Concerning Art: The Black Mountain College Experience
About this episode
This episode discusses the unique artistic and educational experiences at Black Mountain College with a focus on avant-garde performances and archival records.
What would you think about a concert that was pure silence? Or an event that hosted four different performances all at once? These sort of avant-garde performance pieces were commonplace at North Carolina’s Black Mountain College. Founded in 1933 by John A. Rice and Theodore Dreier, Black Mountain College operated as an experiment of “education in a democracy,” wherein the creative arts and practical responsibilities were considered equally important as intellectual development. The college closed in 1957, and the records associated with the school, including compositions and other artistic pieces, are held at SANC’s Western Regional Archives. This week on Connecting the Docs, host John Horan welcomes Reference archivist Katherine Crickmore, former Digitization Archivist Chauna Carr, and Podcast and Oral History Intern Olivia Coyne. Join us as we discuss art and archives. Primary Sources Black Mountain College, “Concerning Art Instruction,” Josef Albers, Bulletin 2 June 1934, https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/black-mountain-college-art-instructor-1944/3657480?item=3657727 Black Mountain College, “The Building Project and Work Program,” Bulletin 6…
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