Black Mountain College: Breaking Barriers in Art through Inclusiveness and Individuality

"Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the interment, and I like who I am."
~ Ruth Asawa

Another feature of Black Mountain College that helped it break barriers was the democratic style of governance the college used. Most colleges, both then and now, are governed by an outside board of trustees. Barriers between the stakeholders-- students,  faculty, and administration-- were broken by the use of BMC’s method, which allowed both students and faculty a voice. ​​​​​​​

Ruth Asawa, a student at BMC, was rejected from teacher’s college because she was Japanese. She went on to make wire sculptures and advocate for public school art programs.

Josef and Anni Albers were the first art teachers at Black Mountain College and alumni of the Bauhaus. As intellectuals and Jews (Anni was Jewish) were persecuted in Europe, they moved to Black Mountain College.

Black Mountain College was the first southern college to integrate in the Jim Crow era. This fact is often overlooked, and the credit usually goes to the University of Alabama, when Autherine Lucy attended in 1956. Black Mountain College integrated much earlier, starting with the attendance of Alma Stone Williams in 1944. In spite of segregation and racism in the neighboring towns, Alma Stone Williams remembers everyone being kind to her at Black Mountain College.

​​​​​​​Black Mountain College also broke barriers in gender equality in education. The college included women as both students and teachers during a time when only about 3.8% of women in the U.S. completed four years of college or more.  This aspect although commonly overlooked is very important considering that several of these women went on to become some of the greatest artists of the 20th century.