmaker Matt Wolf (Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell), Black Mountain Songs is an expansive choral and visual work. This exquisite production premiered at BAM in 2014. New Amsterdam Records released an acclaimed recording of the work—Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ first album—earlier this year.
Friday, September 29, 5:30pm {69 Broadway}
Performance artist Martha McDonald and composer/multi-instrumentalist Laura Baird perform in McDonald’s installation, Music for Modernist Shapes: Reimagining Spectodrama.
September 29-October 1, 2017 {UNC ASHEVILLE RUETER CENTER}
Held at the Reuter Center on the campus of UNC Asheville, this annual conference explores the history and legacy of Black Mountain College. Keynote Speaker: artist Mel Chin and Keynote Panel: Black Mountain Songs creative team. Open to the public.
Wednesday, August 16, 7 pm John Cage’s ROARATORIO This second installment in our listening session series, led by Executive Director Jeff Arnal, will focus on John Cage’s 1979 composition “___, _______circus on _________,” a score/system created to translate any book...
Saturday, May 20, 3 pm {69 Broadway} On the final day of Begin to See: The Photographers of Black Mountain College, join us for a gallery talk with the exhibition’s curator, Julie J. Thomson. Julie will lead us through a final look at the exhibition. She will...
Thursday, July 27, 7 pm {56 Broadway} Robert Motherwell & The New York School: Storming the Citadel, by filmmaker Catherine Tatge, looks at the epic struggle undertaken by Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Kline, and Motherwell as they changed the trajectory of art in...
Thursday, June 22, 7 pm {56 Broadway} Jerald Melberg, founder of the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, NC, and representative of the Dedalus Foundation (Robert Motherwell Estate), discusses the artist’s balance between wildly expressive work and his deep...
Thursday, June 8, 7 & 8 pm {56 Broadway} Caitlyn Swett (dancer/choreographer) and Zach Cooper (electric guitar/contrabass) invite audience members to experience a physical and audio installation. Using the MIDI Sprout, which employs biofeedback technology to turn...
Friday, June 2, 5:30-8 pm {56 Broadway} “Art is an experience, not an object.” – Robert Motherwell As a teacher at Black Mountain College in 1945 and 1951, Robert Motherwell provided a strong link to the emerging Abstract Expressionist movement in New York City....
