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Artist
Unknown BMC (Primary)
Title

Black Mountain College Bulletin: The New Year (Vol. 7, No. 4, November 1949)

Date
1949
Century
20th century
Medium & Support
Ink on paper
Object Type
Archival Documents
Credit Line
Black Mountain College Collection, gift of Barbara Beate Dreier and Theodore Dreier, Jr. on behalf of all generations of Dreier family
Accession Number
2017.40.047
Copyright
In Copyright, Educational Use Permitted
Courtesy of the Theodore Dreier Sr. Document Collection, Asheville Art Museum
Description

4-page booklet made from a larger sheet of paper folded, matte paper, off-white. Includes updates from the fall session, building plans and progress, update on annual faculty meeting and elction of administration, campus news, report of the summer session and off-capus news. Credit line- The Print Shop of Black Mountain College

BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BULLETIN November 1949
THE NEW YEAR
Many new members joined with former BMC faculty to open a vigorous fall session. Forty-eight students (34 men and 14 women) are enrolled, with 20 states represented. Twenty of the students, including two women, are veterans. Among the new teachers are two from Olivet College, who gave up their permanent tenure at the Michigan school “hoping to find at Black Mountain the opportunities for real education that had been lost at Olivet”.
Dr. Paul Leser (anthropology), PH.D. summa cum laude from the University of Bonn and Darmstadt Institute of Technology, was professor of anthropology for nine years at Darmstadt and the University of Stockholm before coming to the U.S. in 1942. He taught at the New School for Social Research and in Military Intelligence before joining the Olivet faculty in 1947. Dr. Leser is the author of four works in anthropology, as well as numerous articles and reviews.
Fiola Shepard (linguistics, French, German) received her M.A. from George Washington University, with further study at Bryn Mawr and Ohio State, and worked at the University of Vienna under the Anna Ottendorfer Memorial Fellowship in Germanic Studies. After teaching at Ohio State, Bryn Mawr, and Morehead (Ky.) State Teachers College, she had been a member of the Olivet faculty for fourteen years.
Alvin Freeman (history), a graduate of Virginia Military Institute and M.A. last year at Brown University, is teaching courses in medieval and modern European history.
Margaret Freeman (chorus) last year taught music at Lincoln School, Providence, R.I. She is a Brown graduate and holds an M.A. in music from Smith College. She is conducting choral and a capella groups.
Vollmer Hetherington (music) was graduated with highest honors from the New England Conservatory of Music, later studied at Boston University, receiving Mus.B. and A.M. degrees. A violinist, he has played with many broadcasting and concert orchestras, was assisting artist with the Stradivarius String quartet, and a member of the Andover String quartet, and has given many solo recitals, which he will continue to do here this year, accompanied by his wife.
Louise Hetherington (piano) is also a graduate of New England Conservatory, as well as a student of Charles Dennee, Beveridge Webster, and Erwin Bodky.
Former BMC students Joe Fiore, Peter Jennerjahn, and Betty Schmitt Jennerjahn are teaching, respectively, painting and drawing, color and design, and dance.
A new workshop course in ceramics (beginning with the building of a kiln) is being directed by Robert Turner, M.A. from the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University, and himself an exhibiting ceramicist.
Ellen Siegel (weaving) comes to BMC from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. Her work in textile design has been widely exhibited, and is the subject of a forthcoming article in “La Revue Moderne.”
John McCandless (printing), graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, was formerly a journalist and a working partner in Libertarian Press, N.J.
Don Warringotn (college treasurer), B.S. in commerce from Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia, was for two and a half years in charge of the financial administration for American Friends Service units in China.
Returning this year from leaves of absence are the Dehns and the Levis. Dr. Max Dehn (mathematics, philosophy) was last year visiting professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin. During the summer he held the same position at Notre Dame University. A.W. Levi (philosophy, social science) and M.C. Richards (reading, writing) are home from a year in Europe.
Rounding out an unusually varied curriculum, the following faculty continue from last year: David Corkran (American history and literature); Anna Goldowski (French, Russian); Natasha Goldowski (physics, chemistry); Johanna Jalowetz (bookbinding, voice); Hazel Larsen (photography); Nell Rice (library); and Ray Trayer (farm).
BUILDING AT BMC
Again this year, as often in the past, the BMC community plans to devote a share of its energy to building. The designing of a new laboratory to replace the one that burned has been begun by Paul Williams, Dan Rice, and Stan Vanderbeek. $5000 has tentatively been set aside for this project. By the use of student labor, this among will provide at least 1000 sq ft. of space.
Actual construction will begin in a month and continue till summer. As the designing has only begun, no particulars can be given now except to say that the site will probably be on the lower rim of the knoll slightly south of the studies building. Perhaps a later bulletin will contain more details and a progress report.
FACULTY ELECTS ADMINISTRATION
The annual meeting of the faculty to elect the officers of the corporation of Black Mountain College was held October 4. N.O. Pittenger will continue to serve as rector. The Board of Fellows now consists of Dave Corkran (registrar), Student Moderator Nick Cernovich, Natasha Goldowski, Bill Levi, Nell Rice, Fiola Shepard (secretary), Ray Trayer, Don Warrington (treasurer), and Mr. Pittenger.
CAMPUS NEWS
BMC has been invited to submit photographs for the winter issue of Everyday Art Quarterly, published by The Walker Museum in Minneapolis… Bernie Karp is back and is taking care of the wood shop for his work program… New porches (built of BMC cut lumber) are going on South Lodge and Roadside… The “Marshall Field” bull has been sold, and our cows are now being artificially inseminated.
Vera Baker Williams and June Rice are college dieticians… The Eye has been entirely transformed into workshops for art, bookbinding, silkscreen… Bi-monthly film showings with the 16 mm projector bought last year continue.
In the first week of September, forty-six executive directors of the YMCA held at BMC a three-day conference on the problems of the YMCA executive, Members of the conference were white and Negro directors of community YMCA’s in cities and towns throughout the South.
REPORT OF THE SUMMER SESSION
Still trying for “the most space for the least cost”, Buckminster Fuller, designer and inventor, continued work on his latest “Geodesic Structure” at BMC this summer. A fourteen-foot model hemisphere of aluminum aircraft tubing covered with a vinylite shell was erected at the end of the Studies building and put through various tests by the nine students who came with him from the Chicago Institute of Design to continue their work on the structure.
Also from the I.D. came Emerson Woelffer and John Walley to teach painting, drawing, sculpture; Mrs. Jano Walley to teach ceramics and jewelry design; Mrs. Diane Woellfer to assist Hazel Larsen in photography. Marli Ehrmann, formerly of the Bauhaus, and the I.D., taught weaving.
An adaptation of Moliere’s “The Intellectual Ladies” was produced and performed under the direction of Mary-Averett Seelye, drama teacher at the Washington, D.C., Workshop.
The author and poet, Charles Olson, who was visiting instructor last year, taught a course in Verses and Drama with the aim of producing “new theatre.” The result was an evening of original productions, combinations of poetry, mime, music, color, and dance.
Nataraj Vashi taught Hindu Dance and gave a series of lectures on Hindu Philosophy, Pra-Veena (Mrs. Vashi) arrived in August to assist in the dance class and joined him in a dance recital at the end of the session.
Erwin Bodky and the resident artists in music gave a concert each week of the summer and a three-day Bach Festival. Resident artists were Paul Matthen, bass baritone, of Bennington College; Klaus Klepmann, violinist, of the music faculty of M.I.T.; Frances Snow Drinker, flutist, of Cambridge; Raymond Toubman, oboeist, of the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra; and Olivia Silberberg, cellist, of the same. Josephine Cunningham and John Connect assisted in a performance of the Coffee Cantata.
Courses in the History of Psychology and the Place of Art and the Artist in Society were given by Dr. James A. Pait, formerly of Stephens College and now head of the philosophy department at Ripon College. Dr. Nathan Rosen, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the U. of North Carolina, gave work in classical and atomic physics. Dr. John Scholtz, of Wilson College, gave lectures and seminars in mathematics. The three men held symposia during the summer, examining various concepts (infinity, for example) from their several viewpoints.
OFF-CAMPUS NEWS
Warren and Mary Outten are in Chicago, Warren again at the Institute of Design and Mary working for Esquire… Ike and Alexa Nakata also in Chicago, with their new baby… Bob Abell is rumored to be in Mexico with the Friends Service (he graduated from U. of New Hampshire this year)… Dawes Green, Chick Perrow, Bobbie Rondthaler are at Reed College… Sylvia Girsch at U. of Iowa drawa-ing, also Eva Schlein working on her Writer’s M.A…. James Herlihy is at the Pasadena Playhouse, acting and writing plays… Charles Boyce graduated in June from U. of Indiana, married in September Barbara Stadthaus, will attend Syracuse University School of City Planning… Randy Geissbuhler and Harry Holl were married in August on Cape Cod, are now living in Oregon in connection with Viewpoint Farm (Warren, Adamy, Weitzer, Schauffler, Mullholland)… Mervin Lane is in Paris, recently visited Arthur Penn in Perugia, Italy… Lyle Bonge is a student at Mississippi Southern… Ken Noland is teaching at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Washington, D.C…. Dolores Fullman received a scholarship to Roosevelt College in Chicago… Albert Lanier and Ruth Asawa are married and living in San Francisco; Al is working with Mario Corbett, architect… Also married: Don Daley and Ilona von Karolyi; Stan Cooke and Gerda Slavson… Si Sillman is teaching at Windsor Mt… Trude Guermonprez is weaving at Pond Farm in California… Bimbus is in San Francisco… Anni Albers has a show at the Museum of Modern Art, N.Y…. Josef Albers is for a short time at the Cincinnati Art Academy- he will go later to Yale… The Bodkys are back in Boston, where Erwin is directing music at Brandeis University.

Black Mountain College Bulletin Volume 7 Number 4
Issued four times a year, in March, April, May, and November. Entered as second class matter November 4, 1942, at the Post Office at Black Mountain, North Carolina, under the Act of August 24, 1912.
The Print Shop of Black Mountain College

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