 Cage taught at the college in the summers of 1948 and 1952 and was in residence the summer of 1953.While at Black Mountain College in 1952, he organized what has been called the first "happening" (see discussion below) in the United States, later titled "Theatre Piece No.1", a multi-layered, multi-media performance event staged the same day as Cage conceived it that "that would greatly influence 1950s and 60s artistic practices".