Upcoming Events

Past Events

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 13
ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 13

October 7-9, 2022 in Asheville, North Carolina
Thematic Focus: Leo Amino / The Visible and the Invisible: Submerged Histories of Abstraction

THE GLYPH
THE GLYPH

July 30, 2022 at 3PM + 7PM | BMCM+AC
Commissioned by ICA/Boston

{Re}HAPPENING 10
{Re}HAPPENING 10

April 2, 2022 | Lake Eden {Camp Rockmont} | Featuring The Philip Glass Ensemble – The {Re}HAPPENING is an annual afternoon and evening event at the historic campus of Black Mountain College – 15 minutes from Asheville. It is part art event, part fundraiser, and part community instigator, providing a platform for contemporary artists to share their responses to the vital legacy of Black Mountain College.

CURATOR TALK: JADE DELLINGER
CURATOR TALK: JADE DELLINGER

Jade Dellinger, Curator of "Don't Blame it on ZEN: The Way of John Cage & Friends" Thursday, January 13th, 2022 at 7PM Zoom | Registration Required | Suggested Donation“He hasn't just been an odd character performing strange music on the stage, he's a prepared...

LISTENING SESSION: 2021 Black Mountain College Radio Artists
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: JADE DELLINGER
PERSPECTIVES: JADE DELLINGER

December 15, 2021 at 1 PM | Live on Zoom – Jade Dellinger is Director of the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at FSW and curator of our current exhibition Don’t Blame It on ZEN: The Way of John Cage & Friends. He has served for eight years now as Director of Exhibitions & Collections at Florida SouthWestern State College.

BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST MICHAEL HATCH
BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST MICHAEL HATCH

December 13, 2021 | 103.3 Asheville FM – BMC Radio Artists’ 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.

BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST CILLA VEE
BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST CILLA VEE

December 6, 2021 | 103.3 Asheville FM – BMC Radio Artists’ 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.

JACK QUARTET – WAVES AND PARTICLES, JOHN LUTHER ADAMS
JACK QUARTET – WAVES AND PARTICLES, JOHN LUTHER ADAMS

Commission | November 12th, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} + Streaming | The world premiere of John Luther Adams’ new composition “Waves and Particles,” performed by JACK Quartet. Presented on the opening night of the 12th annual ReVIEWING Black Mountain College Conference (November 12 – 14, 2021) and co-commissioned as part of the inaugural Faith in Arts Institute, a partnership between BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville.

BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST THOM NGUYEN
BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST THOM NGUYEN

November 19, 2021 | 103.3 Asheville FM – BMC Radio Artists’ 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.

CARL BOLLEIA + THOMAS MOORE – WORKS OF JOHN CAGE
CARL BOLLEIA + THOMAS MOORE – WORKS OF JOHN CAGE

November 13, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Presented in conjunction with the 12th annual ReVIEWING conference. Two performances present the wide-ranging works of John Cage: Carl Patrick Bolleia, John Cage Piano/Toy Piano Retrospective: Black Mountain Keyboard | Thomas Moore, solo piano works by John Cage, with a focus on compositions written around 1952 and 1953.

BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST ZAZIE PRODUCTIONS
BROADCAST: BMC RADIO ARTIST ZAZIE PRODUCTIONS

December 17, 2021 | 103.3 Asheville FM – BMC Radio Artists’ 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.

FILM SCREENING: A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADDOF
FILM SCREENING: A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADDOF

October 16, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. A hybrid of musical memoir and narrative fantasy, “A Kaddish For Bernie Madoff” tells the story of Madoff and the system that allowed him to function for decades through the eyes of musician/poet Alicia Jo Rabins, who watches the financial crash from her 9th-floor studio in an abandoned office building on Wall Street.

TALK: DISPLAYING THE DHARMA, BUDDHIST “ART” AND THE MODERN MUSEUM
TALK: DISPLAYING THE DHARMA, BUDDHIST “ART” AND THE MODERN MUSEUM

October 16, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} + Zoom – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. This talk by Pamela D. Winfield examined the tensions and tactics involved in exhibiting Buddhist visual culture in modern museum spaces. It first critically examined the ideological divide between sacred and secular that reduced powerful Buddhist icons into aesthetic objects within 19th century Euro-American collections of Asian “art.” If the 19th century transferred the temple out to the museum, then the 20th century transferred the museum back into the temple grounds. The result is that both American and Japanese museums need to be understood as hybrid spaces, where the supposed boundaries between sacred and secular are porous and continually negotiated by diverse audiences.

KAY LARSON: JOHN CAGE’S LECTURE ON NOTHING
KAY LARSON: JOHN CAGE’S LECTURE ON NOTHING

October 16, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} + Zoom – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. Published in 1961, in John Cage’s first book Silence, “Lecture on Nothing” has much to say to creative artists. In this presentation, Kay Larsen expounds on the lasting impact of this lecture on the landscape of art and performance. In all his work, Cage sought to “get himself out of the way” so that vivid encounters with the world could “make their own art.” These methods are still useful and timely.

PERFORMANCE: THOMAS MOORE – THE MUSIC OF JOHN CAGE
PERFORMANCE: THOMAS MOORE – THE MUSIC OF JOHN CAGE

October 16, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. Thomas Moore’s performance of solo piano works by John Cage featured compositions from the 1950s through the 1990s, including the often discussed but infrequently performed 4’33” — Cage’s “silent” piece of 1952 — as well as Water Music (1952), selections from the Etudes Australes (1974–75), and One5 (1990).

FILM SCREENING: THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT POVERTY AND PORTRAITURE
FILM SCREENING: THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT POVERTY AND PORTRAITURE

October 14, 2021 | Haywood Street Congregation – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. At the intersection of poverty and portraiture, Theirs is the Kingdom follows the rare creation of a contemporary fresco mural inside the sanctuary of a small church in Asheville, NC. This is a painting not of the rich and powerful, but of people battling homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. From first sketch to final unveiling, the viewer witnesses the difficulties of this ancient artistic technique while also meeting an ensemble cast of complex characters.

VIDEO + CONVERSATION: KIMBERLY BARTOSIK + CHRISTOPHER-RASHEEM MCMILLAN
VIDEO + CONVERSATION: KIMBERLY BARTOSIK + CHRISTOPHER-RASHEEM MCMILLAN

October 15, 2021 | UNC Asheville + Zoom | Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. Guggenheim Fellow and Bessie Award recipient Kimberly Bartosik guides us through clips and discusses the process around the creation of I hunger for you, her choreographic work focusing on the need for faith and the collective desire for transformation. Following the screening and discussion, Dance Scholar/Choreographer Christopher Rasheem Macmillan joined Kimberly in a rich conversation around their shared passion for questioning, through artistic practice, embodied pathways towards faith within a critical and compassionate understanding of our contemporary moment.

FILM SCREENING: TESTIFY, BEYOND PLACE
FILM SCREENING: TESTIFY, BEYOND PLACE

October 14, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. Film screening and talk with Director Marie Cochran. “Testify, Beyond Place” pays homage to the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church as well as its relationship to Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC. The year the film was produced in 2021, marked the 85th anniversary of the church demolition and gravesite removal to make way for the expansion of the campus.

TALK: ORIGINAL ZEN: ITS ART THEN AND NOW
TALK: ORIGINAL ZEN: ITS ART THEN AND NOW

October 14, 2021 | UNC Asheville + Zoom – Presented as part of the Faith in Arts Institute. The arts were considered forms of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhist practice in ancient China, and mountain landscape played an important part in that practice. Hinton outlines Ch’an insight. Then, starting from that understanding, he discusses how Ch’an shaped the arts in ancient China, and how it migrated to America in the twentieth century, where it shaped poetry and visual-art in fundamental ways, a process in which John Cage and Black Mountain played a major role.

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

FAITH IN ARTS INSTITUTE
FAITH IN ARTS INSTITUTE

October 13-16, 2021 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} + Zoom – This four-day event brought together acclaimed artists and scholars to explore the intersections of art, faith, and spirit. Public events included performances, film screenings, community workshops, lectures, and more.

PERFORMANCE: DUET FOR THEREMIN AND LAP STEEL
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
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
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
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.

BMC-TV: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY ART EVENT
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: SHERRILL ROLAND
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
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.

BMC RADIO: PIERS GELLY
BMC RADIO: PIERS GELLY

June 30, 2021 | Soundcloud – Preview an exciting new project, led by BMCM+AC’s first Active Archive resident podcaster Piers Gelly. Gelly, a collaborator on such programs as 99% Invisible and creator/host of Cellar Door, will present a sneak peek at a new Black Mountain College podcast, currently in development. Gelly will be in conversation with Black Mountain scholars Julie Levin Caro, Thomas Frank, and archivist Heather South, breaking down preconceived notions of BMC’s history and setting the stage for the eight-part documentary podcast exploring Black Mountain College as a forerunner in interdisciplinary arts, experimental education, and community-building.

PERFORMANCE: THOM NGUYEN
PERFORMANCE: THOM NGUYEN

June 24, 2021 | Streaming – A fully improvised percussion set from Asheville-based musician Thom Nguyen, streaming from the BMCM+AC space using a drum kit and various percussion elements, in the spirit of Nguyen’s recently released album “Exits.”

PERSPECTIVES: MARIPOSA LAND PORT OF ENTRY
PERSPECTIVES: MARIPOSA LAND PORT OF ENTRY

June 23, 2021 | Streaming – In this presentation and conversation, members of the design team expand on the principles that guided their process, discuss the human experience of traveling through Mariposa Land Port of Entry, and emphasize the ways in which public art, architecture, and landscape design can offer connection and nurture relationships across borders.

PERSPECTIVES: SOUTHERN EQUALITY STUDIOS
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.

FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH CHRISTOPHER-RASHEEM MCMILLAN
FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH CHRISTOPHER-RASHEEM MCMILLAN

June 9, 2021 | Streaming – A conversation with performance-related artist and scholar Christopher-Rasheem McMillan on the intersections of faith and arts. He has a joint appointment between Dance and Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies at the University of Iowa. His interests concern choreography in an expanded field, something that he has approached through experimental practices and creative processes in a multiplicity of formats and expressions. He uses video, performance, photography, and oral storytelling to explore themes of race, memory, queer desire, religion, personal and public mythology.

FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH CHARLES HALLISEY
FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH CHARLES HALLISEY

May 26, 2021 | Streaming – A Faith in Arts conversation with Charles Hallisey, Yehan Numata Senior Lecturer on Buddhist Literatures at Harvard Divinity School. His research centers on Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, Pali language and literature, Buddhist ethics, and literature in Buddhist culture. His most recent book is Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women (Harvard University Press, 2015). He is currently working on a book project entitled “Flowers on the Tree of Poetry: The Moral Economy of Literature in Buddhist Sri Lanka.”

PERFORMANCE: TWO WAY STREET + NEVERMIND THE NOISE
PERFORMANCE: TWO WAY STREET + NEVERMIND THE NOISE

May 13, 2021 | Streaming – Performance by the Asheville-based duo Two Way Street of new music composed by members of Nevermind the Noise, a collective of graduate student composers from New York University.

PERSPECTIVES: ONICAS GADDIS
PERSPECTIVES: ONICAS GADDIS

May 12, 2021 | Streaming – A conversation with Onicas Gaddis, featured artist in the exhibition I AM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD and student of BMC alumna Sarah Carlisle Towery. We will discuss Gaddis’ painting Black Mountain (2020), his style of “Spiritual Expressionism,” the way that his identity is expressed and has evolved through his practice, and how his time spent with Towery at the Alabama Art Colony changed the trajectory of his life.

BOOK TALK: “A BETTER LIFE FOR THEIR CHILDREN”
BOOK TALK: “A BETTER LIFE FOR THEIR CHILDREN”

May 5, 2021 | Streaming – A conversation with award-winning photographer Andrew Feiler and Executive Director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, Brent Leggs, on Feiler’s newly published book of photographs and remembrances “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America” (UGA Press, 2021).

OPTION SERIES: BMCM+AC / TYONDAI BRAXTON + GRACE VILLAMIL
OPTION SERIES: BMCM+AC / TYONDAI BRAXTON + GRACE VILLAMIL

April 26, 2021 | Streaming – OPTION is a weekly music salon curated by Chicago musicians Andrew Clinkman, Tim Daisy, and Ken Vandermark. Its programming explores contemporary perspectives on improvisation and composition in a ‘salon’ format, enabling local, national, and international artists to publicly discuss their practice and ideas as well as perform.

PERSPECTIVES: ALMA ALLORO
PERSPECTIVES: ALMA ALLORO

April 14, 2021 | Streaming – A conversation with multidisciplinary artist Alma Alloro on her recent web-native commission for BMCM+AC, 10-03.space. Alma Alloro is a Berlin-based artist originally from Tel Aviv. Her works often have a dual existence in digital media and hand-crafted formats, exploring the possibilities and limitations of handmade objects in our digitally-oriented world.

PERFORMANCE: MARIO GALEANO TORO
PERFORMANCE: MARIO GALEANO TORO

April 7, 2021 | Streaming – Presented in partnership with Make Noise – Streaming premiere of a new electronic performance “Falla Común del Béndix” (Common Failure of the Bendix), by Colombian composer, arranger, and producer Mario Galeano Toro. Galeano Toro has dedicated the past 20 years to finding new paths for Latin-American musical identities through influential tropicalist projects, ranging from roots to experimental.

CAGE SHUFFLE: A DIGITAL DUET
CAGE SHUFFLE: A DIGITAL DUET

March 20, 2021 | Streaming – In this reconception of Cage Shuffle commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts, Paul Lazar teams up with renowned choreographer, dancer, and Ohio State Distinguished Professor Bebe Miller and media artist Eamonn Farrell to present a series of one-minute stories written by musician John Cage while simultaneously dancing a complex choreographic score by Lazar, Miller, and Annie-B Parson, artistic director of Big Dance Theater.

MATIÈRE WORKSHOP WITH FRITZ HORSTMAN
MATIÈRE WORKSHOP WITH FRITZ HORSTMAN

March 13, 2021 | Zoom – Fritz Horstman, Education Director at the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, will explore the concept of Matiére (material, matter) as taught by Josef Albers at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College.

PERSPECTIVES: WILLIAM PARKER + CISCO BRADLEY
PERSPECTIVES: WILLIAM PARKER + CISCO BRADLEY

March 10, 2021 | Streaming – A solo performance by William Parker accompanies a conversation on “Universal Tonality” (Duke University Press, 2021), a new publication by Cisco Bradley on Parker’s life and music.

10-03.space
10-03.space

March 10, 2021 | 10-03.space is a multimedia platform created by Alma Alloro which traces the path of society during a year of pandemic, capturing the thoughts, ideas, memories, fears, and hopes which arose and developed during this time, acting as a memento of shared crises.

FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH NORMAN FISCHER
FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH NORMAN FISCHER

March 3, 2021 | Streaming – A Faith in Arts conversation with Norman Fischer, poet, writer, and Soto Zen priest, teaching and practicing in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki. He is a Dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman, from whom he received Dharma transmission in 1988.

FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH MOLLY SILVERSTEIN
FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH MOLLY SILVERSTEIN

February 24, 2021 | Streaming – A Faith in Arts conversation with Molly Silverstein, poet, graduate student, and former BMCM+AC staff member. Silverstein currently studies at Harvard Divinity School, where her work focuses on spiritual care and counseling and the psychology of religion.

CITIZEN SPINS SESSION: BMCM+AC
CITIZEN SPINS SESSION: BMCM+AC

February 18 + 19, 2021 | Citizen Vinyl Session Cafe and Bar – In this two-day Citizen Spins Session from the team at BMCM+AC, listen in to recordings from Black Mountain College icons like John Cage, David Tudor, and Lou Harrison as well as the influential figures that inspired them and those who are keeping that legacy alive.

FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH MARIE COCHRAN
FAITH IN ARTS: A CONVERSATION WITH MARIE COCHRAN

March 31, 2021 | Streaming – A Faith in Arts conversation with Marie Cochran, installation artist, educator, curator, and art writer. Cochran is the founding curator of the Affrilachian Artist Project and during the 2020-21 academic year, she was the Lehman Brady Professor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

CONVERSATIONS: FAITH IN ARTS
CONVERSATIONS: FAITH IN ARTS

Ongoing | Streaming – BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville host conversations and interviews with a diverse group of artists, curators, faith leaders, and scholars to explore the role of arts in spiritual practice and religious life and the role of spiritual practice and religious life in the arts.

PERFORMANCE: SOFIA JERNBERG
PERFORMANCE: SOFIA JERNBERG

December 9, 2020 | Streaming – Experimental composer and vocalist Sofia Jernberg presents two solo performances at Gränslandet that avant-garde icon Laurie Anderson calls “extraordinary” and “transcendent.” Sofia Jernberg is a Swedish experimental singer, composer, improviser, and performer. She grew up in Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Sweden. Since 2011, she lives in Oslo, Norway.

PERSPECTIVES: ASHER GAMEDZE AND ANOTHER TIME ENSEMBLE
PERSPECTIVES: ASHER GAMEDZE AND ANOTHER TIME ENSEMBLE

December 2, 2020 | Streaming – For this performance, from a rooftop in historic Cairo, Asher Gamedze and Another Time Ensemble meditate and speculate on the possibility and necessity of another time. The performance will be followed by a discussion with Asher Gamedze.

PERSPECTIVES – JOHN CAGE: A MYCOLOGICAL FORAY
PERSPECTIVES – JOHN CAGE: A MYCOLOGICAL FORAY

November 18, 2020 | Streaming – A conversation with Atelier Éditions’ collaborative team and Laura Kuhn, Director of the John Cage Trust, about the newly published “John Cage: A Mycological Foray”

TAYO: VIDEO + CONVERSATION WITH GRACE VILLAMIL
TAYO: VIDEO + CONVERSATION WITH GRACE VILLAMIL

November 11, 2020 | Streaming – Tune in for a look at TAYO, a new installation from Grace Villamil, in collaboration with IONE and Lisa Kelley of the Ministry of Maåt. A new film about the October 24th activation of TAYO from cinematographer Sam Falconi and filmmaker Marina Katz will be followed by a discussion with Villamil.

PERSPECTIVES: STEPH RICHARDS + ANDREW MUNSEY
PERSPECTIVES: STEPH RICHARDS + ANDREW MUNSEY

October 14, 2020 | Streaming – Experimental trumpeter/composer Steph Richards and drummer/producer Andrew Munsey perform “homeostasis,” a new piece for sonic conversations with difficult objects.

PERFORMANCE: KIMATHI MOORE
PERFORMANCE: KIMATHI MOORE

October 8, 2020 | Streaming – Electronic composer Kimathi Moore performs “Oliver’s Tail [We The Fish]” a new piece that attempts to illustrate a town underwater inspired by the Polish surrealist painter Jacek Yerka.

RUTH ASAWA’S RADICAL UNIVERSALISM
RUTH ASAWA’S RADICAL UNIVERSALISM

September 23, 2020 | Zoom – Jason Vartiker asks, “How are Ruth Asawa’s hanging wire sculptures a form of activism for racial justice?”

PERFORMANCE: TURNING JEWELS INTO WATER
PERFORMANCE: TURNING JEWELS INTO WATER

September 10th, 2020 | Streaming – Turning Jewels Into Water exclusively premiere songs from their newly released album, Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars, including ‘Flower In Flames,’ ‘Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars’ and ‘Crushed Petals.’ Presented in partnership with Asheville Rhythm.

AN INVISIBLE REVOLUTION
AN INVISIBLE REVOLUTION

August 27, 2020 | Zoom – Join David McConville and Glenn English for an in-depth conversation on the life and work of R. Buckminster Fuller.

PERSPECTIVES: Steve Locke with Ben Hall
PERSPECTIVES: Steve Locke with Ben Hall

August 12, 2020 | Streaming – Artists Steve Locke and Ben Hall will discuss Locke’s current work, Homage to the Auction Block, a series informed by Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square.

A Conversation with Marilyn Chase on Ruth Asawa, BMC Artist
A Conversation with Marilyn Chase on Ruth Asawa, BMC Artist

July 22, 2020 | Zoom – BMCM+AC presents a live conversation with Marilyn Chase, author of the newly published biography of artist and BMC alumna Ruth Asawa Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa. This new biography recounts the incredible life of American sculptor Ruth Asawa (1926–2013), a woman who wielded imagination and hope in the face of intolerance and who transformed everything she touched into art. This lively and compelling new book by journalist and author Marilyn Chase is the first biography of this major American artist.

IG TAKEOVER: MICHELLE YI MARTIN
IG TAKEOVER: MICHELLE YI MARTIN

June 7 – 12, 2021 | Instagram @bmcmuseum – Artist Michelle Yi Martin takes over our Instagram, sharing her connections to Black Mountain College in conjunction with the exhibition I AM A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. Yi Martin lives in San Francisco, but actively draws on her Korean immigrant roots in her practice. She is a multi-disciplinary artist and self-taught weaver, who characterizes her work as a conversation between convention, art, utility, adornment, material, light, solidity, and space.

MATERIAL SOUND AT HOME
MATERIAL SOUND AT HOME

May 21, 2020 | Web-based – Material Sound at Home is a new virtual experience that expands the ideas of the 2019 exhibition “Material Sound and Black Mountain College” within the context of the COVID-19 global crisis and lockdowns. Artists from the exhibition, Peter Blamey, Vicky Browne, Pia van Gelder, and Jenn Grossman, explore Material Sound through original performances recorded from their homes and home studios across Australia and in New York.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Museum Day Celebration
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Museum Day Celebration

May 18, 2020 | Nintendo Switch Online – We are excited to offer the opportunity to bring BMCM+AC into your Animal Crossing: New Horizons game through custom designs based on pieces from our permanent collection and inspiration to create galleries of your own.

PERSPECTIVES+ : Julie Levin Caro
PERSPECTIVES+ : Julie Levin Caro

May 8, 2020 | Streaming – Julie Levin Caro discusses how her experience as a Black Mountain College scholar has served her as an educator during this crisis. She will share lessons she has learned through her research on such BMC educators as Josef and Anni Albers, Jacob Lawrence, Jean Varda, Leo Amino, and Jack Tworkov. Following the talk, we will transition over to a virtual happy hour for a moderated Q&A discussion.

REVOLVE: Home School
REVOLVE: Home School

April 30, 2020 | Zoom – Hosted by Revolve Home School. Gain a new understanding of the legendary Black Mountain College from the perspective of the women who defined and championed the school and its community.

A Conversation with Jason Andrew and Julia K Gleich
A Conversation with Jason Andrew and Julia K Gleich

April 8, 2020 | Streaming – Jason Andrew, independent curator and director of the Estate of Jack Tworkov, joins the roster of curators, scholars, and creatives invited to take over the BMCM+AC Instagram account. Julia K Gleich, choreographer and founder of Gleich Dances joins Jason Andrew to talk about the collaborative event they co-produced that took place on August 6, 2011 at the Masonic Temple in downtown Asheville.

A Conversation with Jason Andrew and Hermine Ford
A Conversation with Jason Andrew and Hermine Ford

April 8, 2020 | Streaming – Jason Andrew, independent curator and director of the Estate of Jack Tworkov, is joined by Hermine Ford, painter and daughter of Jack Tworkov for an informal chat about her family accompanying her father to Black Mountain College, July 1952.

Instagram Takeover Series
Instagram Takeover Series

April 3, 2020 | Instagram @bmcmuseum – Join us for a week of Instagram takeovers, where we give the reigns to an incredible roster of scholars, curators and creatives, inviting them to reflect on what Black Mountain College has meant for their practice and to respond to its lasting legacy. Guests include Maria Chavez, Ant M. Lobo, Anna Helgeson and Lori Horvitz, Helen Molesworth, Jason Andrew, David Silver, John Heginbotham, and Sarah Urist Green.

WORKSHOP: CONNIE BOSTIC
WORKSHOP: CONNIE BOSTIC

February 29, 2020 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Bits and Pieces: Collage Workshop with Connie Bostic. Working with images and text from magazines, photos, books, and other visual materials, spend a fun 3 hours making collages with artist Connie Bostic.

PERFORMANCE: DAMSELFLY TRIO
PERFORMANCE: DAMSELFLY TRIO

February 27, 2020 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Damselfly Trio perform three works by BMC alumna Ursula Mamlok: the kaleidoscopic “Der Andreas Garten” for trio, “Haiku Settings” for soprano and flute, and “Variations” for solo flute as well as selections by composers George Crumb, Alfred Zimmerlin, and the world premiere of Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s complete “Songs from Comala.” With Liz Pearse, soprano, Chelsea Czuchra, flutes, and Lindsay Buffington, harp.

THIRD COAST PERCUSSION – SHED, BANA HAFFAR
THIRD COAST PERCUSSION – SHED, BANA HAFFAR

Commission | February 13, 2020 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Grammy-winning Chicago-based percussion ensemble Third Coast Percussion and composer Bana Haffar debuted the newly commissioned Shed for percussion and modular synthesizer. Drawing from the rich legacy of Anni Albers, Haffar engages with the materiality of sound, the essence of cloth, and the symbiosis of the machine and handmade by transposing standard weaving draft notation into musical scores.

Commisioned by BMCM+AC as part of Question Everything! The Women of Black Mountain College.

PERSPECTIVES: BANA HAFFAR
PERSPECTIVES: BANA HAFFAR

February 12, 2020 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Join composer/musician Bana Haffar for an interactive experience with her graphic score Shed. In this hands-on workshop, Haffar will explain the process behind the composition and invite participants to actively engage with the score.

FILMS@BMCM+AC: DON’T KNOW WE’LL SEE THE WORK OF KAREN KARNES
FILMS@BMCM+AC: DON’T KNOW WE’LL SEE THE WORK OF KAREN KARNES

This documentary by award-winning filmmaker Lucy Massie Phenix is an intimate study of the work and life of master clay artist, Karen Karnes. It takes the viewer into her creative process, into the evolution of a single sculptural piece, and into Karnes’ body of work of over 60 years.

ASHEVILLE FRINGE FESTIVAL
ASHEVILLE FRINGE FESTIVAL

January 25, 2020 | {120 College Street} – In this Fringe Festival interactive performance, Derr casts the viewers as painters in a playful investigation of Kenneth Noland’s painting New Day, 1967. Viewers apply the 41 color stripes in New Day to a transparent canvas while Derr films from the other side.

OPENING RECEPTION
OPENING RECEPTION

Friday, January 24, 5:30-8pm Question Everything! The Women of Black Mountain College Curated by Kate Averett and Alice Sebrell. In the midst of modernism, when the foundations of culture were under question, prompted by war and global crises, women were able to make...

JOHNNY GANDELSMAN – BACH’S COMPLETE CELLO SUITES ON VIOLIN
JOHNNY GANDELSMAN – BACH’S COMPLETE CELLO SUITES ON VIOLIN

December 12, 2019 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Gandelsman is the one of the first to record or perform Bach’s complete cello suites on violin. This is Gandelsman’s second initiative towards adapting Bach’s compositions to violin, following his recordings of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas in 2018. Having worked with incredible masters of various world music traditions, like Bela Fleck, Martin Hayes and Kayhan Kalhor, Gandelsman’s playing of the Suites is equally inspired by folk and fiddling traditions, as it is by historically informed performance.

Faith in Arts Instagram Takeover Series
Faith in Arts Instagram Takeover Series

May 12 – 15, 2020 | Instagram @bmcmuseum – Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center is partnering with UNC Asheville for a multi-day Faith in Arts Instagram takeover, presented in the spirit of the forthcoming Faith in Arts Institute. This takeover will feature emerging and established scholars, theologians, and artists exploring the themes of faith and arts within the history of Black Mountain College, as well as their own work and evolving spiritual and creative processes.

PERFORMANCE: BROOKLYN RIDER + MATANA ROBERTS
PERFORMANCE: BROOKLYN RIDER + MATANA ROBERTS

July 15, 2020 | Streaming – Brooklyn Rider performs “borderlands…” by Matana Roberts. Healing Modes is Brooklyn Rider’s latest recording that explores the interconnection of music and healthfulness. The recording is available on In a Circle Records and includes Beethoven’s A Minor, Op. 132 along with five commissions. Brooklyn Rider performed Healing Modes at BMCM+AC in 2018. One of the new commissions on Healing Modes is “borderlands…” by composer Matana Roberts.

CHEROKEE CHAMBER SINGERS – SI OTSEDOHA (WE’RE STILL HERE), WILLIAM BRITTELLE
CHEROKEE CHAMBER SINGERS – SI OTSEDOHA (WE’RE STILL HERE), WILLIAM BRITTELLE

November 21, 2019 | {120 College Street} – In 2017, Cherokee student leaders assembled a forum for open discussion on what it means for them to be Cherokee in the past, present, and future and how they view their cultural heritage. This new work was created with the words, voices, and vision of the Cherokee Chamber Singers, choral students at Cherokee Central Schools, written by composer William Brittelle. Originally commissioned by the North Carolina Symphony, the BMCM+AC event includes a pre-concert discussion and performance with the Cherokee Singers and music director / pianist Michael Yannette.

PAUL LAZAR – CAGE SHUFFLE
PAUL LAZAR – CAGE SHUFFLE

July 18, 2019 | {120 College Street} -Cage Shuffle is a 50 minute dance/theater solo performance by Paul Lazar featuring a series of one-minute stories by John Cage from his 1963 score Indeterminacy, while simultaneously performing a complex choreographic score by Annie-B Parson. Cage’s humor, intellect and iconoclasm find ideal expression in this work which adds dance to his original performance instructions: Read stories aloud, paced so that each story takes one minute, using chance procedures or not.

AKI ONDA – REFLECTIONS AND REPURCUSSIONS
AKI ONDA – REFLECTIONS AND REPURCUSSIONS

November 6, 2019 | {120 College Street} – The Southeast premiere of Aki Onda’s “Reflections and Repercussions,” a multi-media performance exploring the interplay among luminosity, acoustic, architectural, and emotional relationships within the space. Performing with various types of lighting equipment such as theater lights, flashlights, bare light bulb, mirrors and other objects, Onda arranges and rearranges the tools composing the visual and aural as a total environment.

AMY WILLIAMS – JOHN CAGE’S SONATAS AND INTERLUDES
AMY WILLIAMS – JOHN CAGE’S SONATAS AND INTERLUDES

August 1, 2019 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – performed Sonatas and Interludes, John Cage’s groundbreaking cycle for prepared piano. The work was composed in 1946–48, shortly after Cage’s introduction to Indian philosophy and the teachings of art historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, both of which became major influences on the composer’s later work. Sonatas and Interludes is generally recognized as one of Cage’s most important compositions.

GALLERY TALK: GLORIA SUTTON
GALLERY TALK: GLORIA SUTTON

December 5, 2019 {120 College Street} Reframing contemporary art history: On the work of Sara and Stan VanDerBeek. Author and art historian Gloria Sutton examines Sara VanDerBeek’s recent photographic work in relationship to the Expanded Cinema experiments of her father, BMC alum, Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984). Gloria Sutton is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History at Northeastern University and author of The Experience Machine: Stan VanDerBeek’s Movie-Drome and Expanded Cinema (MIT Press, 2015), and editor of Sara VanDerBeek (Hatje Cantz, 2016).

PERSPECTIVES: CURT CLONINGER
PERSPECTIVES: CURT CLONINGER

November 13, 2019 (120 College Street) – Explore our VanDerBeek + VanDerBeek exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Curt Cloninger, Associate Professor of New Media at UNC Asheville, and BMCM+AC board member.

YOWANA SARI GAMELAN ENSEMBLE
YOWANA SARI GAMELAN ENSEMBLE

June 28, 2019 – Currently in residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, Gamelan Yowana Sari has recently returned from a tour in Indonesia, performing in Pengosekan, Bali, at the home of the composer I Dewa Ketut Alit. They perform Alit’s work, traditional Balinese arrangements, and a new arrangement of Double Music by BMC composers Lou Harrison and John Cage.

WORKSHOP: ULTRA LOW-BUDGET FILMMAKING
WORKSHOP: ULTRA LOW-BUDGET FILMMAKING

Saturday, November 2  Ultra low-budget Filmmaking Workshop (Experimental)* 2pm – 5:30 (Experimental) Filmmaker and multi-media artist Adam Larsen teaches this hands-on filmmaking workshop using iPhones and everyday materials to create short films. Participants will...

BOOK LAUNCH: LETTERS TO JARGON
BOOK LAUNCH: LETTERS TO JARGON

Wednesday, October 30 - 7pm Letters to Jargon – Book Launch and Presentation by Andrew Rippeon. Letters to Jargon collects all of the known correspondence between poet Larry Eigner and Jonathan Williams, BMC alumnus, poet, photographer, and the influential publisher...

FILMS@BMCM+AC: BAUHAUS SPIRIT: 100 YEARS OF BAUHAUS
FILMS@BMCM+AC: BAUHAUS SPIRIT: 100 YEARS OF BAUHAUS

Thursday, October 24 - 7pm Films@BMCM+AC Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus. This film gives a fascinating look at how the Bauhaus ideas about art, theater, design, and architecture continue to shape our world today. The film celebrates the cultural history of...

PERSPECTIVES: TRACEY MORGAN
PERSPECTIVES: TRACEY MORGAN

October 16, 2019 (120 College Street) – Explore our VanDerBeek + VanDerBeek exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Tracey Morgan, owner of Tracey Morgan Gallery, a contemporary art gallery specializing in photography, works on paper, sculpture, painting, and video.

DRAWING WORKSHOP
DRAWING WORKSHOP

Tuesdays, October 15 – December 17 from 1-3pm  Drawing Workshop. Regi Weile, architect and educator, teaches this 10 session workshop synthesizing the Foundation Courses of the Werkbund Movement, the DeStijl Movement, and the Bauhaus. Sessions will be progressive in...

FILMS@BMCM+AC: STAN VANDERBEEK
FILMS@BMCM+AC: STAN VANDERBEEK

October 10, 2019 {120 College Street} An evening of short films by Stan VanDerBeek, including Science Friction (1959), Breathdeath (1963), Poemfield No. 2 (1966), and others.

GALLERY TALK: THE MOON MUSEUM
GALLERY TALK: THE MOON MUSEUM

Thursday, October 3 - 7pm The Moon Museum: Apollo XII’s Secret Art Mission. Hear about this first-ever ‘Space Art’ object,  and how it secretly became a part of the Apollo XII lunar lander by author and art historian Jade Dellinger.  The Moon Museum was the brainchild...

VIRTUAL BAUHAUS: VR EXPERIENCE
VIRTUAL BAUHAUS: VR EXPERIENCE

September 23 - October 7  Using Virtual Reality technology, Virtual Bauhaus offers visitors a one-of-a-kind experience, transporting them into the architectural space of the iconic Bauhaus Dessau building. Created and sponsored by Goethe-Institut.  

ReVIEWING 11
ReVIEWING 11

September 20-22, 2020 {UNC Asheville} ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 11. Held at UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center, this annual conference explores the history and legacy of Black Mountain College through presentations, workshops, and performances. Keynote Speakers: Sara VanDerBeek artist and Chelsea Spengemann, Director of the Stan VanDerBeek Archive. Open to the public. 

OPENING RECEPTION: VANDERBEEK + VANDERBEEK
OPENING RECEPTION: VANDERBEEK + VANDERBEEK

September 20, 2019 (120 College Street) This exhibition explores the work of contemporary artist Sara VanDerBeek and that of her father, pioneering film artist and Black Mountain College (BMC) alumnus Stan VanDerBeek. An innovator in animation and expanded cinema, VanDerBeek often collaborated with dancers to create films that captured the dynamic movement of modern dance. Included in the exhibition are a number of recently preserved dance films as well as other works made by Stan VanDerBeek and his peers at BMC. New photographs and sculptures on view by Sara VanDerBeek employ cinematic layering and montage to explore the simultaneity of contemporary human experience. The artworks on view, including select archival materials related to Stan’s studies at BMC, taken as a whole suggest varied ways of perceiving the resonance between past and present.

PERSPECTIVES: JOSH COPUS
PERSPECTIVES: JOSH COPUS

August 28, 2019 {120 College Street} Explore our Materials, Sounds, and Black Mountain College exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Josh Copus, contributing artist in the exhibition. 

PERFORMANCES: FLYER IN A DARK CHAMBER // OKAPI + EDWIN SALAS
PERFORMANCES: FLYER IN A DARK CHAMBER // OKAPI + EDWIN SALAS

August 24, 2019 {120 College Street} “Flyer in a Dark Chamber,” a reimagining of the mythology of Lilith, told through spoken-word, dance and music. Ten vignettes explore the stories of Lilith as the first wife of Adam, an empowered and emancipated woman, an outcast from Eden, the original vampire, the black madonna, along with contemporary figures such as Chikesia Clemons and Cyntoia Brown. Words by Alli Marshall, music by Elizabeth Lang/Auracene, movement by Sharon Cooper and Coco Palmer with special guests.

FLAHERTY/CORSANO DUO
FLAHERTY/CORSANO DUO

August 24th, 2019 – Transfigurations III, Celebrating 15 Years of Harvest Records presents Flaherty/Corsano Duo at BMCM+AC. Saxophonist Paul Flaherty and drummer Chris Corsano are New England-based musicians dedicated to the promise and purpose of free improvisation. Paul has released over 35 recordings since the late 70’s.

PERSPECTIVES: EVA BARES
PERSPECTIVES: EVA BARES

Wednesday, August 14 – 12-1pm  PERSPECTIVES Lunchtime Conversations @ BMCM+AC  Explore our BAUHAUS 100 exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Eva...

POETRY READING: JEFFERY BEAM
POETRY READING: JEFFERY BEAM

August 8, 2019 {120 College Street} Poet Jeffery Beam discusses, reads, and sings from Spectral Pegasus/Dark Movements. The book, an intense “marvelous and fateful game” and the result of a six-month collaboration with Welsh painter Clive Hicks-Jenkins, details a Hero’s journey through death, resurrection, psychological and spiritual trials, and revelations into redemptive vision. Co-sponsored by The Captain’s Bookshelf.

AROOJ AFTAB, ANJNA SWAMINATHAN + RAFIQ BHATIA – {Re}HAPPENING 9
AROOJ AFTAB, ANJNA SWAMINATHAN + RAFIQ BHATIA – {Re}HAPPENING 9

Arooj Aftab, Anjna Swaminathan & Rafiq Bhatia TrioFeatured performers, {Re}HAPPENING 9Historic Black Mountain College campus at Lake EdenMarch 30, 2019Arooj Aftab is a neo-sufi and minimalist composer/singer who gracefully experiments and bends the lines between...

PERSPECTIVES: CADE HOLLOMON-COOK
PERSPECTIVES: CADE HOLLOMON-COOK

July 10, 2019 {120 College Street} Explore our Materials, Sounds, and Black Mountain College exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Cade Hollomon-Cook, Design Studio Manager at East Fork Pottery.

FILMS@BMCM+AC: RECLAMATIONS OF BLACKNESS PRESENTED BY THE AFRO+PROJECTIONLAB
FILMS@BMCM+AC: RECLAMATIONS OF BLACKNESS PRESENTED BY THE AFRO+PROJECTIONLAB

Saturday, June 22, 2019 (120 College Street) – Vonnie Quest, filmmaker, curator, and founder of the Afro+ProjectionLAB, presents the cinema art program Reclamations of Blackness in which filmmakers use experimental modes of image-making to challenge cinematic notions of blackness. The program includes a post-film discussion led by Vonnie Quest. The film program includes: Under Bone by Dana Washington, The Water Will Carry Us Home by Gabrielle Tesfaye, Dappled Moira by Jamal Currie, Clean Water by Kamau Wainaina, Remnants of a Room by Vonnie Quest, and Decadent Asylum, by Amir George.

DRAWING WORKSHOP
DRAWING WORKSHOP

June 18 – August 6, 2019 {Weile Studio} Regi Weile, architect and longtime educator, teaches this 8 session drawing workshop synthesizing the Foundation Courses of the Werkbund Movement, the DeStijl Movement, and the Bauhaus. Workshop sessions’ focus will be progressive in series from drawing tools and materials, to light as formgiver in space, composition, proportions, and color…all in service to the lyrical role of the line.

Materials, Sounds + Black Mountain College
Materials, Sounds + Black Mountain College

June 8, 2019 – Original performances by Pia van Gelder, Peter Blamey, Nathan Thompson, and Jenn Grossman. Performances will utilize processes that explore the material nature of the instruments employed – handmade electronics, solar power, feedback systems, and contained sound.

PLAYING WITH SOUND KIDS WORKSHOP
PLAYING WITH SOUND KIDS WORKSHOP

June 7 + June 8, 2019 {120 College Street} Playing with Sound Kids Workshop with Vicky Browne. Astound your friends and family by making simple yet annoyingly affecting noise machines. In this workshop we will create a range of noise machines and sound experiments that will make even the most uninterested and bored student tune in! 

GALLERY TALK
GALLERY TALK

June 8, 2019 {120 College Street} Caleb Kelly will discuss the approach behind the exhibition, addressing the works in the show and the links to Black Mountain College. Kelly is a New Zealand born academic and curator working from Sydney Australia. Focusing on sound in the arts, he has most recently published Gallery Sound (Bloomsbury 2017) and previously the influential edited volume SOUND (Whitechappel Gallery and MIT Press, 2011). In 2018 he curated Material Sound at MAMA Albury Australia, an exhibition that will tour Australian regional galleries from 2020 to 2022. Kelly is a senior academic at the UNSW Art & Design Australia. 

OPENING RECEPTION
OPENING RECEPTION

June 7, 2019 {120 College Street} Originally exhibited at MAMA Albury (Australia) Materials, Sounds + Black Mountain College draws from innovative Australian artists working in new frontiers of sound and interaction in the gallery space, contextualized at BMCM+AC within the legacy of experimentation at Black Mountain College. Meanwhile, in our lower level gallery, we will celebrate the Bauhaus Centennial with Bauhaus designs and artworks, newly gifted to the BMCM+AC Permanent Collection. BAUHAUS 100 will explore the impact of the school in design, art, and education and the ways in which it shaped the structure and ethos of Black Mountain College.

PERSPECTIVES: DIANA C. STOLL
PERSPECTIVES: DIANA C. STOLL

Wednesday, May 8 – 12-1pm PERSPECTIVES Lunchtime Conversations @ BMCM+AC. Explore our Aaron Siskind exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Diana C....

MODULAR ON THE SPOT
MODULAR ON THE SPOT

Saturday, May 4 – 1-4pm {Pack Square Park} Modular On The Spot. Modular On The Spot is an outdoor modular synthesizer picnic founded in Los Angeles by Eric 'Rodent' Cheslak and Bana Haffar. The idea came about on a camping trip to Arizona in 2014 where the two set up...

PAPERMAKING WORKSHOP
PAPERMAKING WORKSHOP

Saturday, May 4 – 9-11:30am Papermaking Workshop with John Dancy Jones. Book artist and papermaker John Dancy Jones leads this hands-on workshop. Papermaking and printing have been substrates for cultural expression for all of history. Learn how paper is made, make a...

AARON SISKIND IN RETROSPECT: A PRESENTATION BY JAMES BARRON
AARON SISKIND IN RETROSPECT: A PRESENTATION BY JAMES BARRON

May 2, 2019 (120 College Street) – Aaron Siskind in Retrospect, a presentation by James Barron. James Barron is an art dealer based in Kent, CT. While still an art history student at Brown University, and working at a Providence photo gallery, he met photographer Aaron Siskind and sold 22 Siskind photographs to his parents. These vintage photographs form the core of this exhibition at BMCM+AC. James Barron will speak about Aaron Siskind’s photographs and his family’s friendship with Siskind through art and photography.

NEO PASTICHE: CHANGES IN AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL
NEO PASTICHE: CHANGES IN AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

April 25 – April 28, 2019 {120 College Street} Neo Pastiche: Changes in American Music Festival with performers: Eugene Chadbourne, Anka (Carmelo Pampillonio + Marcyanne Hannemann), Petr Kotik (“There is Singularly Nothing”), Sarah Louise (Deep Listening inspired exercises), Deforrest Brown Jr. and Nick James Scavo (“Wrecked New American Music of a Cancelled Species”), Theodore Cale Schafer, Kimathi Moore and Elizabeth Lang, Jeff Witscher, Jaclyn Miller (aka Voice Training), S.E.M Ensemble (Julius Eastman’s “Macle” and John Cage’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, and Morton Feldman “For Philip Guston”)

ASHEVILLE WORDFEST 2019 POETRY READING
ASHEVILLE WORDFEST 2019 POETRY READING

Saturday, April 13 – 5pm Asheville Wordfest 2019 Poetry Reading. Introducing writers from Mars Hill University and UNC-Asheville. Three creative writing students from each university will read original work, representing different genres. The evening will be...

PERSPECTIVES: JON ELLISTON
PERSPECTIVES: JON ELLISTON

April 10, 2019 (120 College Street) – Explore our Politics at BMC exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Jon Elliston, co-curator of the exhibition, writer, and Senior Editor of WNC Magazine.

{Re}HAPPENING 9
{Re}HAPPENING 9

Saturday, March 30, 3-10pm {Re}HAPPENING AT LAKE EDEN. The {Re}HAPPENING is an annual afternoon and evening event at the historic campus of Black Mountain College – 15 minutes from Asheville. It is part art event, part fundraiser, and part community instigator,...

FILMS@BMCM+AC: ONE FAST MOVE OR I’M GONE: KEROUAC’S BIG SUR
FILMS@BMCM+AC: ONE FAST MOVE OR I’M GONE: KEROUAC’S BIG SUR

Thursday, March 21 – 7pm FILMS@BMCM+AC: One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur. This 97-minute documentary takes the audience on a visceral ride of raw emotions and dramatic events based on Jack Kerouac’s brilliantly honest 1962 novel, Big Sur. The film is told...

CREATIVE CAPITAL WORKSHOP: STRATEGIC PLANNING + COMMUNICATIONS FOR ARTISTS
CREATIVE CAPITAL WORKSHOP: STRATEGIC PLANNING + COMMUNICATIONS FOR ARTISTS

March 15, 2019 {120 College Street} Participants learn key business, management, and communications skills and hear first-hand from artists who have used these tools to achieve success—as they define it. Topics include business management, goal setting, writing and talking about your work, and negotiation. In addition to lecture presentations, participants engage in interactive exercises, have the opportunity to meet with leaders in small working groups, and are given a Strategic Planning workbook to help guide their process. Consultant and arts activist, Colleen Keegan and NC based artist, Beverly McIver will lead the workshop.

PERSPECTIVES: JAY MILLER
PERSPECTIVES: JAY MILLER

March 13, 2019 {120 College Street} Explore our Politics at BMC exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Jay Miller, co-curator of the exhibition, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Warren Wilson College Honors Program.

BROOKLYN RIDER – HEALING MODES
BROOKLYN RIDER – HEALING MODES

November 7, 2018 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville presented the Asheville debut of the eclectic string quartet Brooklyn Rider with the premiere of their new project Healing Modes. The healing properties of music have been recognized from ancient Greek civilization to the field of modern neuroscience and expressed in countless global traditions. The slow movement of Beethoven’s Opus 132, a ‘Song of Holy Thanksgiving From a Convalescent to the Deity in the Lydian mode,’ is among the most profound expressions of healing in the string quartet repertoire. This autumnal masterwork is presented in its entirety alongside five compact new commissions which explore the subject of healing from a wide range of historical and cultures perspectives. Composers include Tyondai Braxton, Reena Esmail, Gabriela Lena Frank, Matana Roberts and recent Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw.

PERSPECTIVES: CONNIE BOSTIC
PERSPECTIVES: CONNIE BOSTIC

February 13, 2019 {120 College Street} Explore our Politics at BMC exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Connie Bostic, co-curator of the exhibition, artist, and BMCM+AC board member.

OPENING RECEPTION
OPENING RECEPTION

February 1, 2019 {120 College Street} The BMC community faced political differences, both internally and externally, throughout its 24-year history. The college was born in 1933 during the Great Depression, lived through WWII, was deeply affected by Hitler’s rise to power, and closed during the Cold War. Though often viewed today as an idyllic mountain refuge, isolated from tumultuous global politics, BMC took shape in the context of (and in response to) world events. Through a rich variety of media—artworks, images, texts, and audio—this exhibition will explore the various political dimensions of Black Mountain College, both internal and external, that shaped the trajectory of the college and its community of people.

SCIENCE PUB: A TOAST TO THE SCIENTISTS OF BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
SCIENCE PUB: A TOAST TO THE SCIENTISTS OF BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE

November 16, 2018 {Asheville Museum of Science} Open only 23 years, from 1933 to 1956, Black Mountain College has become famous for the many artists who were faculty or students at the college. These individuals have had a profound influence on modern and contemporary art. Recently there have been national and international exhibitions dedicated to the influence and legacy of BMC. There is now an extensive collection of literature on the college. Most of this work has focused on the arts and artists from BMC. However, BMC was not just an art school. It was a liberal arts college based on John Dewey’s theories of education. There was a full spectrum of liberal arts classes, including classes in the sciences such as mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology. The college always had at least a few science faculty. Just as BMC was able to attract many great artists because of WWII, they were also able to attract some amazing science faculty. For a small undergraduate college tucked back in the southern Appalachian Mountains, the list of distinguished science faculty is surprising. This talk will give a brief overview of a few of the notable individuals who taught in the sciences at BMC.

FILM SCREENINGS
FILM SCREENINGS

January 10, 2019 {120 College Street} Jacob Lawrence: The Glory of Expression. Narrated by Ossie Davis, this 28 minute film traces the life and work of Jacob Lawrence, emphasizing the narratives in his paintings and his studio process. Written and directed by David Irving. We’ll also screen Uncle Yanco, a film about artist Jean Varda, BMC faculty during the Summer session of 1946 and Martha Colburn’s film commissioned for the exhibition Between Form and Content, reflecting on the work of Jacob Lawrence. With post-film discussion led by Julie Levin Caro.

PERSPECTIVES: DARIN WATERS
PERSPECTIVES: DARIN WATERS

January 9, 2019 {120 College Street} Explore our Jacob Lawrence exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Dr. Darin J. Waters is the Executive Director of the Office of Community Engagement, and an Associate Professor of History at UNC Asheville, co-host of The Waters and Harvey Show, and scholar of African American history in Asheville.

PERSPECTIVES: CLARISSA SLIGH
PERSPECTIVES: CLARISSA SLIGH

December 12, 2018 {120 College} Explore our Jacob Lawrence exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Clarissa Sligh, photographer and book artist.

JACOB LAWRENCE COMMUNITY DAY
JACOB LAWRENCE COMMUNITY DAY

December 8, 2018 {120 College Street} Join us for a fun, free day in the museum celebrating Jacob Lawrence’s art and life. Including tours of the exhibition, poetry, and hands-on art activities for all ages. Presented in partnership with the Easel Rider art crew and including teaching artist Cleaster Cotton and artist and poet DeWayne Barton. Community Day will feature an exhibition of artworks by 5th grade students at Vance Elementary, inspired by the art and life of Jacob Lawrence. Students have been studying Lawrence with TAPAS resident artist Cleaster Cotton. 

JOSEF ALBERS: MAKING AND LEARNING (SOLD OUT)
JOSEF ALBERS: MAKING AND LEARNING (SOLD OUT)

December 1, 2018 {120 College} Fritz Horstman, Education Coordinator at The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation leads this workshop exploring and expanding upon Josef Albers’s classroom exercises from the Bauhaus, BMC, and Yale. In his time teaching at Black Mountain, Jacob Lawrence sat in on Albers’s famous color course, and later recalled how important it was to his own painting. In the workshop we will try Albers’s color experiments and also investigate paper folding, design studies, and more.

CONVERSATION WITH BARBARA EARL THOMAS
CONVERSATION WITH BARBARA EARL THOMAS

November 15, 2018 {120 College Street} Curator and art historian Julie Levin Caro leads a conversation with Barbara Earl Thomas, granddaughter of southern sharecroppers, artist, and former student of Jacob Lawrence. From 2008-2013 Thomas served as executive director of the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle, WA.

PERSPECTIVES: BARBARA EARL THOMAS
PERSPECTIVES: BARBARA EARL THOMAS

November 14, 2018 {120 College Street} Explore our Jacob Lawrence exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view. Guest Speaker: Barbara Earl Thomas, artist and former student of Jacob Lawrence.

JACE CLAYTON aka DJ /rupture
JACE CLAYTON aka DJ /rupture

October 19, 2018 {120 College Street} “The Jacob Lawrence of Jacob Lawrence” by Jace Clayton aka DJ /rupture. Presented in conjunction with African Americans in WNC & Southern Appalachia Conference, The Jacob Lawrence of Jacob Lawrence is a video and performance by Jace Clayton. The video is a hand-drawn animation with texts that form part of the script for the performance. As Clayton and vocalist Arooj Aftab perform, their voices will be transformed and processed live, using the sonic mutations to extend and transform the themes of the source text.

CURATOR TALK
CURATOR TALK

October 25, 2018 {120 College Street} Julie Levin Caro, co-curator of Between Form + Content will discuss the fruits of her multi-year research process into Jacob Lawrence and the impact of BMC and Josef Albers on Lawrence’s painting and teaching.

THEO BLECKMANN AND BEN MONDER
THEO BLECKMANN AND BEN MONDER

September 8, 2018 (120 College Street) – Performance of original works by vocalist Theo Bleckmann and guitarist Ben Monder. For over 15 years, the Theo Bleckmann & Ben Monder Duo has been touring the U.S., Europe, and Asia creating a unique approach to what might be called “jazz art song”, blurring the boundaries between jazz, classical, ambient, and rock.

PERSPECTIVES: CLEASTER COTTON
PERSPECTIVES: CLEASTER COTTON

Wednesday, October 10, 12-1pm {120 College Street} PERSPECTIVES Lunchtime Conversations @ BMCM+AC. Explore our Jacob Lawrence exhibition along with an artist, historian, or scholar who will give perspective and context to the work from their particular point of view....

HOOD TOURS
HOOD TOURS

October 1, 2018 – January 12, 2019 {120 College Street} BMCM+AC is teaming up with Hood Huggers International for the run of the Jacob Lawrence exhibition. Hood Huggers International, founded by visionary poet and artist DeWayne Barton, explores the past, present and future of African Americans in Asheville. Visit www.hoodhuggers.com/hood-tours/ for more info and to book a tour.

ReVIEWING 10
ReVIEWING 10

September 28-30, 2018 (UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center) – ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 10. This annual conference explores the history and legacy of Black Mountain College through presentations, workshops, and performances. Keynote Speaker: art historian Dr. Leslie King Hammond and Keynote Panel: Tyondai Braxton, Grace Villamil, Martha Colburn, and Jace Clayton (DJ Rupture).