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

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