The Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center recently announced that Design Apprentice and Museum Intern Carley Brandau will travel to Moscow this summer to take part in an exhibition at the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum.
Brandau’s BMCM+AC-administered travel scholarship is generously funded through a donation by Randy Shull and Hedy Fischer.
Brandau, a local artist and UNC Asheville graduate, began at BMCM+AC in October 2014 as a Design Apprentice, working under internationally-known, Asheville-based designer and artist Randy Shull on the redesign and renovation of the museum’s 56 Broadway gallery space. In February, 2015, Brandau was selected as a member of the inaugural class of Windgate Museum Interns at BMCM+AC. The Internship program, Apprenticeship program, and gallery redesign and renovation are part of the museum’s three-year Windgate Charitable Foundation-funded expansion plan.
Brandau continues to document BMCM+AC’s expansion through the curation of dedicated Tumblr and Instagram accounts.
Brandau’s work, characterized by the wearable bent wood sculptures in her series,Adornment, is based on the repeated architectural curvilinear forms she experienced firsthand over the course of her travels. She states, “As an artist, my goals are to encourage traveling as a means of education, collaboration among all mediums of creativity, and repurposing materials to create something unrecognizable.” The A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum has acquired two of her sculptures for their permanent collection. Brandau will share images and reflections from her experience on the BMCM+AC website after she returns on July 8.
Costume at the Turn of the Century 1990-2015, curated by Igor Roussanoff, will showcase the development of ideas, materials, and technologies of costume design over the past twenty-five years from all over the world. It is the largest costume exhibition to date, with 34 countries represented.
Through its Apprenticeship program, Internship programs, and the Research Travel Grant program, BMCM+AC honors and continues Black Mountain College’s ethos of “learning by doing”. Pending available funding, BMCM+AC plans to continue the travel scholarship program for future interns on an annual basis.