Black Mountain College

Black Mountain college, a progressive liberal arts college, was founded in 1933 by Theodore Dreier, John Andrew Rice, and other faculty from Rollins College. The school was small and privately run near Asheville, North Carolina. The teaching style differed in that rather than be constructed of book learning, students were to learn through interaction in real life with other students. This learning style stemmed from the progressive education movement.

The college's unique learning atmosphere housed and nurtured many designers, musicians, writers, helping to further the avant garde movement in America and the explosion of experimental art. Students and professors lived and worked together, sharing all tasks and learning in real life situations.

Instructors at Black Mountain College included Josef and Anni Albers (Joseph was the first art teacher at BMC), Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, John Cage, and many other influential poets, musicians and designers. The school closed in 1957, but it has lived on through the many artists that came there after the post-war era. It has served as a model for other creative alternative schools such as Evergreen State College, Goddard College, University of California and others. There is a museum project dedicated to showing process and products from the Black Mountain College, and also an online archive project with more in depth information.