From a press release:
Western regional head archivist co-authors book on Black Mountain College
From 1933 to 1957, Black Mountain College was on the leading edge of the avant garde and a pioneering influence in the worlds of art and literature. A new book about the college will be released Oct. 20. It is co-authored by Anne Chesky Smith and Heather South, head archivist at the Western Regional Office of the N.C. Office of Archives and History in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.
The Black Mountain College interdisciplinary approach to learning, the elimination of grades, and the social integration without regard to gender or race made it a magnet for many poets, composers, designers, artists and others in search of an alternative educational experience. It became a model for the nation.
Many images never published before are found in the new title, “Black Mountain College.” Among them are images of the Blue Ridge Assembly and Lake Eden locations where the school operated and images of famous artists and innovators, including Josef and Annie Albers, John Cage, Merce Cummingham and Buckminster Fuller.
Arcadia Publishing, a leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States, includes 200 vintage images in this chronicle of the college’s unique history. Anne Chesky Smith grew up in the Swannanoa Valley and has written three books about the region. Heather South has worked with historical documents for more than 15 years and has been head of the Department of Cultural Resources’ Western Regional Archives since it opened in Asheville in 2012. The Black Mountain College papers are in the Western Archives collection and are used by researchers regularly.
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