Although the story of Black Mountain College (BMC) has been told more than once Since its foundation in 1933, the end is still the same. At its peak, the Radical and Rural Liberal Arts College located in the Appalachians of the west of North Carolina was a test field for all kinds of creative experiences, such as John CageThe first “event” and the first dome of Buckminster Fuller. But BMC finally gave in, literally and figuratively, the buildings falling into ruins and people reaching their breaking points as economic difficulties increased, shortened temperaments and community enthusiasm has decreased. The school officially closed its doors in 1957, after 24 years of research of an artistic education focused on self -sufficiency.
So far, what is less known, so far, is the story of the BMC farm and its role in the success of the college – and finally, its fall. In The Black Mountain College farmAuthor David Silver takes this task, favoring stories and amplifying the voices of those whose hands have built the school and whose dreams shaped its programs, which all involved the farm in one way or another.
The inclusion of agriculture in BMC programming comes from its progressive educational framework, which, as Silver explains, was born from the interest of students and was born from their initiative. Beyond practical agricultural lessons, the scope of the farm has spread to include construction, carpentry, electrical systems, plumbing, economy, etc., giving shape to the program and practical objective to a day work. In turn, the farm fed a rotating door Students, teachers, staff and visitors, who included now legendary artists such as Annis and Josef Albers, Ruth Asawa, Merce Cunningham and Willem de Kooning. Finally, however, the exhausting physical requirements of agricultural work prevailed over his experientated awards, even if it meant being hungry.
Informed by an original research well, Silver's story begins and ends with a car accident in the summer of 1955, intentionally caused by one of the few remaining BMC students who had consumed too much beer ballantyne and too little food for too long – an appropriate scene for the narrative arc of the book. The formerly in full swing and abundant farm of the Lake Eden of BMC campus – which included fruit trees and vegetable gardens, surrounded by buildings that housed cattle such as chickens, pigs and cows – were overlooked this summer after having constantly decreased during the previous seasons. A pair of photos in The farm Display these disastrous conditions: a small group of hangers looks emaciated and debromed during the last gathering of the BMC community, far from the energetic and enthusiastic students of the first years of the illustrated college elsewhere in the book.
The money attributes a large part of the exasperation and the deterioration of the lack of food and other necessary resources on the campus. He details dark stories of the “poker”, a student flight game of food wherever they could find it (including local A & P) and stories of hot dog soup, a meal barely assembled by bubbling hot dogs, using water as a broth and adding all the remaining herbs could be filled with the garden.
The BMC farm was undoubtedly the most productive during the six -year mandate of instructor Mary “Molly” Gregory, who arrived as an educational apprentices of Josef Albers in 1941 when the women led the farm and the school after men were drafted in the Second World War. According to Silver, little attention was paid to what happened in BMC during the years of war, but it provides evidence of a “wave of activity carried out by the women who stayed on the campus”. Under the direction of Gregory, he wrote: “The college spent a large part of the war cultivating all its food, and against all the chances in wartime, by building an ambitious series of agricultural structures. Along the way, Molly gathered a group of students who would bring the college closer to self -sufficiency that she has never been or ever. ”
In one year after Gregory took the lead, the BMC farm had a surplus. Before leaving the college in 1947, Gregory raised the roof of the farm – with the help of Ruth Asawa – to welcome her replacements, which she identified through her vast network: two pairs of farmers husband and women.
The rest of The farm Draw the leadership and mismanagement of the efforts of the agricultural efforts of the BMC and related work programs, by completing the loop at the driver's headquarters of the crushed car. Black Mountain College had ended.
For readers who are wary of another BMC book, or curious to know how the farm Informed the work of contemporary artists with family property, community gardens and seed savings, note that Silver's account is not a “commentary” book on community life, art manufacturing, agriculture or DIY education. Instead, he pointed out the always elusive nature and the romantic attraction of self -sufficiency complicated by the requirements of modern life, creative muses and confronted Egos, all in the context of two of our most pressing needs as human beings: food and the community.
The Black Mountain College farm (2024) is published by Atelier Éditions et Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center in collaboration with the exhibition The Black Mountain College farmOrganized by David Silver and Bruce Johansen and exhibited at the museum until January 11, 2025. The book is available online and via independent booksellers.
