H U N T IN G & G A T H E R IN G
N eSfled in the B lu e R id g e M ountains, tins m averick
edu cational com m unity p ro v ed a m agnet fo r the
avan t-garde in m any disciplines.
student to attend the college in 1944, making
Black Mountain one o f the first Southern
schools to integrate, according to Sebrell.
T h e Black M ountain M useum + A rts
C en ter is testim ony to the vision o f M ary
H olden T hom pson , w ho as a teenager
had lived near Black M ountain but realized
the significance o f the place only later.
L iv in g in Paris in the 1980s, she began
hearing about the college from artist
friends and thought o f launching a mu-
seum. “ I thought it astounding that there
w asn’t m ore inform ation in the Black
M ountain area,” she says. “ I began w rit-
ing letters, contacting form er students
and try in g to figure out h ow this w ould
all com e together.” In 1993 Thom pson
m oved back to Black M ountain to incor-
porate the museum. She has since re-
turned to Paris but continues to help w ith
fund-raising and netw orking.
Despite limited space and funding, the
museum has been quietly building its
collection, which has been almost entirely
made up o f donations from alumni and
faculty and their fam ilies. In a prom ising
new venture, the museum is developing
a partnership w ith the U niversity o f N orth
Carolina at Asheville. T h e university plans
to help house and preserve the collection,
to create exhibits and to digitize archival
m aterials, says Helen W y k le , the special
collections librarian at the school’s D . H.
Ram sey Library. In this spirit o f collabora-
tion and w ith vision and determ ination,
the museum will continue to grow and culti-
vate appreciation for an influential 20th-
century Am erican artistic heritage. +
*
The first exhibition presents some so
artists (through February 14 ,20op); the
second is on Anni Albers, R uth Asawa and
M . C. Richards (February 2 7-Ju n e27);
and the third spotlights Dorothea R ockburne
(July 10
-
November 7).
G im m e M ore!
blackm ountaincollege.org
bm cproject.org
archives.ncdcr.gov/bm c_web_page/
bmc.htm
R ig h t :
Joan Potter Sihvonen
Loveless
Weaving,
19 6 0 s
w o o l {h . 5 6 i n , d . 3 7 in } .
B o t t o m L e f t :
Mim Sihvonen,
Stooly
19 4 8
m a p le { h . 3 0 i n , w . 12 in ,
d . 12 in } .
B o t t o m R i g h t :
Fannie Hillsmith
The Red Chair,
1 9 5 4
p a i n t i n g { h . 3 5 i n ,
w . 31 in } .
076 american craft feb/maro9
