The Farm at Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
September 2024 – January 2025
Mary Parks Washington, Untitled (Black Mountain College Histcollage), circa 1995. Mixed media / watercolor and newsprint on paper. Collection of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Gift of the Artist.
Built on more than a decade’s worth of deep, original archival research, this exhibition will constitute a comprehensive new history of Black Mountain College. By focusing on the farm, the exhibition sidesteps the popular paradigm of approaching BMC through its famous faculty and students, and instead offers a new cast of characters, one that includes mostly students, women, and farmers. It spotlights the importance of collaboration, both on campus among students, faculty, and faculty families, and in the community with farmers and organizations in nearby cities and towns. Finally, the exhibition shows what happens when communal living is no longer communal, and offers the first ever detailed account of the fall of the college, a dramatic and often dangerous story.
The opening reception and a keynote lecture will take place in conjunction with BMCM+AC’s annual ReVIEWING conference hosted at UNC Asheville. Exhibition themes will correspond to the chapters of co-curator David Silver’s book on this topic, to be published in conjunction with the exhibition in partnership with Atelier Editions.
Curated by David Silver and Bruce Johansen
Kenelm Winslow, Untitled photograph of Black Mountain College work camp, late 1930s – early 1940s. Kenelm Winslow Fotofolio, collection of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Gift of Kenelm Winslow, Jr.
Kenelm Winslow, Untitled photograph of Black Mountain College work camp, late 1930s – early 1940s. Kenelm Winslow Fotofolio, collection of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Gift of Kenelm Winslow, Jr.
Kenelm Winslow, Untitled photograph of Black Mountain College work camp, late 1930s – early 1940s. Kenelm Winslow Fotofolio, collection of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Gift of Kenelm Winslow, Jr.