Blue and black letterpress on matte paper. Catalog for the 1943 school year. First image is of front of catalog. White circular logo is on a blue background, text around circle reads "BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BLACK MOUNTAIN N.C."
Black Mountain College
BULLETIN CATALOGUE
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 3
ORGANIZATION 8
CURRICULUM 9
JUNIOR AND SENIOR DIVISION 9
GRADUATION 9
COMMUNITY WORK 10
COURSES 11
HISTORY 11
GOVERNMENT 12
ECONOMIC 12
SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY 12
PSYCHOLOGY 13
PHILOSOPHY 14
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 14
FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 15
MATHEMATICS 16
BIOLOGY 17
PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY 17
ART 18
ARCHITECTURE 19
WRITING 19
DRAMATICS 19
EUKINETICS 20
MUSIC 20
LIBRARY 22
LABORATORIES AND EQUIPMENT 22
LIVING QUARTERS 22
THE FARM 22
ADMISSION 23
FEES 24
HEALTH 25
BULLETINS 26
INFORMATION FOR NEW STUDENTS 26
See Annual Announcements for additional information including:
THE CALENDAR
SPECIAL FEATURES
COURSES GIVEN DURING THE TERM
PAYMENT OF FEES
FACULTY AND STUDENT LISTS
ADVISORY COUNCIL
BLACK MOUNTAIN BULLETIN December 1943
Volume II Number 3
Issued seven times a year, in August, September, November, December, January, February, and April. Entered as second-class matter November 4, 1942, at the Postoffice at Black Mountain, North Carolina, under the Act of August 24, 1912.
Black Mountain College was founded in the fall of 1933 by a group of teachers and students interested in the ideas of a coeducational college of liberal arts, where ultimate control should rest with the Faculty; where free use should be made of established methods of education, together with new methods, in order to develop a general education suited to modern times; a college which was to be a community in which teachers and students should share responsibility. From the first the College has operated according to this plan, and has found increasing proof of its value.
As a liberal arts college it is necessarily concerned with the essential problems of the times. Today these problems are world-wide. They have grown beyond the horizons of the individual, group or nation. But they must be understood by individuals and solved by individuals. This generation will have acute need of both vision and practical competence.
To educate today, then, must mean to broaden outlook and to provide a setting where theory can be confronted with evidence, a laboratory where thought can be tested by action. Black Mountain College as a community is such a laboratory. While carrying on the traditional disciplines of college education, the College seeks to combine the cultivation of imaginative thought with training in accurate reasoning; it attempts to develop foresight by emphasizing the search for fundamental principles that underlie transitory forms, and to show that knowledge must be linked with a will to act. It can reveal to what ends cooperation and competition each lead, and bring into balance work directed toward individual development and work done in the general interest of a group.
The College, from its beginning, has recognized and sought to develop the special function that a community can serve in general education. A community is of a more homogenous structure than society at large but has many of its contrasts and conflicts. Common purpose unites the various groups; it bridge differences of age and of talent, of background and of temperament, and thus furthers mutual understanding. Young men and young women- educated together as a corollary of community life- come to realize their relation as co-equals more than as opposites. In a community where all join in the necessary work and where no distinctions are made because of financial status, everyone has an equal chance to find a place. Teacher and student find common ground in their concern for the whole; and the student, meeting informally with his teacher, comes to realize that learning is not confined to classrooms but pervades daily life. The persuasive force of example can replace formal authority. In a community, too, the usual difference in evaluation between intellectual and practical work readily gives way to a realization that both are interrelated parts of one whole. This interpretation of work is fundamental in the educational philosophy of the College; it breaks with the tradition which, concentrating on an intellectual education, loses sight of a practical one.
In a community attendance develops naturally into participation. A community not only gives a frame to activities; it embodies the contributions of its members. Each individual gives as well as receives and comes to identify himself with the group. Where consideration for the whole controls conduct, rigid rules are superfluous, doubly so where there is close contact between teacher and student. Consequently, the College has no written regulations.
Furthermore, the College has no required courses. The entering student is rarely certain about his interests; and even when he believes them to be definite, he may change his mind as new fields open to him. But since he must learn to make his own decisions, the selection of his courses is left to him. However, he does not make his choice by trial and error. He discusses his plans with a faculty adviser with whose help he assumes the responsibility for finding the best way to develop his abilities. He may, of course, seek additional advice from other members of the Faculty. The adviser is aided by recommendations from the whole Faculty, who periodically discuss both the intellectual progress of each student and his progress as an active member of the community.
A student usually begins his studies by exploring in the various areas of learning and at the same time he begins to discover his own inclinations, abilities and weaknesses. He should investigate the fields which have been of interest to him and also those to which he previously has been indifferent but which may open new perspectives to him. He should study in the Sciences and the Arts, the Social Studies and Literature to gain sufficient understanding of the peculiar nature of each field and the relation of one field to another. Before specializing in any one subject he should become aware of the unity of learning obscured by the modern departmentalism that has resulted from the accumulation of knowledge.
After this period of general orientation and self-discovery, usually two years, the student limits himself to a field of concentration. In this special field he is expected to gain a substantial and organized body of knowledge. To do such specialized work the student must demonstrate that he is prepared for it. He formulates a plan of studies in his particular field and in related ones. If the Faculty believe the student has acquired an adequate background of general knowledge and that he has made progress in learning to act intelligently and reliably, he is permitted to take the senior division examination, which precedes specialization.
Since learning is not regarded as a training of the intellect alone, the examination tests not only a student’s knowledge and memory, his powers of observation, reflection and imagination, but also the maturity of his feelings and the way he expresses himself; it tests whether he can concentrate, draw sound conclusions, and arrive at moral judgements. The Faculty take into account both his performance and his development, since development indicates potentiality.
The length of time a student works in a particular field and in related areas depends on his achievement. After completing his proposed program of studies, he can apply for graduation; he has to demonstrate, however, in a series of comprehensive examinations, what he has accomplished. Before permitting him to take the final examinations the Faculty consider the student’s achievement over the period of his stay at the College, approximately four years, and decide whether he is sufficiently independent in judgement and disciplined so that he can act with insight and forethought. The examinations are given by a professor from some outstanding university or college who judges the student’s work in his special field. The recommendation of the examiner provides a measurement of the work according to the standards of long established universities and is a principal factor in the decision of the Faculty regarding a student's graduation.
During his studies the student should have come to realize the emphasis placed on widening of his views and on an understanding of the relation of general principles to specific facts. He should also have come to recognize a similar emphasis on the development of initiative, on a constructive response to problems. Too often today education tends to develop receptive qualities and to neglect productive abilities. In most fields so much knowledge has to be acquired before new contributions can be made that a student is frequently confronted with results without being brought to understand the creative approach that led to the original discoveries. Naturally he cannot be expected to make new discoveries, but he can be brought to acquire an attitude that leads to discovery. The pedagogical problem of helping a student to combine the acquisition of knowledge with such constructive thinking is different in every field. To develop adequate teaching methods for accomplishing this has been from the first one of the aims of the College.
In the fields of art, music, drama, and writing, work can be made primarily a training in such a constructive approach; for only by writing can one learn to write, and only by painting can one learn to paint. Work in the arts, besides having a function of its own, can thus become an instrument of general education. It, therefore, has a place equal to that of courses that usually occupy the center of the curriculum. Work in the arts activates imagination and inventiveness and a sense of organization; it increases sensitivity of perception and emotional response to form. Feeling needs discipline to rely on their own experience and to grow independent of interpretations by others; they are led to discover how to give thought and feeling a tangible form.
As an indispensable complement to the traditional liberal arts training, our time requires the development of practical ability. The College as a community provides a natural opportunity for demonstrating to the student the various kinds of work which together keep a social organization functioning. He realizes that a share of work falls to him as a member of the community, as it does to professor and hired worker. Engaged in planning, building or farming, doing office or library work, he can acquire skills and develop resourcefulness together with an understanding of good workmanship; he learns to evaluate work for its quality rather than for its kind. He experiences the discipline necessary to coordinate his work with that of others and the obligation he has toward other to complete a given task. He comes to know the power of joint effort. Finally he may learn to direct the work of others. He will realize, however, that where the prime emphasis is on education the development of ability takes precedence over immediate efficiency of workmanship, though efficiency remains an ultimate goal.
As members of the community, teachers no less than students give part of their time to practical work that usually lies outside the activities of college professors. They have also undertaken the administration of the College, partly as their natural share of responsibility in the College community and partly in an attempt to imbue all work within the College with that attitude which prevails in educational matters. The Faculty, however, not only contribute their work to the College community, but with a student representative are themselves the governing body of the College. They are responsible both for the actual conduct of its affairs and for its educational principles. Though the College is free from outside control, it has established an Advisory Council to which it turns for advice from a detached point of view and for consultation on special questions regarding its work.
Legal responsibility, including trusteeship for the property, rests with the Faculty, but they are by no means the only ones to carry responsibility. Students from the first have won for themselves a share in control by helping to start the College and subsequently by performing essential tasks in building and operating the College. Every new group, composed of students coming from all parts of the country, learns how it can make some significant contribution to the growth of the College. Students have campaigned to raise necessary funds, have done much of the actual construction of the College buildings, and have helped to run the plant and farm. They make their own regulations, such as are necessary; for obviously some agreements are needed to avoid chaos through individualistic interpretations of rights and obligations. Students are represented on important committees because they share in the responsibility of the College.
Problems affecting the whole College, if sufficiently important, are considered in community meetings. If a general understanding cannot be reached in one meeting, the problem is taken up again, or it is turned over to a committee to deal with or to make new proposals for general discussion. The question is debated until a solution is found that will preserve the unity of the College.
Participating in the government of the College and in community work, the student is in a position to draw parallels between social and political problems he meets in the College and those he meets outside. He will be better equipped to understand and contribute to the solution of national or even world problems, when he has encountered them on a scale which permits him to observe effects of decisions.
Studies and work at the College, however, are more than merely a parallel with life outside of the community. Teachers and students are active beyond the College boundary; the Faculty in lecturing, exhibiting work, giving musical and dramatic performances and doing research work; the students in participating in the performances. Such work is a part of modern life and at the same time organically a part of the College community.
Though a closely knit unit, Black Mountain College is far from being exclusive group. It believes more in the breaking down of barriers than in erecting new ones. It believes that a pattern of living tried out in a small group has its application in a wider one. It believes that the unification of theory and practice which it seeks to establish is a safeguard illusions as well as against narrowmindedness. But such a unity will not be a safeguard only; it will show how one can take part in the shaping of days to come.
ORGANIZATION
When the College was incorporated in 1933, control of all its affairs was placed in the hands of the Faculty, who direct educational policy. The making of appointments and the administration of finances are delegated to a Board of Fellows, elected by the Faculty from its own membership for three and one years terms. A Rector who is chosen annually by the Faculty presides over the Board, which elects a Secretary and a Treasurer.
Students elect a student Moderator and three other officers for the regulation of their affairs. The Moderator is elected by the Faculty to the Board of Fellows. All Student Officers attend business meetings of the Faculty. The students are also represented on many College committees.
Meetings of the whole community are held when general discussion of the activities and problems of the College is felt to be necessary. Committees are appointed to deal with specific tasks, such as work planning, library, and admissions.
An Advisory Council is composed of friends of the College who are competent to offer expert advice on special aspects of its work.
The Board of Fellows, Officers of the College and the Advisory Council are listed in Annual Announcements.
CURRICULUM
Faculty Advisers
Each student arranges his plan of study with the help of a Faculty Adviser of his own choice. The College has no required courses, but the student is advised to choose a balanced program before concentrating in a special field. The progress of each students is discussed periodically by the entire Faculty. Although records are kept for reference and possible transfer of credit, no academic grades are given to the students.
Junior and Senior Division
All students enter the Junior Division. The courses taken intend to increase the student’s knowledge and clarify the direction of his interest. When the student is ready to specialize, he prepares a plan of study in his field, with the collaboration of his adviser. Entrance into the Senior Division is dependent upon Faculty approval of this plan and his written and oral examinations which test his powers of observation and reflection and his knowledge in four general fields, namely, Social Sciences, Language and Literature, the Arts, and Science. The student is also expected to have learned to work by himself and to assume responsibility in the community.
Graduation
When a student has completed his plan of study, he asks to be examined for graduation. If the Faculty find the student’s work satisfactory, they invite an outside examiner to the College. The examiner usually requires seven three-hour papers covering the student’s field of study. These are followed by oral examination. One of the papers concerned with a special problem may be presented in thesis form. In the arts, exhibitions or performances may take the place of some of these papers. Graduation is decided upon by the Faculty. The decision is based upon the report of the examiner and the student’s entire record.
The work demanded for graduation is equivalent to that required for a Bachelor of Arts degree at colleges and universities of long established standing. Black Mountain College confers a Certificate of Graduation; its graduates have been admitted to outstanding graduate schools. The following have examined for the College in recent years:
Donald K Adams, Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Director of Graduate Studies in Psychology, Duke University
Stringfellow Barr, President, St. John’s Colleg
Jacques Barzun, Associate Professor of History, Columbia University
John Frederick Dashiell, Kenan Professor of Psychology and Head of Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina
Cora DuBois, Anthropologist, Sarah Lawrence College
Marcel Breuer, Assistant Professor of Architecture, School of Design, Harvard University
C F Tucker Brooke, Sterling Professor of English, Yale University
Philip Putnam Chase, Lecturer in American History and Chairman of the Board of History Tutors, Harvard University
C Harold Gray, Dean, Bard College
Calvin Bryce Hoover, Professor of Economics, Duke University
Louis C Hunter, Professor of American History, American University
Cecil Johnson, Assistant Professor of History, University of North Carolina
Donald M MacKinnnon, Associate Professor of Psychology, Bryn Mawr College
William J Mitchell, Assistant Professor of Music, Columbia University
Robert R Palmer, Assistant Professor of History, Princeton University
Frank Allen Patterson, Professor of English, Columbia University
H Jeffrey Smith, Instructor of Philosophy, Columbia University
Corydon Perry Spruill, Jr, Professor of Economics, University of North Carolina
Alfred Thurber West, Director of Dramatics, Duke University
Length of Stay
A student’s course of study usually takes four years, of which two, generally, are spend in the Junior Division. However, length of stay at the College depends upon achievement rather than upon a residence requirement. During the war Black Mountain College offers an accelerated program. (See Annual Announcements).
COMMUNITY WORK
The work contributed by all members of the community includes construction and maintenance, work on the farm and on the grounds, assistance in the work shops, the office, and the library. Outdoor work takes the place of organized athletics. Records are kept as for academic subjects since the work is considered part of the student’s education. Community work is a step toward making the College independent of outside support.
COURSES
The curriculum is flexible and can be adapted to changing needs. Many of the courses listed are given every year; some, particularly more advanced courses, in alternate years.
Classes vary in size from three or four to fifteen or twenty. Teachers are thus enabled to follow the progress of each student very closely. The student is expected to make a positive contribution to the class.
Since a variety of viewpoints is represented on the Faculty, and each teacher have been composed by the departments concerned.
HISTORY
A student of history must do two things: he must make himself master of many facts and he must develop a specifically historical mode of thought. Having acquired the historical method, a student is in a better position to judge world politics; his own country and its affairs; and, since history is the sum total of the human record, political theories, general ideas, even the arts and sciences.
Two types of courses are offered: introductory surveys of European and American history and treatment of particular topics such as the evolution of modern ideas or the world since 1918. By stressing the question: What do the facts mean? The instructor tries to avoid in survey courses the dryness- born of meaninglessness; students, however, are not allowed to pass judgement on facts without knowing them. In courses on special topics students learn to deal with problems in more detail and are able to follow an instructor in his particular interest- an experience which can be exciting as it is fruitful.
Surveys:
History of Europe 1 (3 quarters)
History of Europe 2 (3 quarters)
History of America (3 quarters)
Advanced Courses:
Twentieth Century Politics (2 quarters)
Origins of Contemporary Civilizations (3 quarters)
Tutorials for students planning to graduate in history.
GOVERNMENT
The study of government is considered an opportunity for the student to understand the political framework in which he moves as a citizen. This includes Federal, state and local governments, with particular reference to the South, but encompassing a comparison of the different systems in vogue in the country and in other parts of the world. The courses in government should provide a basis for the student who wishes to pursue the study of government in post-graduate work; it also should give each student an intellectual background that will help him to function more intelligently as a citizen.
US Government- Federal, North Carolina and Local (4 quarters).
ECONOMICS
The fundamental factors of economics and their importance in the daily life of individuals as well as their significance in the social structure are the considerations around which the courses in the economics are built. The relation of economics to other social sciences is also examined, with special reference to the importance of economics in the development of the United States.
Elementary Economics (3 quarters)
Economics Problems of the South (3 quarters).
SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
The aim of students in these two fields is to discover cause and effect in social processes. The student gains an acquaintance with sociological method in general courses; in more specialized courses, he applies the method to specific areas of historical and contemporary phenomena. Choice of material is dictated by the interests of students and instructors. Beyond the mere learning of a particular discipline, courses are intended to give an understanding of the great problems of modern society.
Sociology
Introduction to Sociology (3 quarters)
Social Problems (3 quarters)
Population (1 quarter)
Comparative Religion (1 quarter)
Racial and National Groups in America (1 quarter)
Anthropology
General Anthropology (2 quarters)
The Mind of Primitive Man (1 quarter)
The American Indians (1 quarter)
Tutorials for students planning to graduate in these fields.
PSYCHOLOGY
The main province of psychology is assumed to be the study of man in the specifically human world, i.e., in relation to history, to values, to arts- in short, to his culture. It is not adequate, however, to explain the cultural life as a combination of simple impressions and elementary processes. The same basic characteristics of experiencing are to be found in all psychological phenomena. Therefore psychology has its own subject matter and methodology and is not treated as a branch of physiology. The relationship between mental life, nervous system and endocrine glands is not neglected, but treated as a secondary aspect.
As the sciences of inanimate nature are based on one general discipline- theoretical physics- so all the humanities should have one common basis in what might justly be called the psychology of the human world. This discipline, however, cannot be established on observation of behavior or on introspection; its proper method is the analysis of the characteristic phenomena and creations of the human world, an analysis of directed by the question of how such phenomena are psychologically possible.
Through this approach, the difficult theoretical problems of psychology can be clarified by concrete examples from everyday life; on the other hand, the concrete phenomena of the human world can be comprehended by these new means.
Introduction to Psychology (3 quarters)
Psychology of the Human World (3 quarters)
Child Psychology (1 quarter)
Educational Psychology (1 quarter)
Social Psychology (1 quarter)
Psychology of Languages (1 quarter)
Psychoanalysis (1 quarter)
Psychopathology (1 quarter)
Seminar on Psychology of Aesthetics (1 quarter)
Tutorials for students planning to graduate in psychology.
PHILOSOPHY
It is the purpose of the courses in philosophy to introduce the student, by means of class reading and discussion, to the world of thought, the problems, and the styles of great philosophers. Although there is an attempt to follow the historical development, it is not the main purpose to acquaint the student with historical development, it is not the main purpose to acquaint the student with historical facts and details, but rather to awaken his mind to the perennial themes of philosophy. The courses seek to show how the hierarchy of values in life today, usually taken as self-evident, is in fact conditioned by philosophical interpretations of the past, and how the problems of philosophy are, therefore, of immediate concern to every individual and community.
Reading of Philosophical Classics (3 quarters)
Philosophy of Science (3 quarters)
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
In literature classes the aim is to give the student an intimate experience and a thorough understanding of the major works in the English and American traditions.
Since literature by its nature stands midway between the arts and the social studies, the approach is both aesthetic and sociological or historical. In studying poetry as an art, form in the novel, or types of literature, techniques are analyzed, appreciation and development of taste are emphasized through informal oral readings and student writers are encouraged to practice in various forms.
In the survey courses the aim is to trace the development of a culture through its literature, as well as to point out the merits of individual works. Because it is essentially a personal expression of life by many writers, literature is of unusual value in contributing a knowledge of man’s nature and experience, and thus leading the student toward a mature and broad comprehension of himself and his fellows. The peculiar qualities of the major types, such as tragedy, comedy and poetry, are examined with a view to understanding their origins in human experience and human values. The emphasis rests not on establishing facts of the “sources” and “borrowings”-though these techniques of scholarship are taught and used- but on perceiving the specific quality of the work and its relation to life.
Introductory Courses:
Readings in Literature. A study of types of literature and the methods of literary analysis (3 quarters)
The English Literary Tradition. A study of a culture, based upon the more important literary works (3 quarters)
American Life and Letters. A study of American literature as an expression of America’s history and culture (3 quarters)
The Art of Poetry (1 quarter)
Twentieth Century American Prose and Poetry (2 quarters)
Advanced Courses:
Chaucer and Medieval England (2 quarters)
Shakespeare and the Elizabethans (3 quarters)
The English Novel (3 quarters)
Victorian England in Essay and Poetry (3 quarters)
The Romantic Movement in England (2 quarters)
The Contemporary English and American Novel (2 quarters)
Tutorials for students planning to graduate in literature.
FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE
Work is offered in French, German, Russian, and Spanish, and their respective literatures. Small classes make it possible to stress the practical side of speaking and understanding the modern languages. After on year of study the student should be able to understand the spoken language and make himself understood. Intensive courses of five hours a week are offered for beginners. By the end of the second year the student is expected to read in the language without the intermediary process of translation.
For more advanced students the courses become predominantly literary and cultural in content and are often conducted in the foreign language. A period, a literary genre or particular authors will be studied as the need arises.
Introductory French
Advanced French
Survey of French Literature
Introductory German
Advanced German
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century German Literature
Introductory Spanish
Advanced Spanish
Introductory Russian
Advanced Russian
Reading of Russian Classics
Each course covers 3 quarters.
Tutorials for students planning to graduate in languages.
Courses in Latin and Greek are given if there is sufficient demand.
MATHEMATICS
The study of mathematics is regarded as a training in abstract thought, with applications to science stressed first and to philosophy secondarily. The emphasis is on method, although practical problems are used. If a student learns to formulate a relation between several variables by himself, it is considered better than merely manipulating an aggregate of symbols given by others; better still, if he links diverse phenomena together by means of an abstraction which he can then develop deductively to some conclusion new to him. The relation of mathematics to science becomes evident from such application, and the student may then also recognize the importance of general ideas as leading toward philosophy.
The student who has learned to operate with fixed numbers, both known (in arithmetic) and unknown (in algebra), is prepared to understand the idea of the variable, the subject of the calculus. He is, therefore, encouraged to start at once with elementary calculus which deals with matters more important to general education than specialized courses in algebra, trigonometry and analytic geometry.
Elementary Calculus and Analytic Geometry (3 quarters)
Intermediate Calculus, including Differential Equations (3 quarters)
Advanced Calculus (3 quarters)
Tutorials in advanced analysis, including functions of a complex variable (for students planning to graduate in mathematics).
PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
Work in physics and chemistry introduces the student to the aims and methods of scientific thought and research. In discussing the technical applications of science, its economic, social and philosophical implications are pointed out. The extensive factual material indispensable to scientific understanding is presented, therefore, as a means and not as an end in itself.
Today as the borderline between physics and chemistry is disappearing, the student is brought to recognize the unity of both sciences in their basic structure.
The introductory courses, in addition to their general educational value, help students to decide whether they wish to specialize in any one branch of science.
The advanced courses, with their more technical character, offer full preparation for graduate or professional work.
Special courses embracing the latest developments in acoustics and optics are given for students in music and art, to acquaint them with basic scientific thought and method as applicable in their own fields.
Matter and Energy. An introductory course in general physics, chemistry and physical chemistry (3 quarters)
Experiments. In physics, chemistry and physical chemistry: a laboratory course (3 quarters)
Acoustics for Musicians (3 quarters)
Light and Color. Introductory optics for artists (2 quarters)
Tutorials in general chemistry, physical chemistry and organic chemistry, for students planning to graduate in science.
BIOLOGY
See Annual Announcements
ART
Art manifestations in various materials present problems which can be recognized and understood best through practical studies. These studies begin by exploring the properties of the materials. Drawing provides a training for eye and hand through technical exercises and systematical studies of overlappings and foreshortenings followed by two-dimensional representations of volume and space. Color is studied in relation to color, to light, shape, space, and quantity. General Design intends to develop basic understanding of material and space. Thus the introductory courses train observation and imagination and teach a workmanlike discipline. They move from the recognition of the means to the articulation in form.
The advanced courses move mainly from a concept of form to a selection of the appropriate means. Freehand drawing is studied from nature, still-life, figure, portrait. Painting consists in the study of composition of still-life, figure, and landscape. In General Design a practical study is made for combination of material as related to its appearance and of construction in material as related to its capacity. Old and new works of art, craft and industry, their artistic purpose and their psychological and sociological significance are compared and analyzed in class work as well as in lectures on seeing art, open to the community.
Introductory Drawing (3 quarters)
Advanced Drawing
Introductory Color (2 quarters)
Advanced Color (painting)
General Design (Weklehre) (3 quarters)
Light and Color. Introductory optics for artists. (See Page 17)
Tutorials for students planning to graduate in art.
Community Activities:
Art Exhibitions
Seeing Art (lectures)
The work in textile design deals with practice and theory of various weaving techniques. Design for industrial production with emphasis on functional qualities is taught, as well as textile composition as a medium of art.
Introductory Weaving. Theory and Practice (3 quarters)
Advanced Weaving. Theory and Practice
In the woodworking shop, students design and execute their work. They learn to use tools and to understand the possible uses of wood. In addition to class work, members of the community may receive help when they are building or doing repair work for themselves or for the community.
ARCHITECTURE
See Annual Announcements
WRITING
All students are expected to express themselves clearly and competently in English. For those requiring instruction in grammar and composition, classes or tutorials are held. The setting of a high standard of written work by the teachers in every class encourages adequate writing. With an increased ability to describe their experiences, students may begin to use language which goes beyond mere communication. Therefore, writing as a creative medium is taught primarily through training powers of observation and analysis.
A special class in practical journalism provides the student with the possibility of active participation in the publicity of the College.
Introductory Writing (3 quarters)
Advanced Writing (3 quarters)
Playwriting (See Page 20)
The Art of Poetry (See Page 15)
Journalism (3 quarters)
DRAMATICS
Drama is the meeting place of all the arts; their subordination under the will of the dramatist, if attempted with freshness and unconventionality, leads necessarily to experimentation. Therefore, the work in dramatics is of a laboratory nature. In it the student develops imagination and sharper psychological and artistic perception. Though coordinating his efforts with the demands of a dramatic work, he may become more fully aware of himself as a person.
Courses include the study of dramatic literature as well as training in acting, directing and stage-craft and are open to all students. Performances are presented to the community at regular intervals.
Dramatic Production (3 quarters)
Stagecraft (3 quarters)
Shakespeare and the Elizabethans (See Page 15)
Drama from Lessing to Ibsen (1 quarter)
Drama from Ibsen to the Present (1 quarter)
Tutorials in playwriting for students planning to graduate in dramatics.
EUKINETICS
Eukinetics tries to help the physical and mental attitude of the student by developing body control and poise as well as an elementary sense of dance movement. Without identifying itself with any particular system or dance training, it is a comprehensive training of the body.
As a medium of artistic expression Eukinetics is made a part of the drama student’s training.
Introductory Courses:
Eukinetics I (1 quarter)
Eukinetics II (1 quarter)
Folk Dancing
Ballroom Dancing
Advanced Courses:
Eukinetics, its means of expression in relation to dance and drama, including an introduction to historical dance styles (3 quarters)
MUSIC
Music is an education toward coordination, self-discipline, and emotional control; it is regarded as a vigorous activity rather than as a pastime or as a science for the initiated. Therefore, all courses and activities outlined below, with the exception of those given for advanced students, are open to all members of the community, no matter how inarticulate their interest in music. By practicing the musical crafts, by intelligent listening and by studying the living forces of Music History, the student may gain in experience and understanding. The music major can acquire not only technical proficiency, but also an unusually comprehensive knowledge.
Musical Crafts:
Introduction to Music
Harmony I
Harmony II
Harmony III
Elementary Counterpoint
Advanced Counterpoint
The above courses cover 6 quarters. They include ear-training and dictation.
Tutorials in counterpoint and composition for students planning to graduate in music
Courses in score reading, sight reading, and orchestration
Instruction in piano and violin
Piano seminar (for advanced students only)
Courses in ensemble playing and chamber music
History and Analysis of Music:
Middles Ages
Renaissance
Baroque
Classical Period
Nineteenth Century and the Present
The above courses over 8 quarters. An a capella chorus consisting mainly of students of Music History furnishes practical examples of the periods discussed in music history.
Analysis of Musical Form and Styles (8 quarters)
Special Courses:
The Operas of Mozart (3 quarters)
Acoustics for Musicians (See Page 17)
Seminar on J S Bach’s Clavier works (2 quarters)
Community Activities:
Chorus
Regular recitals and concerts by students, faculty members, and occasionally by guest artists
A capella group
Musical broadcasts over Station WWNC, Asheville, North Carolina
For further information on Courses, see Annual Announcements.
LIBRARY
The Library contains over fifteen thousand volumes. An additional six thousand volumes are in private possession of the Faculty. All these are only a fraction of the books available to students’ an inter-library loan service s arranged through the courtesy of the University of North Carolina and Duke University.
LABORATORIES AND OTHER EQUIPMENT
The Study Building contains classrooms and studios for students and Faculty.
The Science Laboratories are equipped for undergraduate work in physics, chemistry, and biology. In accordance with the demand for advanced courses, further equipment is added.
The Music Department owns pianos, orchestral instruments, and a library of records, scores, and books, considerably augmented by the valuable collection left to the College by the late Thomas Whitney Surette.
The Textile Workshop is equipped with foot-power looms of different types.
The Woodworking Shop has power and hand tools and also general maintenance tools.
There are workshops for printing, bookbinding, and photography.
LIVING QUARTERS
A large building, overlooking the lake, contains the kitchen and the dining hall which is also used as an auditorium. The living quarters of the community include two dormitories for students. Some members of the faculty also live in these dormitories, others in nearby cottages.
THE FARM
The College Farm consists of about a hundred acres of pasture and crop land. The farm supplies milk, butter, beef, pork, and vegetables to the community.
ADMISSION
A committee composed of faculty members and students admits applicants to the student body. The committee’s decision is based upon the previous training of applicants, their ability, and the part they can be expected to play in the community. The College has adopted no fixed regulations concerning the age or academic background of students applying for admission. It prefers to consider each case individually. Applicants’ records must indicate that they are ready to do college work. Most applicants are of normal college age and have completed a four year course in an accredited secondary school. Applicants who have no been graduated from secondary schools may be admitted. Although it is understand that education cannot be unduly accelerated, the College believes that those who can proceed rapidly should be given the change to do so.
The Graduate Students certain departments offer the opportunity to observing their teaching techniques. Participation in the life of the community acquaints one with the background against which these techniques are effectively employed. Interested persons should apply for admission in the regular way and correspond with the department of their special interest.
The College provides the following forms to be filled out by applicants:
An application blank to be accompanied by an application fee of $5.00.
A financial agreement for the full fee or an application for reduced fee, signed by the person responsible for the applicant’s fees and by the student. (see Fees).
A health certificate and an occultist’s certificate to be sent directly to the College by the examiners.
The College will write directly to the references given on the application blank for letters of recommendation and for records of previous work.
An example of the applicant’s work may be submitted with the application.
A visit to the College or a personal interview with a representative is desirable and may be required. The committee will not decide whether to accept an applicant while he is visiting the College.
Students wishing to transfer from other colleges or universities must apply for admission in the regular way. Like all entering students, they will start work in the Junior Division but may apply for entrance to the Senior Division after one term.
Applications will be promptly considered but, since the number of students that can be admitted is limited, decisions may be postponed for comparative purposes.
The academic year begins in September; however, students may enter at the beginning of any quarter. The date a student plans to enter must be indicated on his application blank. If the arrival of a student is postponed for more than six weeks after this date, his application must come before the committee a second time. A new application and fee are required if the postponement defers entranced to the following year. Students who withdraw from the College without obtaining leave of absence must make application for re-admission.
Applicants should address all correspondence to the Registrar, Black Mountain College, Black Mountain, North Carolina.
FEES
The student body represents a wide cross- section of American life, economically as well as geographically. The sliding scale in the yearly fee which the College charges, makes it possible to admit students on the basis of all their qualifications for benefiting from, and contributing to the College. The fee for room, board, and tuition for the normal academic year of three quarters ranges from $1200 to $450 according to ability to pay. Those who can are expected to assume the full cost of their education. Others pay as large a fee as they can afford, taking into account the fact that a college education is an investment and is therefore not to be regarded merely as current expense. Every reduction is granted on the basis of need as shown by a confidential financial statement. The difference between the fee charged and cost is made up so far as possible through gifts to the College for Student Aid. The full fee of $1200 represents approximately the average cost. This would be higher except that every student no matter whether he pays the minimum amount or the full fee makes a contribution toward paying for his education by the share he does in the community work.
The Admissions Committee judges applicants on their merit and makers its decisions independently of financial considerations. Unfortunately lack of endowment and the insufficiency of gifts received for Student Aid limit the number of the larger reductions that the Student Fee Committee can grant. Nevertheless, during the past few years, fee reductions have totaled from $23,000 to $40,000 annually. There are also available a few tuition scholarships whereby a limited number of students who cannot pay the minimum fee are enabled to attend the College for less.
Each applicant, before his admission can become effective, must submit a satisfactory Financial Agreement signed both by the student and by the person responsible for payment of fees. A new Agreement must be signed in advance every year that the student remains in the College. The College reserves the right to alter the fees from one year to the next in the light of changed circumstances.
No student may enter or remain in residence while any financial arrangements for the current year are pending.
For personal expenses students should have $20 to $30 per quarter exclusive of transportation.
There is no provision for students to work their way through Black Mountain College in the sense of earning their fees while carrying their usual program of studies. In another sense everyone works part of his way through by participating in the community work. A few students earn an appreciable part an, in rare cases, all of their fees by working in alternate quarters during the summers. Occasionally opportunities exist at the College, especially for trained secretaries, to follow this plan. However, for all such positions a degree of competence is required which presupposes previous experience. Ordinarily applicants should not count on being able to finance their expenses in this way unless they are themselves able to find adequately paid positions during the quarters that they work. It is sometimes possible to include as a definite, though optional, part of the student’s training, practical work experience outside, as well as within, the College community.
For other fees and information concerning payment of fees, see Annual Announcements.
HEALTH
A health certificate and an oculist’s certificate are required of all applicants for admission. All entering students are urged to be immunized against smallpox, diphtheria, and thyroid fever. The College reserves the right to insist upon inoculations and all other health measures that its medical consultants may prescribe. An infirmary has been provided in which people suffering from minor ailments or injuries may be isolated and properly cared for. The College requires that anyone needing the attention of a nurse shall have it; the money to meet the expense is advanced by the College if necessary.
Several physicians are immediately available in Black Mountain. Asheville has modern hospital facilities and resident specialists in most medical fields.
INFORMATION FOR NEW STUDENTS
Study Building: A study equipped with overhead light and bookshelves is assigned to each student. Until the Study Building is completed, some students will have to share studies. Curtains are bought in the College store. Furniture is usually made by students or bought locally.
Dormitories: Students care for their own rooms. Beds are provided; mattresses, bureaus, and mirrors are rented at low rates. Bed linen, blankets and towels are supplied by the students and should be at hand upon arrival.
Laundry: The laundering of sheets, towels, and pillow-cases is paid for by the College. A laundry room is at the disposal of students wishing to do their personal laundry.
Clothes: Both winter and summer clothes should be brought, including work clothes and heavy shoes. Evening dresses are worn at dances and concerts.
Miscellany: Students who possess equipment in any field of their interest- architecture, carpentry, painting, photography, and the like-are encouraged to bring it.
Firearms, if brought, must be kept in the office.
No pets may be brought unless permission has been obtained.
BULLETINS
The following supplementary pamphlets may be had on request: Pictures of the College, Concerning Art Instruction, Work with Material, Graduation at Black Mountain, Education in Time of Crisis, Financial Statements
