Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center Announces POINTS IN SPACE: PERFORMANCE AT BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) will present Points in Space: Performance at Black Mountain College, a major exhibition exploring the College’s groundbreaking legacy in performance, theater, music, dance, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The exhibition opens September 5, 2025, and continues through January 10, 2026, at BMCM+AC’s galleries in downtown Asheville. More information is available at blackmountaincollege.org/points-in-space.

The exhibition draws from BMC’s radical experiments between 1933 and 1957, highlighting pioneering artists including John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Lou Harrison, Roland Hayes, Ray Johnson, Ursula Mamlok, Robert Rauschenberg, David Tudor, Alma Stone Williams, Stefan Wolpe, and others. Connections to major movements such as Bauhaus, Dada, and Fluxus will also be featured.

“Black Mountain College was a crucible for avant-garde performance, where boundaries between disciplines dissolved,” said curators Jeff Arnal and Adolfo Alzuphar. “With Points in Space, we are not only honoring that history, but also presenting new work in dialogue with it—making the experimental legacy of BMC relevant for artists and audiences today.”

Bridging Past and Present

In addition to archival materials and visual art, Points in Space will include performance-integrated installations and a robust series of public programs, concerts, and talks. These events will create a living dialogue between BMC’s historic innovations and contemporary practices.

Highlights from BMC’s history include Xanti Schawinsky’s Bauhaus-inspired theater productions; Ursula Mamlok’s formative studies during the 1944 Summer Music Institute; the legendary 1951 collaboration The Glyph Exchange with Katherine Litz, Lou Harrison, Ben Shahn, and Charles Olson; and John Cage’s 1952 Theater Piece No. 1, often considered the first “happening” in modern art.

Public Programs

BMCM+AC will host an ambitious lineup of programs throughout the run of the exhibition, including:

• Lea Bertucci + Olivia Block (Sept. 10) – immersive electronic and tape music performance

• Stereolab Artist Talk (Sept. 20) – with Tim Gane, Laetitia Sadier, and Joe Watson

• 15th Annual ReVIEWING Black Mountain College Conference (Sept. 26–28) – featuring keynote Debra McCall on Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus dances

• flux in time (Sept. 27) – a neo-Fluxus immersive theater performance

• Aphorisms: A Tribute to Ursula Mamlok (Oct. 14–15) – music and dance tribute choreographed by Miro Magloire

• Momenta Quartet (Oct. 16) – music of Stefan Wolpe and John Cage

• Asheville Symphony Chamber and Masterworks Concerts (Oct. 21 & 25) – spotlighting Cage, Schoenberg, Bartók, Brahms, and more

• Asheville Butoh Festival: Frequency in Motion (Oct. 30) – featuring Atsushi Takenouchi, Hiroko Komiya, and Chris H. Lynn

• Sandbox Percussion (Nov. 19) – contemporary percussion quartet performance

• Tesla Quartet (Dec. 4) – the music of Hugo Kauder

• Cunningham Dances / Rauschenberg Celebration with Cage’s Music (Jan. 7–8, 2026) – reconstructions of historic collaborations

Additional performances will feature Murielle Elizéon & Shana Tucker, Jennie MaryTai Liu, Johnny Gandelsman, Will Alexander, and others, culminating with Natacha Diels & Cleek Schrey on the exhibition’s closing day, January 10, 2026.