The play “bobrauschenbergamerica” interprets the work of Robert Rauschenberg, one of America’s great modern artists. He is also one of the famous names associated with Black Mountain College.
Founded in 1933 near its namesake town, Black Mountain College was a progressive institution that focused on the study of art as being central to liberal arts education. It was influenced by the principles of education put forward by writer and philosopher John Dewey. Founded by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreiser and other intellectuals, Black Mountain College was experimental by nature and committed to an interdisciplinary approach. From its founding until its closing in 1957, the college attracted a faculty that included many of America’s leading visual artists, composers, writers, poets and designers, like Buckminster Fuller, who created the first geodesic dome. Albert Einstein was one of the college’s lecturers, according to a website.
As a young man, Rauschenberg studied art at Black Mountain College. John Cage, who would go on to become a famous artist and composer, was also there at that time.
The college and its students would leave a lasting influence on American art and culture. It also proved to be an important precursor to many of today’s alternative colleges such as the University of California at Santa Cruz, Marlboro College, Evergreen State College, Bennington College, Prescott College and Warren Wilson College, which is located just minutes down the road from where Black Mountain College once existed, the website stated.
From 1933 to 1941, Black Mountain College was located at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly. Its Lake Eden campus, used from 1941 to 1957, is now part of Camp Rockmont, a summer camp for boys. The place is now the location of Camp Rockmont and the Lake Eden Arts Festival. Some of the original structures from Black Mountain College are still in use today.
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