Active Archive | Martha McDonald Process + Performance

 56 + 69 BROADWAY

Opening Reception: Friday, September 29, 5-7pm – Performance by Martha McDonald at 5:30 pm FREE

ACTIVE ARCHIVE is a stream of programs that pairs the museum’s extensive collection with contemporary artists, curators, and cultural thinkers. It launches with an exhibition featuring the museum’s permanent collection curated by Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist Martha McDonald.

McDonald brings the ideas of Black Mountain College alive through an exhibition of artwork and ephemera from BMCM+AC’s collection and an installation and live performance drawing on the rich history of experimental performance at BMC.  The exhibition, across both galleries, focuses on the importance of color, process, and material exploration at BMC. It includes student color studies from Josef Albers’ influential Werklehre courses; paintings, sculptures, textiles, and ceramics by BMC faculty and students reflecting this legacy of material and color study; and a selection of idiosyncratic, hand-printed programs highlighting the history of collaborative performance at BMC.

McDonald’s performance will activate her installation of objects and costumes inspired by Xanti Schawinsky’s 1936-37 experimental theater piece, Spectodrama, which formed the basis of his Stage Studies course at BMC. McDonald’s performance features music inspired by John Evarts’ collaborations with Schawinsky at BMC from 1936-38.

Support for this project has been generously provided by the following: Henry Luce Foundation, North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation. Special thanks to Bill Adair and Connie Bostic.

Photo: Xanti Schawinsky, Untitled, n.d., painting and pencil on print, 26 x 17.625 inches. Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center Collection. Gift of Brian E. Butler.

Related Events:

• September 29, 5:30PM {69 Broadway} Performance: Music for Modernist Shapes: Reimagining Spectodrama
• September 29, 7PM Opening Reception FREE
• September 29 + 30, 8PM {Diana Wortham Theatre} Black Mountain Songs
• September 29 – October 1 {UNC Asheville} Conference: ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 9
• October 11, 7PM {56 Broadway} Listening Session: Experiments in Notation
• October 27 + 28 {22 London Road} Performance: Supper, People on the Move
• November 3, 7PM {56 Broadway} Poetry Reading: Mad Hat Poetry Prose & Anything Goes
• November 29, 7PM {56 Broadway} Film Screening: BAUHAUS: The Face of the Twentieth Century
• November 17+18, 7PM {69 Broadway} Performance: Music for Modernist Shapes: Reimagining Spectodrama
• December 7, 7PM {69 Broadway} Performance: Aspects of Butoh
• December 9, 8pm {69 Broadway} Poetry Reading: Richard Chess, Tommy Hays, David Hopes,Beth Keefauver, and Eric Steineger