We are all born artists.
~ said John Andrew Rice, co-founder of Black Mountain College, an experiment in education and art that changed the world and birthed the American avant garde.
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In a time when education is in crisis—marked by underfunded schools, overburdened teachers, disengaged students, and a narrowing curriculum—FULLY AWAKE offers a vital look back at a model of learning that was radically alive. This documentary film explores the story of Black Mountain College, an experimental school (1933–1957) that rejected traditional hierarchies and testing culture in favor of community, creativity, and social responsibility. Though it existed for only 24 years, the school’s legacy continues to reverberate through modern art, education, and civic life.
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Black Mountain College was more than a school—it was a movement. It housed Buckminster Fuller’s first geodesic dome, staged John Cage’s first “happening,” birthed Merce Cunningham’s legendary dance company, and published early work by Beat Generation poets in the Black Mountain Review. But its most lasting impact lies in its belief that artists are essential civic visionaries, and that a just society is cultivated through education of the head, hand, and heart.
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FULLY AWAKE is a 60 min doc film journey with inspiring elders sharing their experience of attending this experimental school. Come see the film on tour August-September 2025 ~ or reach out to schedule a screening in your community!
Fully awake
MC Richards
I was drawn to Black Mountain because of its holistic approach, its informality, its lack of conventional institutionalism, and its earnestness. I liked the combination of intimacy, spontaneity, avant-garde, and seriousness, high standards, and commitment. There was no-one to blame for mess-ups but ourselves.
John Andrew Rice
When we are born,
we are all artists. Every one of us.
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We are free to create the kind of world in which we choose to life.
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And we are equal in that freedom.
Josef Albers
The AIM of art is to reveal and evoke VISION.
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That art is not an object.
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Art is an EXPERIENCE.
Asheville, NC: Monday, July 28
TN (@ The Farm): Sunday, Aug 3
New Orleans: Tues, Aug 5
Austin, TX: Thurs, Aug 7
Manitou Springs, CO: Wed, Aug 13
Denver, CO: Fri, Aug 15
Paonia (Opaloka): Sun, Aug 17
Burning Man: Thurs, Aug 21
Geyersville, CA: Sat, Sept 6 or 7 (TBD)
Big Sur, CA: Wed, Sept 10 (TBD)
Los Angeles, CA: Sat, Sept 13
Santa Barbara, CA: Tues, Sept 16
Sedona, AZ: Fri, Sept 19
Atlanta, GA: Mon, Sept 22
Charleston, SC: Friday, Sept 26
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UPCOMING SCREENINGS
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE....
Tucked away in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Black Mountain College was an audacious experiment in learning that reshaped American art and reimagined what education could be.
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FULLY AWAKE is a documentary film that dives deep into the school’s progressive, community-driven pedagogy—a timely model as we reckon with the failures of today’s education system. Faculty-owned and fiercely democratic, Black Mountain emphasized shared work, artistic exploration, and critical thinking as integral to shaping conscious citizens.
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Amidst World War II and rising fascism, the college became a haven for exiled Bauhaus artists Josef and Anni Albers, and a laboratory for the avant-garde. It was racially integrated a full decade before Brown v. Board of Education, in defiance of Jim Crow laws in the segregated South. Its radical inclusivity, interdisciplinarity, and emphasis on lived experience anticipated many of today’s educational reform ideals—only Black Mountain actually lived them.
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Through powerful interviews with former students, faculty, historians, and contemporary artists, along with 300+ archival photographs and rare video footage, FULLY AWAKE captures how this small college became the cradle of American modernism. The film revisits the school as a blueprint for educational renewal, community resilience, and creative courage.
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First released in 2007 in museum, educational and community spaces, the re-release of FULLY AWAKE includes newly uncovered interviews with college founder John Andrew Rice and rare footage of iconic educators Albers, Fuller, and Charles Olson. As society grapples with polarized politics, educational burnout, and cultural fragmentation, FULLY AWAKE emerges as a call to action: education must once again become a space for vision, equity, and transformation.
