Black Mountain College: An Artistic and Educational Legacy
Coursepack Reading List
Landmarks of American History and Culture
One-week residence-based workshop
Reading Prior to Arrival
1. “A Beginning,” Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community, Martin Duberman,
(pages 11-40).
2. “A New Deal in American Education,” & “Progressivism, Modernism & the Higher
Learning,” The Arts at Black Mountain College, Mary Emma Harris, (pgs. 2-15).
3. "Education on a Mountain," Louis Adamic, Harper's Magazine, April 1936.
Sunday Night Reading
1. Chapter XIV, "Art and Civilization" Art as Experience, John Dewey.
2. Interview with John Andrew Rice, Black Mountain College: Sprouted Seeds, An
Anthology of Personal Accounts, edited by Mervin Lane, (pgs. 10-23).
3. Chapter 3, "The Image of The Bauhaus as Received in America," The Bauhaus and
America: First Contacts 1919-1936, Margret Kentgens-Craig.
Monday Night Reading
1. Chapter 3, “Josef and Anni Albers,” Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community,
Martin Duberman, (pgs. 41-63).
2. Excerpt from Josef Albers: To Open Eyes, Frederick A. Horowitz and Brenda
Danilowitz, (pgs.30-43).
8. Interviews with Josef and Anni Albers in Black Mountain College: Sprouted Seeds, An
Anthology of Personal Accounts, Mervin Lane, (pgs. 33-43).
9. “1933-36,” Anni Albers, Nicholas Fox Weber and Pandora Tabatabai Asbaghi
pgs. 163-168).
Tuesday Night Reading
1. Excerpts from "Black Mountain College: A Golden Seed" and "Three Poems" by M.C.
Richards in Black Mountain College: Sprouted Seeds, An Anthology of Personal
Accounts, edited by Mervin Lane, (pgs. 170-177).
2. “Black Mountain College: A Personal View of Creativity,” Opening Our Moral Eye,
M.C. Richards in (pgs. 61-76).
3. "Pedagogy" by M.C. Richards in CENTERING: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person
(pgs 96-129)
Wednesday Night Reading
1. “Black Mountain College,” Ruth Asawa in Buckminster Fuller: Anthology for a New
Millennium, edited by Thomas T.K. Zung (pgs 201-204).
2. “Introduction: Guinea Pig B,” Buckminster Fuller in Buckminster Fuller: Anthology
for a New Millennium, edited by Thomas T.K. Zung (pgs. 284-318).
3. “Thought Patterns: Buckminster Fuller the Scientist-Artist,” Dana Miller, Buckminster
Fuller: Starting with the Universe (pgs. 21-40).
Thursday Night Reading
1. “The Night Olson Learned How to Teach,” The Black Mountain Book, Fielding
Dawson, (pgs. 39-51).
2. “1952,” Black Mountain Days, Michael Rumaker, (pgs. 11-35).
3. “Chapter 13: Olson,” Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community, Martin
Duberman, (pgs. 389-407).
4. “Spatial and Energetic: A Conversation with Fielding Dawson,” North Carolina
Literary Review: The Black Mountain College Issue, Joseph Bathanti, (pgs 113-122).
5. "Black Mountain: The Breaking (Making) of a Writer," Francine du Plessix Gray,
Black Mountain College: Sprouted Seeds, An Anthology of Personal Accounts, edited by
Mervin Lane (pgs 300-311).
Friday Night Reading
1. "Report from the Academy: The Experimental College," Eric Bentley in Black
Mountain College: Sprouted Seeds, An Anthology of Personal Accounts, edited by
Mervin Lane, (pgs 110-118).
2. "The Closing," and "Epilogue: Continuations," The Arts at Black Mountain College,
Mary Emma Harris, (pgs 240-247).
