The energy, ideas, and impact of Black Mountain College were carried forth into the world by those who were there, whether in the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s. These seeds from BMC then spread and sprouted widely in education, the arts of all kinds, and in ideas about living cooperatively in experimental communities.
The Blue Ridge Assembly campus is still owned by the YMCA and is a year-round conference center. Robert E. Lee Hall is now known as Eureka Hall. Most of the Lake Eden campus is now owned by Lake Eden Preserve and is still home to Camp Rockmont for Boys. The Studies Building serves as the administrative offices for the camp. The BMC Farm and Barns are owned by Lake Eden Events and Lodging and are available for special events.
Before BMC closed, a new community deeply influenced by the college was forming in Rockland County, NY. Known as the Gate Hill Cooperative or The Land, it was founded by former BMC students Paul and Vera Williams who were joined by BMCers M.C. Richards, David Tudor, Karen Karnes, David Weinrib, John Cage, Patsy Lynch, Stan Vanderbeek, and others. This visionary community continues to this day with different members. Another community of former BMC alumni started in Oregon. Many alumni made their way to New York City to pursue lives in the arts, but places like San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Taos were also likely landing places.
The arts education pedagogy brought to the U.S. from the Bauhaus by Josef and Anni Albers has had a lasting impact on courses taught in art departments all over the world. Younger visual artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Susan Weil, Cy Twombly, Ruth Asawa, Jacob Lawrence, Kenneth Snelson, Stan Vanderbeek, and Ray Johnson further expanded our notions of materials exploration and art practice into new and thrilling territory.
Similarly in music, dance, performance, and the literary arts, the freedom to experiment and collaborate that was ever present at BMC, led to some of the most innovative work of the 20th and 21st centuries, such as the collaborations between Merce Cunningham and John Cage and Jonathan Williams’ small press known as The Jargon Society, an incubator for collaborative work between writers and visual artists.
It is important to remember that beyond the famous names that are frequently referenced, the college’s legacy spread in less public ways through the powerful daily influence of BMC alumni in all fields of endeavor, enjoying process as much as product, and living life as a responsible citizen of the world. The reverberations from their work and influence continue to spread.
In 1993 our museum was founded by Mary Holden Thompson to preserve and continue the history and legacy of Black Mountain College. In 2022 we will celebrate our 29th anniversary.
