ReHappening, a Black Mountain College event, returns to Lake Eden with experimental art
The annual ReHappening will return to Lake Eden April 20, bringing more than 25 different art projects to the site of the former Black Mountain College.
According to a news release announcing the event, ReHappening is “part art event, part fundraiser and part community instigator.” The event is put on by the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center.
This will be the 12th annual ReHappening, with two years taken off because of the pandemic. According to Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center Director of Preservation Alice Sebrell, the event started in 2010 as a fundraiser for the museum.
The original ReHappening involved a dinner with performances and, after the dinner, performances around Lake Eden that lasted into the night.
“It was this sort of deeply experiential event that included the culinary arts … as well as performative art projects and installations and all manner of experimental forms of art,” Sebrell said.
Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center Outreach Coordinator Kira Houston said this year there are more than 25 different art projects that represent more than 100 artists from around the country.
“The projects serve to reactive and reinvigorate that historic site with new work,” Houston said.
Some of the featured projects include an installation of woven sculptures called “Threshold Gods” by Michelle Yi Martin and an all-day immersive botanical installation called “The Abandoned Garden Structure” by Drones in the Garden, founded by Sophie F. Hull, Patrick Kukucka and Lynn Fister. Eric Mullis will present an experimental dance called “Technogensis.” Other projects included all-day installations, immersive performance structures and interdisciplinary performances.
Houston said by having the ReHappenning each year, the museum is able to honor the legacy of Black Mountain College while also extending its reach.
“We here at the museum are really invested in not only preserving this historic legacy of Black Mountain College, but also extending it through new artists who are working in the spirit of the college,” Houston said. “That means things like experimentation between different forms and medium and things like collaboration between artists of different sorts and really pushing the boundary of art and the avant-garde.”
Houston said he most looks forward to seeing how all the projects turn out each year and seeing how they begin as ideas and grow into full-scale projects around Lake Eden.
Sebrell said she enjoys seeing how each year has its own “flavor” that is largely dictated by the participating artists.
“The enthusiasm of the artists to be actually at the Lake Eden site of Black Mountain College is so fun, and they feel like they are part of the ongoing legacy of the college and they are able to share that excitement,” Sebrell said. “Their particular approach to performance and the making of art all goes together into this sort of potpourri or stew, an artistic stew. Each year it’s different, but each year that’s part of what I look forward to is that I know it’s going to be different and fun and fascinating and an experience.”
ReHappening will take place April 20 from 3-10 p.m. Adult tickets are $30 in advance and $37 on day of the event. Tickets for youths between the ages of 10 and 17, as well as students with an ID are $15. Children under 10 are free with an adult with a ticket. Parking passes are $15, but there is a free shuttle that will leave from the Asheville Chamber of Commerce to Lake Eden.
Karrigan Monk is the Swannanoa Valley communities reporter for Black Mountain News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kmonk@blackmountainnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: ReHappening honors Black Mountain College with experimental art
