The Clarion
Visit us online at
www.brevard.edu/Clarion
Volume 75, Issue 18 SERVING BREVARD COLLEGE SINCE 1935 Feb. 19, 2010
Black Mountain College
A Brevard College student resurrects a piece of our Western
North Carolina educational heritage
by Will Byers
Arts & Life Editor
I grew up here, and may be one of the
few kids that’s proud to be from Brevard. It
took growing older and visiting some other
places to fully appreciate what we’ve got
going on in this part of the world. Not only
do we reside in the oldest mountains on
the planet, filled with diverse life, we also
live in a region with remarkably significant
cultural history that is still alive today.
My focus with the Clarion is “Arts &
Entertainment,” so specifically I’d like to
In this issue...
NEWS:
SAAC update 2
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Obamateur? Reader disagrees 3
Reader disagrees witli Don't Asl, Don't
^11 3
OPINION:
SGA Update 4
Nuclear Power 5
ODDS AND ENDS:
SLS Word o' tlie weel 7
Comic 7
Clief BoyarDave's Lasagna 7
THE LAST FRONTIER:
American Hero 8
Your Horoscope 8
talk about a short-lived college you may
have never heard of. Black Mountain
College began in 1933 as an experimental
liberal arts school that attempted to
challenge the rigid educational models
present in early 20th century America.
The creative realms of theatre, music,
and other fine arts were integral in the
curriculum of Black Mountain College
students. The school closed due to financial
issues after twenty-four years, in 1957,
but is still regarded as a highly successful
experiment of the progressive education
movement.
Who participated in this school? The
abstract painter Robert De Niro, Sr.
attended BMC. He was the father of a
prolific actor you might’ve heard of The
list goes on, and the talented alumni,
like Robert Rauschenberg or Dorothea
Rockbume, can only be surpassed by the
list of faculty members throughout the
school’s existence.
Buckminster Fuller created his first
geodesic dome at the college in 1949. Do
you recall the large dome of the Epcot
Center at Disney World? It’s just one of his
many brainchildren. You should look him
up, he was quite an interesting guy.
Partners Merce Cunningham and John
Cage worked at Black Mountain College,
and through their avant-garde compositions
and choreography they gave huge energy
to the modem dance movement.
Walter Gropius, the founder of the
Bauhaus School in Germany, brought his
aesthetic to Black Mountain College and is
considered to be a huge influence in modem
architecture and design.
Willem de Kooning was also on
board in the painting department with
the brilliant Josef and Anni Albers, both
important figures of the progressive
education movement. WiUem de Kooning
was an abstract expressionist whose
contemporaries include Mark Rothko and
Jackson Pollock.
William Carlos Williams brought life
to the study of poetry at Black Mountain
CoUege, and his method is regarded as an
important influence to the Beat Generation.
As well, he worked personally with Aflen
Ginsberg and helped him discover his
poetic voice.
If at this point you are amazed that a
small college outside of Asheville during
the mid-twentieth century could have
possessed so many worldly, talented faculty
members, then I should say you aren’t
alone. Or, maybe you couldn’t care less,
but I, at least, find it remarkable that such
innovators found this region conducive to
expanding educational consciousness.
Arriving at my point, Lenoir-Rhyne
University, located in Hickory, NC has
announced it will be holding a summer
session of its program “The Spirit of Black
Mountain College.” Its effort is to create a
collaboration of student participants who
will present performance art and other
projects inspired by the legacy of Black
Mountain College.
There are some preparatory items to
take care of before one can participate,
and those can be viewed on the website
(http://blackmountaincollege.com/
summersession.htm,) but if you are
interested in anything from philosophy to
film I would say this experience would be
well worth the preliminary effort.
There are also registration fees, but in
light of what you could gain from “The
Spirit of Black Mountain College,” I don’t
see the fees as something exorbitant. If
none of this is of any interest to you, wifl
you at least check out some of these artists?
Dropping their name might make you look
smart some day.