March 31, 2026
for immediate release
Kira Houston, Outreach Manager
828.350.8484 | kira@blackmountaincollege.org
Suzi Gablik, The Tangled Bank #6, 1978. Collection of BMCM+AC. Gift of the Artist.
Black Mountain COLL(A)GE
May 29, 2026 – September 5, 2026
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
EXHIBITION
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center presents Black Mountain COLL(A)GE, an exhibition tracing the presence of collage through the history and legacy of the renowned liberal arts college. Combining work by Black Mountain College artists with select contemporary collagists, the exhibition foregrounds transformation as a radical strategy, assembling an ever-shifting picture of collage as medium, method, and memory.
From Josef Albers’ matière exercises to the collaborative 1951 “Glyph Exchange” between Charles Olson, Ben Shahn and Katherine Litz, cutting up and rearranging found material was a way of life at Black Mountain College. Some of the 20th century’s most influential collage practitioners, including Robert Rauschenberg and Ray Johnson, studied at BMC. Many other students took up collage as a life-long medium, including Irwin Kremen, William Douglas McGee, Jo Sandman, John Urbain, Mary Parks Washington, and Susan Weil. Still others continued to experiment with cut-ups while working in other realms of creative production, such as the writer and critic Suzi Gablik. Today, collage continues to exert a powerful influence on our art ecosystem. Selected works from contemporary collagists contextualize the medium’s trajectory and provide a window into the future. Curated by Kira Houston, this exhibition pieces together a wide array of stories to encapsulate a visual and sonic exploration of Black Mountain COLL(A)GE.
ARTISTS
The exhibition features works by Black Mountain College artists including Roberta Blair, Margaret Balzer Cantieni, Fielding Dawson, William Douglas McGee, Jorge Fick, Joseph Fiore, Suzi Gablik, W.P. Jennerjahn, Elizabeth Jennerjahn, Ray Johnson, Irwin Kremen, Robin Morey, Robert Motherwell, Faith Murray Britton, Mary Parks Washington, René Pinchuk, Robert Rauschenberg, M.C. Richards, Jo Sandman, John Urbain, Jean Varda, and Susan Weil. Contemporary works by artists Lucas Samaras, Julian Jamaal Jones, Elias Sime, Andy Gambrell, Christopher Hamilton + Steve Pescatore, Drones in the Garden, and Swannatopia will explore permutations of collage beyond BMC.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Reception for Black Mountain COLL(A)GE
Friday, May 29, 2026 – 5:30–8pm | Free and Open to All
@ Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center {120 College Street, Asheville, NC}
Join us for the opening reception for Black Mountain COLL(A)GE hosted at BMCM+AC.
PERSPECTIVES: Conversation with Julian Jamaal Jones
Virtual (Date TBA) | Free and Open to All
In this conversation series, BMCM+AC explores perspectives from artists, scholars, curators, and leaders who engage with the living legacy of BMC. Join us for a virtual PERSPECTIVES event with Julian Jamaal Jones, a multidisciplinary artist who memorializes Black culture through fresh perspectives and a commitment to creative freedom within traditional frameworks. Drawing from the historical language of African American quilting, Jones employs abstraction and vibrant color to both honor tradition and reframe it, bypassing preconceptions and opening conversations around his lived Black experience.
ELEMENTS of BMC: Workshop Series
MULTIPLE DATES
@ Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center {120 College Street, Asheville, NC}
ELEMENTS OF BMC is a workshop series that explores the fundamental parts of creative practice at Black Mountain College, highlighting a range of artistic mediums and techniques. The series investigates the role of these elements in shaping the college’s legacy and lasting influence on contemporary art. Three ELEMENTS workshops, presented in conjunction with Black Mountain COLL(A)GE, will highlight different concepts and techniques related to collage.
ELEMENTS of BMC: Collaborative Collage
With Travis Medford | Saturday June 13, 2026 at 12PMCollaboration was an integral part of the creative process at BMC. This ELEMENTS workshop, facilitated by contemporary collagist Travis Medford, will explore the collaborative possibilities of collage. Participants will create collaborative collages in dialogue with each other.
ELEMENTS of BMC: Collage Across Space and Time
With Liz Williams of Southern Equality Studios | Saturday July 18, 2026 at 12PMSouthern Equality Studios is a program that explores how the arts can be a catalyst and force in achieving lived and legal LGBTQ equality across the South. In this multigenerational workshop, participants will create collage postcards imbued with messages of joy, and will also learn how to create a stop-motion video as part of the creative process. Registration will be available through Southern Equality Studios.
ELEMENTS of BMC: Collage in Motion
With Swannatopia | Saturday August 15th, 2026 at 12PMSwannatopia is a group of experimental artists headquartered in Swannanoa, NC and residing throughout the Southeastern United States. Over the past decade, they have set out to blur the lines between “artist” and “participant,” to defamiliarize the familiar, to nurture an immersive, whimsical, thoughtful, experience of empowerment and offer a glimpse of what is possible. This summer Swannatopia will explore BEE communication, putting collage in motion through “square waggle dance” with artist and musician Sally Anne Morgan.
Sonic Collage: Installation and Performance with Drones in the Garden
Free and Open to All | Thursday August 27th, 2026 at 7PM
@ Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center {120 College Street, Asheville, NC}
Join us for an evening of poetry + music co-curated by Drones in the Garden, an experimental art collective creating seasonal performance platforms for WNC musicians and writers. This community event will explore the sonic dimensions of collage, and will also feature a floating botanical collage installation created through community collaboration.
ABOUT BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
Founded in 1933, Black Mountain College was one of the leading experimental liberal art schools in America until its closure in 1957. After the Bauhaus in Germany closed due to mounting antagonism from the Nazi Party, Josef and Anni Albers readily accepted an offer to join the Black Mountain College faculty. During their 16-year tenure in North Carolina, the Alberses helped model the college’s interdisciplinary curriculum on that of the Bauhaus, attracting an unmatched roster of teachers and students including R. Buckminster Fuller, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Mary Caroline (M.C.) Richards, Ruth Asawa, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) was founded in 1993 to celebrate the history of Black Mountain College as a forerunner in progressive interdisciplinary education and to celebrate its extraordinary impact on modern and contemporary art, dance, theater, music, and performance.
The Museum is committed to educating the public about the history of Black Mountain College and promoting awareness of its extensive legacy through exhibitions, publications, lectures, films, seminars, and oral histories. Through our permanent collection, special exhibitions, publications, and research archive, we provide access to historical materials related to the College and its influence on the field.
BMCM+AC provides a forum for multifaceted programming in a dynamic environment in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Our goal is to provide a gathering point for people from a variety of backgrounds to interact – integrating art, ideas, and discourse.
More about BMCM+AC: blackmountaincollege.org