{Re}HAPPENING14 is happening at BMC on April 25
{Re}HAPPENING is a one-day event at the historic campus of Black Mountain College. It is part art event, part fundraiser, and part community instigator, providing a platform for contemporary artists to share their responses to the vital legacy of Black Mountain College by activating the buildings and grounds of the BMC campus with installations, new media, music, and performance projects. In addition to providing a forum for regional artists and an accessible, immersive, educational experience for attendees, every year the event is a community collaboration between local businesses and arts organizations.
Since 2010, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) has hosted the {Re}HAPPENING inspired by John Cage’s 1952 Theatre Piece No. 1, an unscripted performance at Black Mountain College considered by many to be the first Happening. The annual {Re}HAPPENING brings together dozens of contemporary artists whose work responds to and extends the legacy of Black Mountain College visionaries such as John Cage, David Tudor, Merce Cunningham, Anni Albers, M.C. Richards, Ruth Asawa, Buckminster Fuller, Josef Albers, and Robert Rauschenberg.
The 2026 {Re}HAPPENING on April 25, 2026 celebrates the event’s 14th anniversary. This year’s boundary-pushing projects will engage visitors deeply with the living legacy of Black Mountain College.
Get Tickets: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/blackmountaincollegemuseumartscenter/2083106
{Re}HAPPENING 14 is April 25, 2026 from 3-10pm
This year, multiple artists will engage with the legacy of BMC alum Stan Vanderbeek and contemporary permutations of expanded cinema. The Country Dwellers by Stefani Byrd is an immersive video installation which traces the connections between Appalachian folk magic and the rise of Neo-Paganism or revivalist practices. Consisting of two projections, three monitors, and two audio channels, the work is presented as a collage of visual material and voices from both the past and present.
Still from The Country Dwellers installation by Stefani Byrd
Live experimental performances make the {Re}HAPPENING a one-of-a-kind experience where chance encounters create powerful moments of connection. In 2026, the 25-person Charlie Boss Orchestra will perform a new work entitled “Soul Bell.” The acoustic string and wind ensemble combines careful attention to phrasing, harmony, and structure with spontaneous interaction, allowing each musician to contribute to the unfolding music alongside the audience itself. The result is a series of performances that are structured yet fluid, precise yet alive, with every note actively shaping the evolving soundscape.
Still from Vermilion | 10. Photo © Julie Lemberger. Dancers: Manami Ando and Lucia Beletu
Combining dance with visual arts, choreographer Ava Desiderio and artist Elisabeth Condon will present Vermilion | 10, an 11-minute duet. Desiderio’s choreography features sculptural relationships that embody complex, layered emotions, as intertwined bodies and colloquial gestures represent the unfolding stages of a relationship. Condon’s visual works are densely collaged polymer pours illuminated from behind, which underscore the play of light and dark that unfolds throughout the dance, extending to the dancers’ bodies as wearable art. The duet was first performed on pointe for Norte Maar’s acclaimed Counterpointe dance series, and later at Dancewave in Brooklyn. Desiderio and Condon will now bring the work to North Carolina as a site-specific adaptation performed at the {Re}HAPPENING.
2026 Artist Lineup: https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/rehappening/2026-artists
About Black Mountain College
Founded in 1933, Black Mountain College was one of the leading experimental liberal arts schools in America until its closure in 1957. After the Bauhaus in Germany closed due to mounting antagonism from the Nazi Party, Josef and Anni Albers readily accepted an offer to join the Black Mountain College faculty. During their 16-year tenure in North Carolina, the Alberses helped model the college’s interdisciplinary curriculum on that of the Bauhaus, attracting an unmatched roster of teachers and students including R. Buckminster Fuller, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Mary Caroline (M.C.) Richards, Ruth Asawa, and Robert Rauschenberg.
The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) was founded in 1993 to preserve the history of Black Mountain College as a forerunner in progressive interdisciplinary education and to celebrate its extraordinary impact on modern and contemporary art, dance, theater, music, and performance.
The Museum is committed to educating the public about the history of Black Mountain College and promoting awareness of its extensive legacy through exhibitions, publications, lectures, films, seminars, and oral histories. Through our permanent collection, special exhibitions, publications, and research archive, we provide access to historical materials related to the College and its influence on the field.
BMCM+AC provides a forum for multifaceted programming in a dynamic environment in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Our goal is to provide a gathering point for people from a variety of backgrounds to interact – integrating art, ideas, and discourse.
More about BMCM+AC: https://www.blackmountaincollege.org
