Next up in our #WomenOfBMC series is Mary Parks Washington (1924-2019), who attended Black Mountain College’s 1946 summer institute. There she met Ruth Asawa and Gwendolyn Knight, among others, whom she remained friends with.
She arrived from the very traditional Spelman College in Atlanta, “with my new dungarees specially purchased for the occasion because I had never worn pants.” She was excited by classes taught in a circle rather than in rows; students in bare feet; and to have her own studio.
As an artist, she would go on to develop “histcollage”, incorporating photographs and documents into her paintings. Head to our blog to read her story, and hear her reflections on that summer, being one of only two Black students at Black Mountain. Although it was progressive, the college was nonetheless in the segregated South, and Parks described it as “a sort of an insulated community”, like “being surrounded by cellophane”.
Image: Mary Parks Washington at Black Mountain College, summer 1946. Photograph by Beaumont and Nancy Newhall. Courtesy Western Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina.