Black Mountain College

Black Mountain College Review

Originally housed in rented quarters at nearby Blue Ridge Assembly, southeast of the town of Black Mountain, in 1941 Black Mountain College moved across the valley to its own campus at Lake Eden (today a private summer camp for boys, Camp Rockmont). The school's buildings were originally designed by the Bauhaus architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, but at the start of World War II the college turned to an American architect, Lawrence Kocher, and several intriguing buildings resulted, including one known as "The Ship," which still stands, with murals by Breuer. Black Mountain College attracted maverick spirits in art, music, and literature, including Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Josef and Anni Albers, Buckminster Fuller, M. C. Richards, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Kenneth Noland, Ben Shahn, Franz Kline, Arthur Penn, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, and others. Today the site is a privately owned 550-acre summer camp for boys. During the Lake Eden Festival, held in mid-May and mid-October, you can visit the college. Other times of the year you can rent a cabin on the grounds for overnight stays. Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center is located in downtown Asheville at 56 Broadway Street.