In the summer of 1944 muralist Jean Charlot was invited to teach at the Summer Art Institute. During the summer session he painted two frescoes, "Inspiration" and "Knowledge," on pylons beneath the Studies Building. The entire community observed the process from the drawing of the original designs to the completion of the murals. At the same time the Summer Session Quartet was rehearsing a Schoenberg Quartet. All rehearsals were open to the community. In both cases, process was critical to the learning experience.

(top) Photographs courtesy North Carolina State Archives, Black Mountain College Papers. Photographer, F.S. Lincoln.
(below) Jean Charlot (left) and student assistant Faith Murray (Britton) (right on ladder). Photographer, Joseph Breitenbach. Permission, Josef Breitenbach Archive, Center for Creative Photography, University of  Arizona.
(center) "Inspiration," Photographer, Mary Emma Harris.