Latest News
Volume 11: The Practice and Pedagogy of Writing at Black Mountain College
The published writers of Black Mountain College, particularly the poets, have received much scholarly attention. The central place of writing as a practice of the arts in the college’s curriculum has been explored much less. In this issue our contributors address this theme through a variety of kinds of texts, both written and performed…
SUBMISSIONS
OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS We are pleased to announce that the Journal of Black Mountain College Studies has resumed publication with rolling submissions for upcoming issues. The Journal of Black Mountain College Studies is a peer-reviewed open-access digital...
PERFORMANCE: flux in time
September 27, 2025 at 8pm | BMCM+AC
About JBMCS
About the Journal of Black Mountain College StudiesThe Journal of Black Mountain College Studies is a multidisciplinary, open-access digital publication of Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center. Founded in 2005 by editors Brian Butler and Blake Hobby, the...
Dorothea Rockburne Interview
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1Connie BosticPublished March 2011Transcribed by Jolene MechanicThis is Connie Bostic. It’s April 19th, 2002. We’re in the studios of Bonesteel Films on Carolina Lane in Asheville, North Carolina and we’re with...
The Prospect of an Ideal Liberal Arts College Curriculum
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1Shane J. RalstonPublished March 2011Reconstructing the Dewey-Hutchins Debate . . . when [John Andrew] Rice began speaking publicly about what he viewed as administrative hypocrisy at the college [Rollins College]...
Teaching Creative Writing and Literature After Olson
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1Jonas WilliamsPublished March 2011 This paper has two parts. The first part argues for the potential value of the creative writing course. I will connect this value to a distinction between two kinds of knowledge,...
Martin Duberman’s Queer Historiography and Pedagogy
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1Jason EzellPublished March 2011Fifteen years after the college’s closing, Martin Duberman published Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community. Duberman conducted the research and writing of his book over a period of...
Max Dehn: An Artist among Mathematicians and a Mathematician among Artists
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1David PeiferPublished March 2011Introduction Max Dehn was unique among the faculty at Black Mountain College. His great works are not paintings, music, or performance. His career and achievements are in theoretical...
John Chamberlain’s “American Tableau, 1984” and the Reagan War Machine
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1Thomas M. MurphyPublished March 2011“Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement:” John Chamberlain’s “American Tableau, 1984” and the Reagan War Machine. This presentation posits that a...
Networking Chance: “A Global Situation Involving the Possibility of People Everywhere and Anywhere”
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1John Held, Jr.Published March 2011 In 1968, well before the introduction of the Internet, Fluxus artist Robert Filliou expressed interest in an “Eternal Network” of artists replacing the notion of individual genius....
Black Mountain College, Watauga College, and Me
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1Maggie McFaddenPublished March 2011 In May 1975 I had just been hired as the first full-time female faculty member at Watauga College, the experimental interdisciplinary residential college at Appalachian State...
What Josef Albers Taught at Black Mountain College, and What Black Mountain College Taught Albers
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 1Frederick A. HorowitzPublished March 2011 Josef Albers was at the center of things at Black Mountain College from the time he arrived in 1933 to his departure in 1949. His were the courses you took, whether or not you...
2025 {Re}HAPPENING Call for Proposals
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center announces an opportunity for artists to participate in the 2025 {Re}HAPPENING on Saturday, May 3rd at Camp Rockmont in Black Mountain, NC, the former Lake Eden campus of Black Mountain College.
2024 {Re}HAPPENING Call for Proposals
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center announces an opportunity for artists to participate in the 2024 {Re}HAPPENING on Saturday, April 20 at Camp Rockmont in Black Mountain, NC, the former Lake Eden campus of Black Mountain College.
Reading Ray 1
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 2Johanna GossePublished Spring 2012The Porous Philosophy of Ray Johnson To call Ray Johnson enigmatic would understate his perplexing and intentionally elusive position within postwar American art history. Ever...
Reading Ray 2
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 2Julie J. ThomsonPublished Spring 2012The Development of Ray Johnson’s and George Brecht’s Participatory and Dialogic Practices In a 1967 interview, when George Brecht was asked what artists he had “a good deal in...
Reading Ray 4
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 2Sebastian MatthewsPublished Spring 2012Reading Ray: VanDerBeek Deep Ray Johnson, Untitled (Marcel Marceau 1 and 2), ca. 1950s,collage on corrugated cardboard, 5 x 2.85’’; 5 x 3’’© Ray Johnson Estate, Collection of...
Reading Ray 3
Journal of Black Mountain College Studies Volume 2Kate Erin DempseyPublished Spring 2012Reading Ray: VanDerBeek Deep _____________________________________________________________________________ Many of Ray Johnson’s Black Mountain College colleagues have recalled his...
Ruth Asawa, Black Mountain College, and Mexico
In this guest blog post by Olivia Crosbie, summer 2023 intern, we are featuring Ruth Asawa as one BMC student profoundly influenced by her travels to Mexico. Read more to learn about Asawa’s sculpture and its technical roots in Mexican craft.
BMCM+AC Awarded Grant From The Ruth Foundation for the Arts
BMCM+AC has been awarded $50,000 as a Core Grant recipient from the The Ruth Foundation for the Arts! This month, The Ruth Foundation announced 140 arts organizations have been recognized by two new grants inspired by how artists live, make, and are remembered.