JONATHAN WILLIAMS CELEBRATION
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)...BOOK TALK + PERFORMANCE: Gallery Sound with Caleb Kelly, Pia van Gelder, Peter Blamey and Pete Speer
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...POETRY READING
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.
PERFORMANCE: Aspects of Butoh
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.
MARTHA MCDONALD + LAURA BAIRD – MUSIC FOR MODERNIST SHAPES: REIMAGINING SPECTODRAMA
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.
FILM SCREENING: BAUHAUS: The Face of the Twentieth Century
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.
POETRY READING: MadHat Poetry Prose & Anything Goes
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.
CARDELL DANCE THEATER – SUPPER, PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
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.
LISTENING SESSION: Experiments in Notation
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.
BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS – BLACK MOUNTAIN SONGS
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.
PERFORMANCE: Music for Modernist Shapes: Reimagining Spectodrama
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.
CONFERENCE: ReVIEWING BMC 9
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.

