Two copies (one marked as "file copy" on top right corner and second copy mailed to Theodore Dreier Cambridge address) 8p, onesided pages, mimeograph on matte off white paper and stapled. Multiple authors are credited- Janet Ramsey, Edward Lowinsky, Ike Nakata, Jose Yglesias, Dorothy Cole, Joan Maurice, Jack Taylor, Mary Gregory, Jack Bailey, Carol Serling, Ellie Smith, Mary Caroline Richards (Editing), BJ Osbourne (publication). Other news- Heinrich Jalowetz died from a sudden heart attack on Feb 2, right after playing a son with Trudi Straus; Mrs Jalowetz was appointed instructor announces the joining of 9 new veteran students Winter Quarter Lectures: Erich Kahler on March 18, "The Meaning of History" Judy Austin, on the condition of students in war-torn countries Lt Dale Pontius, The "Liberating" forces of the U.S. Captain Stenzel, Nurburg Trial Howard Rondthaler, on North Carolina announces that the meeting of the Board of Fellows granted Anne and Josef Albers a sabbatical leave of one year during the 1946-47 Session mentions that students on leave of absence next quarter was Janet Ramsey, Carol Serling, Hank Bergman, John Corrington and Gary Clements. Veterans attending the college with the Support of GI Bill: Jimmy Tito, Willio Joseph, Hank Bergman, Don Wight and John Reiss, 9 new veterans: Faf Foster, Ike Nakata, John Urbain, Ollie Sihvonen, Jose Yglesias, Stuart Atkinson, Tommy Cutshaw, Paul Williams, Carles Dreyfus. VIsitors: Mrs Jamieson, Mrs Carr, Miss Florence Whittlesey, Larry Fox; Marshal Gorham; Irwin Hunt; Zeng Pathroomatha; Mr and Mrs Reuben Fogelson, Mrs William Fogelson, Cpl. Paul Williams, Maurice Miller, Chuck Forberg, Don Page.
COMMUNITY BULLETIN BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE File Copy
Winter Quarter, March 1946 college year 13
ALUMNI NEWS: by Janet Ramsey
News was recently received of the marriage of Betty Kelley to Homer (“Bob”) Bobillin, who returned to the states in January after two years in the Pacific. “Though I know it won’t surprise you- on Monday, that was February eleventh, Betty and I were married.” Betty was graduated in drama from BMC last spring under Sam Seldon of Chapel Hill and Bob Wunsch. She and “Bob” are now living with his parents in Springfield, New Jersey.
Pfc. Henry Adams writes from the Phillipines: “I have seen five countries in Europe, much of the United States and now the Phillipines. I have had much opportunity to watch people in all kinds of circumstances and have acquired an excellent background of observations and experiences that will be useful in later life. In the last few months I have had plenty of leisure time to write short articles, surveys, essays and fiction. After having tried my hand at it for awhile, I began looking around for professional advice. I was lucky in meeting Edgar Snow in Munich. He looked over my manuscripts and gave encouraging criticism- concluded by saying ‘keep it up’ and that’s just what I’m going to do.”
Frank M. White and Katherine Cole White have a new daughter, Christime, born December fourth. They are now living in Alfred, New York where Frank is attending Alfred University.
Irma Ehrman opened a small gift shop with her mother last month at their home in Flushing. John Reiss, who is leaving this spring for New York to do Graphic Design, is helping with their advertising and they are featuring some of Jane Slater’s matière boxes.
George Randall writes from Berkeley, California: “Now that I have my discharge, I am planning to carry on my work in dramatics with emphasis on radio and television either at Yale or the American Academy in New York. Both places want full accounts of the work I did at that last ‘peculiar’ college in North Carolina.”
From Marjorie Moench in Massachusetts: “What small news there is from me is simply that I’ve been studying sculpture at the Boston Museum School and am going to the Tyler School of Fine Arts (Temple Univ.) to study further. As a special student there I believe I can get the training I need.”
Marion Mitchell is now teaching at the San Luis Ranch School, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Pfc. Barbara Payne is taking courses in photography and music appreciation at Luke Field, Phoenix, Arizona, where she is now stationed.
Maude Debbs, Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, is studying at the Longy School and lives with Nan Oldenburg, who is studying at the Harvard University School of Design.
Cynthia and Roney Beylen are living at 8 Plympton Street, Cambridge.
Bob and Helsie Marden are with Helsie’s family in Watertown, Mass. Bob has been accepted at Harvard.
HEINRICH JALOWETZ by Edward Lowinsky
On February 2, 1946, shortly after rendering a beautiful program of violin-piano music together with Trudi Straus, Dr. Heinrich Jalowetz, 63, succumbed to a sudden heart attack.
Dr. and Mrs. Jalowetz had spent the fall quarter on leave of absence in New York City. A friend writes from New York City that Dr. Jalowetz was always full of youthful enthusiasm, he went to concerts, he attended rehearsals, he met friends,
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And last but not least, he started to work on a book on Arnold Schoenberg. An Italian music publishing house had asked him to write a monograph on this great modern composer, who had such a decisive impact on the development of modern music. It will be an eternal regret of all friends of modern music that this book was not to be written. For more than forty years Dr. Jalowetz had been in closest contact with Arnold Schoenberg and his work, first as pupil, then as friend and finally as conductor and protagonist.
Dr. Jalowetz has been for more than six years the guiding spirit in conducting the musical life of BMC. He realized one of his dreams when he fumble the BMC Music Institute, in which he gathered a number of outstanding artists, many of them followers of Schoenberg. The Institute has attracted attention widely among musicians.
Black Mountain College has lost a great musician, one of its most devoted and enthusiastic teachers, a fine mind open to the whole of human culture, a noble heart ever ready to help and to further human progress.
Dr. Jalowetz has been buried on College grounds. His grave lies in the woods surrounded by rhododendron trees.
Mrs. Jalowetz, who has been for years the bookbinder of the College, received an official appointment as instructor in bookbinding. She is also teaching voice and has at present a number of voice students.
Dr. Jalowetz leaves also two daughters. Lisa Aronson, who studied at Black Mountain College, is working together with her husband as stage designer in New York City. She came to attend the funeral of her father and stayed for a week with her mother. The older daughter, a weaver and textile designer lives at present in Holland, where her husband worked and died as a member of the Dutch underground during the Nazi occupation.
GI’s by Ike Nakata
To the modest company of five GI’s present last quarter- Jimmy Tite, Willie Joseph, Hank Bergman, Don Wight and John Reiss- nine have been added this term. Among their interests they name art, social problems, architecture, writing, psychology. Concerning their impressions of BMC, they go on record as follows:
Faf Foster, who was a student here before going into the Army, with which he served for about 2 ½ years in India, China and Burma, says, “Life at BMC made life much easier for me in the army. My doing unpleasant jobs on the work program developed a certain degree of self-discipline which aided my adjustment to the army.”
Ike Nakata, also a former student, who served overseas 3 years, says, “BMC was very dull and lifeless, but it has begun to show signs of life since I came back.” Ike says he is “going through a rehabilitation and re-educating process, and there’s nothing to beat these mountains. The air is conductive to lucid contemplation.”
Other GI’s, now this quarter, find various satisfactions in BMC life. John Urbain, who spent nearly 4 years in the service, likes the lack of compulsion and constraint in community life, the case of contacts between people, the chance for the individual to feel important in the group. Fed-up with the kind of instruction in art offered by the conventional college, John commends the method he finds here: “art students here don’t simulate the style of the teacher. The teacher gives a basic idea which is developed by the students. The teacher breaks down the student’s prejudices and tries to make him original.”
Ollie Slivonen, who served for 3 years with the Engineers doing camouflage work, is likewise primarily interested in art education. He comments: “BMC is unique as an art school because here art begins from fundamentals. Development, not for production, but of the artist as an individual, is considered important.”
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Jose Yglesias, member of the Navy Air Force for 3 years, is attracted by the democratic community life and atmosphere conductive to creative work.
Stuart (Squeaky) Atkinson, for 21 months in the Infantry, miles upon the personalization of education at BMC, likes the abundance of talk, is in favor of the work program, the countryside, and the after-dinner dances.
Tommy Cutshaw, aerial observer and photographer with the Army Air Corps for 4 years, and Paul Williams, navigator in the Air Corps for 29 months, voice the general GI view that: “BMC is a welcome change from the army.”
A member of the French army for 16 months, Charles Dreyfus, is not strictly ad GI. But, like the native sons, he is happy to be again where the individual has responsibility and where, as he says, “nothing is taken for granted.”
Lack of privacy, complacency, and misused freedom were mentioned by various men as blemishes on the fair features of BMC.
Jack Bailey, who was with the Infantry 2 ½ years, tramping through England, France, Holland, Luxenberg and Germany, expected BMC to be larger and somewhat more conventional than it is, but had made his peace contentedly with what he has found. “As a whole,” he says, “there are pretty mature people here.”
LECTURES by Jose Yglesias
This winter quarter’s various lectures were climaxed with one given by Dr. Erich Kahler, the author of Man the Measure, on March 18. Dr. Kahler, who followed his lecture with seminar discussions on two other nights of the same week, chose as his theme “The Meaning of History.”
The meaning of history is an evolutionary concept which, Dr. Kahler says, has given men hope and security since early cultures and which has today been weakened by the work of those philosophers, like Nietzche and Spengler, who deny history. This denial of history has contributed to the chaotic situation of the world today where belief seems outmoded and impossible. Familiar as Dr. Kahler is with controversy, having participated in a famous one with the German sociologist, Max Weber, in 1919, he welcomed lively opposition from the campus “relativists”. The crowded seminars held in the lobby of South Lodge tended to run well over the two hours that they were supposed to last.
The first week of this past quarter brought Judy Austin to South Lodge to speak on the condition of students in war-torn countries. Miss Austin is regional field secretary of the World Student Service Fund, an organization which helps needy students of foreign countries.
Two other lecturers were Lt. Dale Pontius, of the AMG, and Captain Stenzel, of Army Intelligence. Captain Stenzel worked in Germany with the army as an interpreter. He spoke of the Nurnberg trials where he served as interpreter for Rudolph Hess and other war criminals. Our administrative policy in Germany, he said, was rifled with faults that made it the most inefficient, comparatively speaking, in helping to rebuild Germany.
Lt. Pontius commented on the problems the “liberating” forces of the U.S. encountered in the Phillipine and in Japan: e.g. distribution of food and clothing, treatment of collaborationists, selection of civil officials and regional economy.
An informal lecture was given by Dr. Howard Rondthaler, Rondy’s father and President of Winston-Salem College, who spoke on “North Carolina” at a tea given in his and his wife’s honor in South Lodge, on March 19.
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CONCERTS by Dorothy Cole
With the return of Trudi Straus and Heinrich Jalowetz, who had been on leave of absence for the fall quarter, the traditional Saturday night concert series was begun on February 2. Trudi and Jalo played sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart, Brahms and Bach.
By special invitation, Edward Barry Greene, who teaches music at Princeton University, gave a piano recital on February 16, stressing works by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.
Gretel Lowinsky was welcomed in her first performance of the year on March 9, when she appeared with Edward Lowinsky and Trudi Straus, in a concert of chamber music for violins and piano. Gretel and Eddie played sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven. Joined by Trudi, the ensemble presented sonatas for two violins and piano by Corelli and Hendel.
The concert series of this quarter was climaxed by a presentation of chamber music on March 23 in which students as well as faculty members participated. The Beethoven Quartet, Op. 18, No. 3, was played by Trudi Straus and Earlene Wight, violins; Gretel Lowinsky, viola; and Anna Lockwood, cello. Anna Lockwood and Edward Lowinsky played the Beethoven Sonata for piano and cello, Op. 102 in C Major. A string quartet, with Trudi Straus and Dorothy Cole, violins; Gretel Lowinsky and Dorothy Carr, violas; and Anna Lockwood, cello, played the Mozart G Minor.
ART NEWS by Joan Maurice
Two exhibits, from the College’s print collection, have been displayed in the Dining Hall this quarter; one of Seurat, and the other of drawings by old masters.
Textiles from Black Mountain by Anni Albers and students, have been shown at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Flint Institute of Art in Michigan. Anni Albers also has work included in the exhibit of “Contemporary American Handwoven Textiles,” which in new on tour.
Josef Albers has given several lectures. He spoke at Hollins College on “Abstract Art”, and held discussions and criticisms of student art work at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He is to speak on April 2 at the Florida State College for Women on “Design”. On March 29 he will speak in Asheville on “Abstract Art” before the State Art Teachers meeting.
Oils by Josef Albers are included in the 10th Anniversary Exhibition of American Abstract Artists and the JB Neuman Gallery in New York. A one man show is at present at the Florida State College for Women. Prints are being shown at Hollins College, Yale University, University of Minnesota, San Francisco Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Some matière and color studies by John Reiss are being shown at H.G. Knoll & Company, New York City, concurrently with an exhibition of their furniture.
GREENSBORO ARTS FORUM by Jack Taylor
Black Mountain was represented at the Third Annual Arts Forum, sponsored by the Women’s College of the Univ. of N.C. held in Greensboro, March 14, 15 and 16, by M.C. Richards, Bill Levi, Dick Sherman, Hannelore Hahn, Laurie Nattlin, Ann Mayer, Jimmy Tite and Jack Taylor.
The Forum’s visiting authorities who led panel discussions in their various fields were: Sheldon Choney, art; Howard Hanson, music; Lionel Trilling, writing; and, Charles Weidman, dance.
The high spot of the Forum for the Black Mountain representatives came the first afternoon when the writer’s panel reviewed an entry entitled, “There They Are”, submitted by Dick Sherman.
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The story, depicting a young married couple in their apartment, was praised by Mr. Trilling as showing the most “adventurous spirit” and “freedom” of any student work accepted. The piece was designed to catch the “immediacy” of the lives of its characters, Joe and Nola. Mr. Trilling considered the story an experimental success, acclaiming it finally on the grounds that it “dared to be gay”.
The Black Mountain people had the opportunity to meet many of the nearly two hundred students from the thirty southern colleges represented at the Forum, and to compare “ways of student life” as well as “ways of education” with them. There was a hope expressed that next year’s Forum might find greater Black Mountain representation and contribution.
WORK SUMMARY by Mary Gregory
6,000 board feet of pine and oak have been cut down, hauled and sawed at Burnetts Lumber Mill and are back, stacked and are curing ready for building. Bas Allen says it’s the obarest pine anywhere today. The number of board feet various slightly according to who tells the story, but it is a lot and it is exciting. The crew who has done this work has been headed by Francis Foster and Ike Nakata.
Three overloads of coal have been hauled with almost traditional vigor. I say “almost” because we can sometimes use a mechanical loader at the siding.
We have burned more wood than usual this winter: the supply cut from eight acres of new pasture ground two winters ago and some from the ground which has been cleared this winter. This has meant a good deal of buzzing with the power saw and hauling to the various houses. Cinders have been added to the reads especially near the farm. A crew headed by Mary Phelan has been clearing the old ditches which will bring water from the North Fork River into the Lake. As soon as a new culvert arrives the water will actually get into the Lake.
Harry Weitzer, Jimmy Tite, Annette Stone and Dick Sherman have headed a crew which has been clearing the pine field across from the Penley cottage about two acres, and as soon as the brush is burned this area will be planted for pasture.
Hannelore Hahn and Anne Banks have retrieved a tennis court from the middle of the field below the Stone Cottage…The South Lodge has a set of drain boards for the tea sink and the weaving department finally has a blackboard. A cabinet for the Infirmary is under construction.
Two apple trees behind the kitchen were cut down and hauled away. They were almost dead. There was a period of sentimentally and now the dinner going hangs on a very bland tripod…The Farm House field and Bard field are ploughed and the ground for the potatoes is prepared. Most of the 80 inevitable tons of manure are out of the barns and the superphosphates have been spread on the pastures near the barn. We have consumed all but seven of the pigs at the farm and won’t really wind when we have consumed them all. They are expensive to feed and they still get out. There are five now calves and two dairy calves and it is spring.
Paul Williams is clearing up the tumble-down part of the Dining Hall porch and the front entrance has been repainted.
These are only some of the things that are happening. There are others: library work, office work, setting tables, making butter, hauling trash, building dog houses and sorting the mail don’t go unnoticed.
STUDENT MEETINGS by Jack Bailey
The first student meeting of the winter quarter was held January 15 in the lobby of South Lodge. The question receiving the articulate attention of the student body was that of making available study
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Space to accommodate our increased enrollment. This obviously necessitated the sharing of some studies and a plan was worked out in a committee which has served us satisfactorily throughout the quarter.
The next meeting, held January 28, opened with an announcement by Sue Schauffler that the following Wednesday was to be “clean-up day” during which everyone’s cooperation was requested. In explanation may I add that we were getting the place scrubbed and combed to have its picture taken- the following week a young lady from Harper’s Bazaar called upon us and poked around with her Rolliflex for a few days. Annette Stone explained the use of the Infirmary and posted there a list of observances for its officient handling. Faf Foster was elected Fire Chief. There followed a tabling of seven “punitive porposals” pertaining to the violation of the Student Agreement on Vacation Dates, and a student proposal of a Community Meeting to study the present government of Black Mountain College, after which the meeting was adjourned.
On February 10, after announcements, the students divided themselves into seven small groups, which were to list any and all instances and problems of community life which they felt should be considered at the forthcoming Community Meeting. A committee including Hank Bergman, Jimmy Tite, Ann Mayer, and Jack Taylor was appointed to tabulate these suggestions..
At the February 25th meeting Cricket Pearson asked for two volunteers to prepare tea on Wednesdays. She got them. Susie Teasdale asked for four table clearers. She got them. Jack Bailey for more student cooperation in clearing tables in the Dining Hall. He got it. Hank gave a progress report on tabulations of the Community Meeting agenda and announced that the faculty had held a meeting similar to our own and that there was to be appointed a joint student-faculty committee to consider all proposals before the Community Meeting was held. John Wallen gave us an explanation of the Hiring Hall system and a Comparative Chart to be posted on the Hiring Hall bulletin board, which was followed by questions and discussion. There was another request- this time from Bill McLaughlin- for a little more after-hours' quiet in the Lodges. The last bit of business at this meeting was Hank’s announcement that the faculty was preparing to elect a new member to the Board of Fellows and would welcome comments from all interested students.
Owing to the illness of the Student Moderator, no further meetings were held until March 25, when the election of an interim Moderator to fill Hank’s place Spring Quarter was planned. Judy Chernoff was elected on March 28.
FACULTY NOTES by Carol Serling
The official student enrollment for the winter quarter stands at 72 students.
Applicants for the fall quarter are requested to submit applications before April 15; admissions to be determined before May 1.
Negotiations are being carried on to secure federal assistance under the Lanham Act for temporary housing of veterans while the permanent building plans are put into action.
The semester system will be reinstated for the 1946-47 session. The calendar is as follows:
Summer Institute July 2- August 28
Fall term begins September 18
Classes begin September 19, 8:30 am
Christmas vacation begins December 11, noon
Christmas vacation ends January 8, 8:30 am
Semester ends February 8
Second semester begins February 11, 8:30 am
Spring Vacation begins March 29, noon
Spring Vacation ends April 8, 8:30 am
Semester ends June 14, noon
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David Corkran was elected to the Board of Fellows.
Senior Division Examinations will begin on April 8.
The last few meetings of the faculty have been concerned with discussion of problems of community organization in preparation for the agenda of a Community Meeting.
ON THE BOARD OF FELLOWS by Ellie Smith
The Board of Fellows, through Ted Dreier, has been negotiating with the Architects Collaborative in Cambridge (a group of architects which includes Norman and Jean Fletcher, Walter Gropius, John and Sally Harkness and Louis McMillan), who are interested in working on the Black Mountain College building plans.
It has been decided that in general the building progress for the College should follow in sequence:
Every effort should be made to provide temporary housing for immediate need- dormitory, class and study space- and the addition of such should be paid for out of the operating budget;
The project for immediate building should be a dormitory, and then faculty houses;
The long range building plan should be worked up with the above or immediately concurring projects. (The above plans do not interfere with the plans already made for the Studies Building.)
Norman Fletcher was invited down to make site sketches for the dormitory. He is getting specifications and studying the College’s needs for a dormitory, deciding the site for the building, and making site sketches for other essential building which the College will need.
The Board has decided that as soon as there is $10,000 in the Building Fund, he will be in a position to authorize the completing of the dormitory plans as well as to begin building!
The decision was made to house students in the lower half of the South Lodge extension because of increased enrollment. A room will be added to the Servant’s Quarters for Nathaniel Lytle, who has been living in the extension.
Josef and Anni Albers have been granted a sabbatical leave of one year during the 1946-47 sessions.
Trudi Straus has been granted a leave for the first three weeks in the Spring Quarter to play with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra.
BY THE WAY
Visiting has become part of the curriculum; Mrs. Jamieson, Mrs. Carr, mother of Dee and Cynthia, and Miss Florence Whittlesey....Larry Fox, a former student...Marshal Graham and Irwin Hunt...Zeng Pathroomatha, on his way to Siam... Flossie’s folks, Mr. And Mrs. Reuben Fogelson, Mrs. William Fogelson and Flossie’s brother, Raymond....Another old student, Cpl. Paul Williams...Dr. Miller’s son, Maurice...Chuck Foreberg and Don Page- to name a few.
First the mimeograph machine broke down and then the staff went away somewhere; that’s why you haven’t been getting your bulletin. Now, however, with abundant student help and fair weather, we dedicate ourselves anew to a monthly issue.
$460 for the Building Fund was collected in the Studies Building one night by Molly Gregory et al, who decided the time was now. The next day the sum was increased to $570 by further local contributions.
Dr. Max Dehn has been made a member of the Mathematical Society of India.
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Tek Kensberg went to work March 25 for the Committee for North Carolina, affiliated with the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, office in Greensboro. Tek will do publicity and research; he was offered the position as a result of his work on the Youth Committee, which he founded at the meeting of the state chapter last fall.
Students on leave of absence next quarter will be Janet Ramsey, Carol Serling, Hank Bergman, John Corrington and Gary Clements.
Dave Corkran is on temporary leave owing to ill health.
There is to be a story on BMC art in the May issue of Junior Bazaar.
Just before Roxie Dinkowitz left in February, she read the part of Candida in an informal reading-production of the Shaw play by the same name. Other members of the cast were Tommie Cutshaw, John Corrington, Judy Chernoff, Jack Bailey and Bill McLaughlin. M.C. Richards did off-stage noises. The performance received many compliments. Oh, for a drama department!!
Dada decorations and costumes, and a Time dance-drama were special business for the Valentine’s Party this year. An elaborate bone-mobile, executed by Vera Baker and Willie Joseph, and an enormous abstract figure in wood, by Don Wight, complicated the ball. The Time dance-drama was very exciting: text by John Reiss, read by Tommie Cutshaw; choreography by Molly Gregory and Patsy Lynch, with the aid of Don Wight and Jose Yglesias; to the beat of Jimmy Tite’s drums.
A new system of full-time professional secretaries has been instituted this quarter: Doris Pratt has come to the Registrar’s Office from a position with the School of Architecture and Planning, M.I.T. Olivia Steiner has come to the Business Office from a position with the Cambridge Civic Association. And Erma Kulan has taken over the store after serving as Assistant Advertising Production Manager for the Ben Stockholm Advertising Agency.
The Arts Club of Black Mountain were guests of the College Sunday, March 24. Anni Albers gave a lecure and demonstration in the Weaving Room, after which the 50 members were entertained at tea in South Lodge.
Mary Caroline Richards; editing
BJ Osbourne: publication
