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, https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/black-mountain-college-building-project-work-progress/3657497 

Black Mountain College, “Education in a Time of Crisis,” Erwin Strauss, Bulletin 7, April 1940, https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/black-mountain-college-education-time-crisis/3657509  

Black Mountain College, “Its Aims and Methods,” Bulletin 8, Kenneth Kurtz, 1944, https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/black-mountain-college-aim-and-method/3657521?item=3657788  

Black Mountain College Concert: Brahms, Dvorak, Kraft, and Bartok, May 1947,  https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/black-mountain-college-concert-brahms-dvorak-kraft-and-bartok/2378456 

The arts at Black Mountain College, Mary Emma Harris, 1987, https://archive.org/details/artsatblackmount00harr 

Secondary Sources 

Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center, https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/  

NC Digital Collections, Black Mountain College Spotlight, https://digital.ncdcr.gov/spotlights/bmc 

“Black Mountain Review,” Natasha Goldowski, et al., Black Mountain College Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1951. Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Independent Voices. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28034129  

“Archives Test Kitchen,” series, History For All the People, State Archives of North Carolina, https://ncarchives.wpcomstaging.com/category/archives-test-kitchen/