Landmarks of American History and Culture
one-week residence-based workshops for a national audience of
community college educators
Thematic Focus
Black Mountain College: An Artistic and Educational Legacy
When: Two weeks in July 2011 (July 10-16 or July 17-23)
Where: UNC Asheville and various field trip locations
Sunday
Check-in, reception, dinner
• Welcome and Overview of BMC by Project Director Brian Butler and Alice Sebrell, Program Director for the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
Monday – BMC Beginnings
• Katherine Chaddock, Ph.D. (author of Visions and Vanities: John Andrew Rice of Black Mountain College and Professor and Chair, Educational Leadership and Policies, College of Education, University of South Carolina) will speak about the founder of BMC and the principles upon which the college was based.
• Margret Kentgens-Craig, Ph.D (author of The Bauhaus and America: First Contacts 1919-1936 and Adjunct Associate Professor at North Carolina State University College of Design, School of Architecture) will speak about the Bauhaus influence on Black Mountain College.
• Lunch
• Field trips to the two campuses of Black Mountain College and to the town of Black Mountain
* Dinner
• Film Screening of Fully Awake: Black Mountain College
Tuesday – The Albers Influence
• Fred Horowitz (co-author of Josef Albers: To Open Eyes) will speak about Josef and Anni Albers and their enormous influence on BMC.
• Field trip to the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.
• Lunch
• Color Workshop (based on Josef Albers' teaching) with Fred Horowitz
• Group Discussion
* Dinner
• Individual Research
Wednesday – Mary Caroline (M.C.) Richards and Interdisciplinarity
• Paulus Berensohn (potter, poet and long-time companion to M.C. Richards) and Julia Connor (executor of M.C. Richards' literary estate and Poet Laureate of Sacramento, CA) will conduct a one-day workshop as designed and taught many times by M.C. Richards called Clay, Color and Word.
• Group Discussion will be incorporated into the day
* Dinner
• Film Screening of M.C. Richards: The Fire Within
Thursday – Buckminster Fuller and The Big Idea
• David McConville (Board member of the Buckminster Fuller Institute and co-founder of The Elumenati) will speak about Buckminster Fuller at BMC and Dome Technology.
• Field trip to McConville's studio for an immersive Dome experience (Tour of the Universe).
• Lunch
• Workshop with Mark Hanf and Marnie Muller (co-founders of Earth Voyage, a Special Project of The Buckminster Fuller Institute). The workshop will be cross-curricular, experiential and earthsystems-based.
• Group Discussion
* Dinner
• Film Screening about Buckminster Fuller
Friday – The Written and Spoken Word
• Joseph Bathanti (poet, writer and Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University) will speak about the poets and writers associated with BMC.
• Group Discussion
• Lunch
• Workshop with Frank Brannon (master letterpress artist) and Sebastian Matthews (poet, writer and Creative Writing Instructor at Warren Wilson College). The workshop will engage participants in writing a Haiku and then printing it using letterpress.
• Group Discussion
* Dinner
• Film Screening of Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place
Saturday – The Legacy Continues
• BMC legacy – Discussion about the successes and failures of BMC: what worked and what did not work? Could a similar educational approach work in the 21st century? How does the college's artistic and educational legacy endure?
• Departure
