Shaping Craft + Design at Black Mountain College – Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
56 Broadway, downtown Asheville
bmcmac@bellsouth.net or 828-350-8484
Hours: Tues.-Wed. 12-4 , Thurs-Sat. 11-5 and by appointment

Shaping Craft + Design at Black Mountain College

Exhibition: Sept. 6, 2013 – Jan. 4, 2014and Conference: Oct. 11-13, 2013
From September to early January, the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center will focus on craft and design at Black Mountain College. This thematic focus will be achieved through an annual conference, now in its 5th year, along with an exhibition, catalogue and related educational programming. Shaping Craft + Design at Black Mountain College is designed to inspire new ways of thinking about the role and impact of Black Mountain College on developing craft and design movements in America and internationally. The conference, to be held Oct. 11-13 coincides with American Craft Week.

EXHIBITION

The exhibition, Shaping Craft + Design at Black Mountain College, to be installed at the BMC Museum + Arts Center in downtown Asheville, will include ceramics, textiles, furniture, printed material, sculpture, paintings and ephemera created by students and faculty during and after Black Mountain College, the short-lived, legendary college in existence from 1933-1957. 

Highlights of the exhibition include:

• Furniture by Josef Albers, Lawrence Kocher, Mim Sihvonen and Molly Gregory.
• Ceramics by Karen Karnes, Shoji Hamada, Robert Turner, M.C. Richards, Peter Voulkos, Cynthia Homire and David Weinrib.
• A loom from the BMC Weaving Workshop.
• The original woodblock and its associated print for a Josef Albers print made at BMC.
• Textiles by students of Anni Albers, including Fred Goldsmith, Erris Burnett, Ragland Watkins, Elizabeth Schmitt Jennerjahn, Don Page and Lore Kadden Lindenfeld.
• Sculpture by Ruth Asawa, James Prestini, Leo Amino and Kenneth Snelson.
• Printed broadsides from the BMC printshop.
• BMC ephemera, including architectural plans for the campus by Walter Gropius and Marce Breuer, a notebook from Anni Albers’ weaving class, and a “Craft Horizons” article by Anni Albers.

Shaping Craft + Design at Black Mountain College will be installed at the BMC Museum + Arts Center in downtown Asheville from September 6, 2013 – January 4, 2014. The exhibition is curated by Katie Lee and will be accompanied by a full color catalogue with an essay by the curator. The exhibition is expected to travel to several additional venues around the country, including Winthrop University and the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery at Weber State University, Utah.

CONFERENCE: ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 5: Shaping Craft + Design
The annual ReVIEWING Black Mountain College conference will take place Oct. 11-13, 2013 at the Reuter Center/ Osher Lifelong Learning Center on the UNC Asheville campus. The three-day program is open to the public and will include a full schedule of speakers and panels featuring Keynote Speaker Christopher Benfey, PhD., distinguished historian, author of many books including Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay, and great nephew of Josef and Anni Albers. Benfey’s presentation is entitled SURVIVAL 101:KEEPING EDUCATION ALIVE AT BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE.

Jenni Sorkin, Conference Featured Speaker, is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History, University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently completing a book manuscript, titled Live Form: Craft as Participation, which examines the confluence of gender, artistic labor, and the history of post-war ceramics from 1945 to 1975.

Ulrich Schwarz, Conference Featured Speaker, is Professor of Visual Communication and Vice Dean at University of the Arts Berlin and a Managing Partner of Bertron Schwarz Frey, a design firm focused on Museography, Exhibition Design and Information Design. He is the author of publications such as “Space, Time, Characters” and “Museography and Exhibition Design”as well as contributionsto “Information Graphics”and “Information Design Source Book”. 

Other conference presentations will come from a Call for Proposals that has garnered submissions from the United States and Europe. 

The conference fee is $70.00 and includes an annual membership to the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. It is open to the public. 

PROGRAMMING
The project will also include a comprehensive schedule of educational programming designed to broaden the public’s understanding and engagement with Black Mountain College’s legacy and the role of craft and design in America. The schedule will include: (1) a lecture by Ellen Lupton on October 24, 2013, hosted at BMCM+AC and co-sponsored by the Western Carolina University (WCU) Design Development Foundation (DDF) as a part of the “Ideas Without Walls/In Between Spaces” series; (2) a hands-on, experiential folded paper workshop facilitated by WCU Professor Matt Liddle, at BMCM+AC; and (3) a film screening and discussion of “”Bauhaus in America,” moderated by Board Chair and Professor Brian Butler at BMCM+AC.

Images and Citations Available Upon Request.

The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center preserves and continues the unique legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College for public study and enjoyment. We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibitions, publications, and public programs.