Black Mountain College anniversary festival

P R E S S R E L E A S E
For a major program September 19-22, 2002
in Asheville, Black Mountain and Cullowhee, NC

Website: http://www.blackmountaincollege.org/festival/

Under the Influence: Celebrating the Legacy of Black Mountain College
A collaborative festival on the 50th anniversary of John Cage's multi-media
"Theatre Piece No. 1".

In the summer of 1952 amid the creative ferment of Black Mountain College in
North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, John Cage created an unscripted
presentation incorporating music, dance, spoken word, visual art and
projections. Later titled "Theatre Piece No. 1", the event achieved renown
as the very first multi-media "Happening". On the 50th anniversary of this
historic event, the Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center and its
collaborators are presenting Under the Influence: Celebrating the Legacy of
Black Mountain College.

Revolutionizing the American arts and sciences in the first half of
twentieth century, the influence of Black Mountain College faculty and alums
such as Josef and Anni Albers, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster
Fuller, Walter Gropius, M.C. Richards, Alfred Kazin, Willem and Elaine de
Kooning, Jacob Lawrence, Robert Motherwell, Charles Olson, Robert
Rauschenberg, Stan VanDerBeek, Robert Creeley, Jonathan Williams, and many
others continues to be felt to this day.

Festival programming will consist of performances, installations, workshops,
poetry readings, film screenings, and roundtables showcasing contemporary
artists, performers, and theorists whose ideas and work bear the distinctive
influence of Black Mountain College. Festival participants and contributors
include musicians Pauline Oliveros, Tony Conrad, Mark Hosler, and John
Cobb, poets Patrick Herron, Michael Boughn and Lee Ann Brown, installation
artists Yoko Ono and Jack Dangers, educators Sue Riley and Greg Ulmer,
filmmaker Craig Baldwin, dancer Ray Eliot Schwartz and many others.

The festival will occur September 19-22, 2002 at various venues in
Asheville, Black Mountain and Cullowhee, NC with related events throughout
the month. For detailed and up to the minute information, see the festival
website at http://www.blackmountaincollege.org/festival/.

Contact:
Alice Sebrell (828)299-9306 / [email protected]
David McConville (828) 236-9777 / [email protected]