Volume 15: RE/WEAVING

The recent exhibition at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, “Weaving at Black Mountain College,” brought national acclaim as it told the underrecognized story of Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez, and their weaving students. The exhibit demonstrated not only the materials and techniques of this craft, but the important place of weaving at the very heart of Black Mountain College’s legendary art and design education. Even beyond the objects on display, “Weaving at BMC” illuminated the complex fabric of connections interwoven through the teaching and practice of BMC students and faculty who then took their work to new places. Rethinking, rediscovering, and re-weaving the connections between these individuals broadens our ever-growing understanding of BMC pedagogy.

Weaving marks the theme of this issue, for it names not only the immediate art itself but the nature of so many often surprising and unexpected connections, influences, and collaborations in the many fields of study at the College. John Cage and BMC architecture have a connection? Cy Twombly and Charles Olson, too? And who was Peter Nemenyi? Or Jane Slater Marquis? How do they extend the story of Black Mountain College?

This journal volume is a journey of discovery. Several articles bring recognition to students and faculty who have received little attention here, and whose stories extend the fabric of Black Mountain College influence even farther. We are delighted to present the work of four poets, including Joe Bathanti who enjoyed a close friendship with Fielding Dawson, and Richard Roberts, who studied at the College in the 1940s and went on to live and publish his poetry in the Pacific Northwest. Weaving itself is extended as a form with influence in performance and digital arts.

We hope you are stimulated by this volume to consider other influences and connections through which the creative legacy of Black Mountain College lives on.

Thomas Edward Frank
Editor

Kira Houston
Production Editor