ReVIEWING Black Mountain College

International Conference

Co-hosted by BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville

at UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center

AN UPDATE FROM BMCM+AC ON 10/4/2024:

We have made the very difficult decision to cancel the 15th ReViewing BMC conference. Hurricane Helene crashed through Asheville and Western North Carolina with devastating results. Our museum is ok, as are our collections, and all staff members. Many of you have reached out to check on us, and we are very appreciative for your concern and support. We have power at the museum so the climate is stable. Many in our city and region do not have power yet. Almost nobody has water, and won’t have it for an unknown number of weeks. This includes lodging places like hotels and airbnbs. With the uncertainty of a water restoration timeline, we feel like we must cancel. It’s so disappointing, because things were looking very exciting for the conference program. We aren’t able to contemplate rescheduling at this point, but maybe that will be possible eventually.

— The BMCM+AC Team

About the Conference

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College conference is a forum for scholars and artists to contribute original work on topics related to Black Mountain College and its place in cultural history.

The format is designed to be interdisciplinary, with sessions that will include panels, presentations, performances, and workshops. BMC itself was a uniquely interdisciplinary organization, generating output from its faculty and students that often involved the melding of the visual, performing, and literary arts. Each year, conference participation reflects this; past presentations have explored wide-ranging, fruitful intersections such as (to name just a few of the most recent examples) how Charles Olson’s “projectivist” poetics inspired works on the stage and screen; the influence of choreographer Merce Cunningham on Abstract Expressionist painters trained at BMC such as Pat Passlof and James Bishop; the photography of poet-publisher-artist Jonathan Williams; the path from BMC’s first Summer Institute in honor of Arnold Schoenberg, to the design and philosophy of contemporary summer arts programs today; a performance connecting Ruth Asawa’s sculpture to contemporary dance; and a workshop offering attendees the opportunity to weave on looms with found materials, as Anni Albers’ BMC students did.

The conference is hosted annually in the fall. Proposals on any theme related to Black Mountain College and its legacy are encouraged and will be considered, and, in the spirit of BMC, the conference challenges disciplinary boundaries, and invites contributions of all genres: performances, panels, multi-media proposals, and workshops are welcome.

Images: Keynote audience, photo by Paris Jewell, 2023. Jen Bervin performance, photo by Roxanne Juno Snider, 2023. ReVIEWING 14 group picture, photo by Roxanne Juno Snider, 2023.

Browse past conferences

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 5

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 5

International Conference October 11-13, 2013 Thematic Focus: Shaping Craft and Design From its Bauhaus workshop-model foundation brought over from Germany by Josef and Anni Albers in 1933 to the forward-thinking designers live Alvin Lustig and Buckminster Fuller who...

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ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 4

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 4

International Conference September 28-30, 2012 Thematic Focus: Looking Forward at Buckminster Fuller's Legacy The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, along with the Buckminster Fuller Institute and the University of North Carolina at Asheville, will present a...

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ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 3

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 3

International Conference October 7-9, 2011 Thematic Focus: John Cage's Circle of Influence Topics and presentations may include the diverse ideas and influences at play in Cage's work with an overarching theme of John Cage as a synthesizer, inventor, thinker, and...

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ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 2

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 2

International Conference October 8 -10, 2010 Artists, Performers, Academics Explore Persistent Power of BMC's Radical Experiment in Higher Education Returning to the source of artistic and cultural innovation, presenters accepted for the 2nd Re-Viewing Black Mountain...

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ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 1

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 1

An International ConferenceOctober 9-11, 2009 on the UNC Asheville CampusThe legacy of Black Mountain College continues to inform contemporary culture in multiple realms. This conference will investigate its history as well as the multiple paths of influence, actual...

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Special thanks to our 2023 Foundation, Business, + Individual Supporters: BMCM+AC Board of Directors, UNC Asheville Office of the Chancellor, Lake Eden Preserve, Lake Eden Events, Catherine Frank, and Susan Rhew Design.

Interested in sponsoring ReVIEWING and supporting BMCM+AC? Contact us at info@blackmountaincollege.org to learn more.

ROBERT AND KAREN MILNES

Rowan Coffee