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The Shape of Imagination: Women of Black Mountain College |
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A Year long Project including 3 exhibitions as well as performances, films, poetry readings and panel discussions.
 Cora Kelley at BMC, ca. 1949
Sphere: October 3, 2008-February 14, 2009
Exhibition: Opens Friday, Oct. 3, 2008, 6:00-8:00 pm
$3 / Free for BMCM+AC members
On Friday, October 3rd from 6:00 – 8:00 pm, the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) will launch a yearlong project celebrating the women of Black Mountain College and their many accomplishments in the visual arts, literature, dance and academia. Over the course of the year the project will include 3 exhibitions as well as performances, films, poetry and panel discussions.
The Shape of Imagination: Women of Black Mountain College commemorates Black Mountain College’s role in contributing to the empowerment of female artists and writers, as an important group in the history of American art and education. Countless women have been influenced by the legacy of BMC women, through individual inspiration; interaction within the greater arts communities; and by their role as educators. This initial exhibition takes a comprehensive approach to representing the work of BMC women. It includes work by visual artists Elaine de Kooning, Pat Passlof, Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Fannie Hillsmith and many others; pottery by Karen Karnes and M.C. Richards; weaving by Elizabeth Schmitt Jennerjahn and Evelyn Williams Anselivicious; photography by Hazel Larsen Archer and Martha McMillan Roberts; poetry by Hilda Morley, Marie Tavroges Stilkind and Jane Mayhall; furniture by Mim Sihvonen; and short BMC memoirs by many of the participants.
For the July 1952 issue of Mademoiselle, writer, painter and former BMC student, Francine du Plessix Gray wrote, “There is a curious difference between learning from the written word and the public address system and learning as we do at Black Mountain—through human contact, through a fusion of mind and emotion. It seems to me the latter sinks deeper, enters a more profound level of consciousness, is not easily forgotten.”
Black Mountain College, which operated from 1933-1957, began as a liberal arts college with arts at the center of the curriculum rather than at the edge. The unorthodox focus of classes coupled with the school’s student/faculty work program, created an atmosphere that incubated ideals of social change, creativity and collaboration, although it also meant a continually high degree of financial instability that eventually led to the college’s closing in 1957.
Writer and alumna Martha King wrote in her memoir, “As for the obvious poverty, it didn’t automatically mean powerlessness. We were in a modern world where a moneyed class no longer had sole purchase on intellectual life. Independence could often mean poverty, especially for those who broke with the canons of received opinion.”
Related programming includes a symposium at 3:00 pm on Saturday, October 4th at UNCA’s Humanities Lecture Hall. Five BMC alumnae, including the first African-American student to attend the college (summer 1944), will participate. Titled What Was it Like to be a Woman at Black Mountain College? the symposium brings together five female students from the early 1940s to the 1950s when the college closed. After BMC these women went on to have careers in the visual arts, music, children’s literature and the humanities. The symposium will be chaired by BMC scholar and author of The Arts at Black Mountain College Mary Emma Harris.
As a major hub of the American avant-garde, BMC female alumnae went on to make vast contributions within the arts during the subsequent half-century since the college closed.
In commemoration of their achievements,
• Tour of BMC’s Lake Eden Campus: Sunday, Sept. 28, 3:00 p.m.
BMC scholar Mary Emma Harris will lead a tour of the buildings and grounds of the Lake Eden campus of Black Mountain College. A rare opportunity! Space is limited. Pre-registration required: call 350-8484 to reserve a space
$20 / $15 for members of BMCM+AC
 Ruth Asawa, bmc
• What Was It Like to be a Woman at Black Mountain College?
A Symposium: Sat., Oct. 4, 3:00 pm at the UNCA Humanities Lecture Hall
Chaired by Mary Emma Harris (BMC scholar, author of The Arts at Black Mountain College)
Panelists
Patsy Lynch Wood (BMC student 1942-48)
Alma Stone Williams (first African-American student, Summer 1944)
Vera Baker Williams (BMC student 1945-50)
Cynthia Homire (BMC student off and on 1950-1954)
Marie Tavroges Stilkind (BMC student off and on 1951-1954)
Co-sponsored by the UNC-Asheville Women’s Studies Program + History Dept.
A reception will follow with refreshments by Green Sage Coffeehouse & Café.
$7 / $5 for BMCM+AC members + students w/ID
Free for UNCA faculty + students
 Harriet Zwerling at BMC
• Floor Tales Workshop
with African-American artist and BMC alumna Mary Parks Washington at the YMI Cultural Center – Sat., Oct. 25th. Call for registration information.
 Pat Passlof, Yardstick, 1948
• “Art Without the Isms”
An evening lecture/dialogue with Suzi Gablik, the acclaimed author of Has Modernism Failed, Conversations Before the End of Time, and The Re-Enchantment of Art, environmental theorist, social activist and BMC alumna.
7:30 pm Thursday, November 13 at the UNCA Humanities Lecture Hall
Co-sponsored by the UNC-Asheville Humanities Program
$10 / $7 for BMCM+AC members + students w/ID
Free for UNCA faculty + students
 Tanya Sprager & June Elaine Smith, 1943 by Mary Brett
• Women Read Women (of BMC)
Asheville poets and writers read works by women associated with Black Mountain College. Saturday, Feb. 14th, 2009
$7 / $5 for BMCM+AC members + students w/ID
 Mimi French by Mary Brett
Support for this project has been generously provided by: North Carolina Arts Council, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and BlackBird Frame & Art.
Additional support: Nancy Miller Archer, Jack & Helga Beam, Adele Milhendler Borouchoff, Four Points by Sheraton Asheville Downtown, Margaret Kennard Johnson, Charlotte A. Kingsbury, Dorothy O. Leopard, Gretel J. Lowinsky, Jolene Mechanic, Renaissance Asheville Hotel, Zoya Sandomirsky Slive, Totsie.com, UNC Asheville Office of Cultural & Special Events, Betty J. Weiss and the Women’s History Club of Asheville.
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