2026 ReVIEWING BMC 16: International Conference

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 16

International Conference

Co-hosted by BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville

at UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center

October 2 - 4, 2026
Thematic Focus: Architecture + Design at BMC

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College conference is a forum for scholars and artists to contribute original work on topics related to Black Mountain College and its place in cultural history.

The format is designed to be interdisciplinary, with sessions that will include panels, presentations, performances, and workshops. BMC itself was a uniquely interdisciplinary organization, generating work from its faculty and students that often involved the melding of the visual, performing, and literary arts. Each year, conference participation reflects this; past presentations have explored wide-ranging, fruitful intersections such as (to name just a few of the most recent examples) how Charles Olson’s “projectivist” poetics inspired works on the stage and screen; the influence of choreographer Merce Cunningham on Abstract Expressionist painters trained at BMC such as Pat Passlof and James Bishop; the photography of poet-publisher-artist Jonathan Williams; the path from BMC’s first Summer Institute in honor of Arnold Schoenberg, to the design and philosophy of contemporary summer arts programs today; a performance connecting Ruth Asawa’s sculpture to contemporary dance; and a workshop offering attendees the opportunity to weave on looms with found materials, as Anni Albers’ BMC students did.

ReVIEWING 16 will take place October 2 - 4, 2026. This three-day program, open to the public, celebrates the opening of the museum’s exhibition Imaginary Landscapes: Black Mountain College Architecture + Design, organized by Jeff Arnal, Alice Sebrell, Michael Beggs, Tyler Housholder, and Frédérique Davreux-Hébert. The exhibition traces the far-reaching impact of Black Mountain College’s design philosophy deeply influenced by Bauhaus ideals across disciplines and generations. It explores how experimental approaches to materials, pedagogy, and collective living reshaped not only how things were made, but how artists, architects, and thinkers understood the relationship between form and function, people and place, and imagination and environment.

At its core, the exhibition asks: How do creative ideas take root in specific places? In turn, how do those places shape the evolution of those ideas? Through these questions, the exhibition will highlight Black Mountain College as both a physical site and a generative force: a place where radical design, interdisciplinary learning, and collaborative experimentation transformed modern art and architecture and continue to inspire new ways of thinking today.

Ticket information:

-- Attendance to the conference and any of its events is FREE for UNCA students, faculty, and staff. Members of the UNCA community do not have to pre-register online. --

FULL CONFERENCE PASS: The conference fee is $100* and includes lunch on Saturday and a 1-year membership to the museum.
The fee for current members and students is $60.

Tour of BMC Campus on Sunday, October 4: The tour group will meet at BMCM+AC on Sunday morning (exact time TBD, please stay tuned). After coffee and conversation at the museum, carpools will depart for a special tour of the BMC Lake Eden Campus. This special event is not included in full or day conference passes and costs $20.

*Online pre-registration ends at 5pm on Thursday, October 1. For at-the-door tickets, the registration fee will increase to $115 for non-members, so online pre-registration is highly encouraged.

For more information, visit: www.blackmountaincollege.org/reviewing/