Call for papers and proposals. All disciplines invited!

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 13
October 7-9, 2022 in Asheville, North Carolina
An annual conference exploring the history and legacy of Black Mountain College

Hosted and sponsored by Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center and The University of North Carolina Asheville

Submission deadline: July 1, 2022
Notification by July 15, 2022

Thematic Focus: Leo Amino / The Visible and the Invisible: Submerged Histories of Abstraction

Keynote Speaker: Marci Kwon, Ph.D.
A scholar of American Art, Marci Kwon’s research and teaching interests include the intersection of fine art and vernacular practice, theories of modernism, cultural exchange between Asia and the Americas, critical race theory, and “folk” and “self-taught” art. She is the co-director of Cantor Arts Center’s Asian American Art Initiative at Stanford University.

Featured Speaker: Genji Amino

Co-hosted by BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville, this three-day program, open to the public, celebrates the opening of the museum’s exhibition of the sculpture of Japanese American artist Leo Amino (BMC Summer Arts Sessions ‘46 and ‘50) by bringing together scholars, writers, and artists working with history and memory in American art. The conference aims to reconstruct submerged histories of experimental practice in 20th century American art during the years of operation of Black Mountain College: 1933-1957. With an emphasis on the legacy of Black Mountain for artists of color and members of other marginalized groups, the conference seeks to interrogate more broadly the omissions and orthodoxies of prevailing narratives that have limited the ways we write about the relationship between race, gender, experiment, and abstraction in the 20th century.

While the conference centers these histories, proposals on any theme related to Black Mountain College and its legacy are encouraged and will be considered. Furthermore, in the spirit of BMC, the conference challenges disciplinary boundaries, and invites contributions of all genres: performances, panels, multi-media proposals, and workshops are welcome.

The conference fee is $85 and includes lunch on Saturday and a 1-year membership to the museum. The fee for current members is $45.

Please submit proposals using the submission form linked below by July 1, 2022. Notification will be made by July 15, 2022. The conference will take place in Asheville, NC, October 7-9, 2022.

• In conjunction with the conference, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center will present the exhibition Leo Amino / The Visible and the Invisible: Submerged Histories of Abstraction, curated by Genji Amino, Director of The Estate of Leo Amino. This exhibition will demonstrate Amino’s ingenuity in working with new materials to investigate the dynamics of perception through material and phenomenal transparency. In particular, the exhibition will highlight his groundbreaking experiments with polyester resin beginning in the mid-1940s following the material’s declassification by the military after the Second World War. Amino is the innovator of cast plastics in the history of American sculpture, and the first artist in the United States to create a full body of work in the medium

Conference website: https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/reviewing/

CFP download and link to submission form: https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/wp-content/uploads/2022-BMC-Conference-Call.pdf