In spring 2018, Appalachian State University hosted a semester-long exploration of Black Mountain College (BMC), the experimental school that operated from 1933 to 1957 in North Carolina’s Swannanoa Valley. Known for its pioneering role in progressive, interdisciplinary education, BMC’s influence continues to resonate in the region’s creative, educational, and political movements.
Led by the Center for Appalachian Studies, Professor of Creative Writing and North Carolina Poet Laureate Emeritus Joseph Bathanti, and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts—with support from the College of Arts and Sciences and Academic Affairs—the Black Mountain College Semester showcased the enduring legacy of BMC through three major initiatives:
- A multi-sited exhibition series featuring works and archives related to BMC, including Elaine de Kooning at the Western Regional Archives.
- A special Black Mountain College issue of Appalachian Journal guest-edited by Joseph Bathanti, in collaboration with Editor-in-Chief Sandra Ballard and Savannah Paige Murray, highlighting essays and reflections from prominent voices associated with BMC.
- A comprehensive digital timeline offering a museum guide, original scholarship, and curricular resources for North Carolina schools.
The semester also featured lectures, readings, workshops, film screenings, special courses, and public programs—many extended through web streaming and online archives. Appalachian students and faculty played a central role, contributing research and exhibition work in the collaborative spirit that defined BMC itself.
Through the Black Mountain College Fellows program, students engaged in courses that reflected BMC’s experimental and interdisciplinary ethos, including:
- Media Literacy (CI 4830)
- STEAM Build It! (CI 3536)
- Dance History in the Modern Era (DAN 3435)
- Architectural Design Studio IV (TEC 4748)
- Exhibitions Practicum (ART 4012)
- Experimental Ethnography (ANT 4275)
- Art, Nature, and Black Mountain College (ART 4040)
- Narrative, New Media and Gaming (CI 2010)
By uniting exhibits, scholarship, and collaborative learning, Appalachian’s Black Mountain College Semester honored the legacy of one of the most influential experiments in 20th-century education.
Header image: “Photo, Studies Building across Lake Eden, Black Mountain College Campus,” Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections, https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/items/show/43619