KENNETH SNELSON: SCULPTOR/PHOTOGRAPHER/INVENTOR
June 25 - October 23, 2010
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
56 Broadway, Asheville

Opening reception: Friday, June 25, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Free for BMCM+AC members and students w/ID / $3 non-members
 
Internationally known artist Kenneth Snelson was an art student at Black Mountain College in the summers of 1948 and 1949, where he studied with Buckminster Fuller and Josef Albers. Since then, he has been a prolific and hugely successful artist with work in major museum and public art collections all over the world. Known primarily for his gravity defying sculptures, Snelson is also an accomplished photographer with a particular interest in panoramic photographs. The recent publication Kenneth Snelson: Forces Made Visible traces this important artist’s five-decade career.
 
Snelson describes his work as a study of physical forces in three-dimensional space. As a student he made the original discovery of the tension/compression principle, “tensegrity” which defines his structural sculptures. One of his works is a fifty-year study, a multimedia piece describing the artist’s invented architecture for the atom. This exhibition at BMCM+AC will include small sculptures, panoramic photographs, digital pictures and patent drawings.
 
The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) preserves and continues the unique legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College. We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibitions, publications, and public programs.

To accompany the exhibition, several related programs will be offered including: On Time and Place, a visual/sonic performance by Jason Scott Furr and Vincent Wrenn on July 23; The Albers Color Course, led by Fred Horowitz on August 7, 8; Towards a Poetics of Race, Space & Place: The Harlem Skyrise Project, a presentation by Cheryl Fish, on August 19; and the 2nd Annual Reviewing Black Mountain College Conference October 8-10. Kenneth Snelson will be the keynote speaker for the conference, which is co-sponsored by UNC Asheville.

The 48 Hour Film Project is back in town, jacking teams of filmmakers on adrenaline for a weekend of frenetic moviemaking. FIlms were submitted on June 20 and will screen as follows...  Come see what Asheville area filmmakers can do!

Film Screenings:
June 22, 23, and 24
4pm, 7pm, and 10pm
Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company, 675 Merrimon Avenue
Group A screenings: Tuesday 4:00PM, Wednesday 10:00PM, and Thursday 7:00PM
Group B screenings: Tuesday 7:00PM, Wednesday 4:00PM, and Thursday 10:00PM
Group C screenings: Tuesday 10:00PM, Wednesday 7:00PM, and Thursday 4:00PM

Best of the Asheville 48HFP - Project Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, June 30th, 7pm
Fine Arts Theatre, 36 Biltmore Ave, Asheville
Tickets: $8.75; $6.50 Seniors
 

Raven Fork Cast & Crew Premiere
Thursday, June 17 - 7pm
Fine Arts Theater, Asheville - $5

The beauty of nature, the importance of friendship and the unpredictable perils of fate are each the subject and the breathtaking form of Thomas W. Oliver’s cinematic experience Raven Fork, created entirely in Western North Carolina.

Living in the mountains of Western North Carolina, two friends Dave (Glenn LaPlante) and Blake (Frank Jordan) find life, friendship, and adrenaline in a whitewater paradise.

While passing their time traveling from kayak trip to kayak trip the two make plans to run their most ambitious river to date; the class V Raven Fork, a river carved deep in the heart of the rugged Appalachian wilderness.

A tragic river accident followed by a self-destructive tailspin explores the emotion of life itself, the search for closure, and the momentum of the human spirit to prevail.

Special screening Thursday night...

Closing Night Poetry Reading and Performance for
From BMC to NYC: The Tutelary Years of Ray Johnson (1943-1967)

Saturday, June 12, 7:00 p.m.
Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center
56 Broadway, Asheville
$7 / $5 BMCM+AC members + students w/ID

The closing night celebration of the Ray Johnson exhibit at BMCM+AC is a last chance to see some amazing artwork before it heads from to New York and San Francisco.  Write Soon, Goon is a poetry reading and vaudeville-style performance, featuring poets Earl Braggs and Keith Flynn, cabaret-style singer Vaudevie and performers Thomas Butler and Cody Magouirk.

Hats off to BMCM+AC's Sebastian Matthews, who curated the show in a labor of love... his blog about the show is here. More on the artists performing Saturday:

Earl Braggs teaches creative writing and African-American literature at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is the author of five collections of poetry, including Hat Dancer Blue and In Which Language Do I Keep Silent: New and Selected Poems.

Keith Flynn is the founder and editor of the Asheville Poetry Review. His fourth book of poems, The Golden Ratio, and his first book of nonfiction, The Rhythm Method, Razzmatazz and Memory: How To Make Your Poetry Swing, have garnered Flynn national attention.

Vaudevie performs on accordion, piano and odd bits of hand-made home-constructed percussion with elements of dark cabaret. She has performed locally and as far away as Spain.

Thomas Butler is the Producing Director of Asheville Vaudeville, for which he also writes and acts.

Cody Magouirk, an actor, was most recently seen in Asheville Community Theatre's production of Little Shop of Horrors.

More info over at the BMC+MAC site.

Odyssey Community School, 90 Zillicoa Street, Asheville, NC
Saturday, June 5th
6:30: Reception - refreshments, tour of proposed space, and music
7:30 pm: Concert and benefit auction
Admission: Donations of $10 - $10,000, tax deductible.
In-kind donations of musical instruments also needed.
 
Saturday’s event will celebrate the creation of a new multi-disciplinary Creative Technology & Arts Center at Odyssey School. The 4500-square-foot space will offer a creative arts center for Asheville. Saturday’s fundraiser will fund construction for a sound proof music room, a raw arts center (sculpture, wood, ceramics), a fine arts center (drawing, painting, fiber, etc.), a technology center featuring an Apple multi-media lab and a Digital classroom featuring a touch screen Smartboard system and finally, a space for movement / installation / gallery exhibitions.
 
Gene Felice of the MAP Board of Directors is heading up the Technology, Fine & Raw Arts programs at Odyssey School. The event features multimedia art from Gene as well as Megan McKissack and Scott Furr (also of the MAP Board), and an array of local and visiting artists, musicians, designers and other cutting-edge individuals.
 
Gene Felice, director of the Technology, Fine & Raw Arts programs & creator of the 3D design of the new space, says, “We have a rare opportunity to create a multi-disciplinary program that not only encompasses our school, but the greater Asheville Arts Community as well.  All of this will be made possible via a diverse visiting artists program, community afterschool classes, adult evening classes, lecture series, special events, etc. With such a ripe space for creation and inspiration, we want to ensure that all of Asheville will benefit from this new, creative environment.”

Come out and support a good cause!