Eugen Blume described Black Mountain College as the site of a "shared experimental framework" that united the sciences with the arts. We all have a pretty good picture in our heads of scientific experimental frameworks (i.e. the laboratory), but what is an experimental framework for mathematics? What does mathematical creativity look like? How is mathematics discovered? 

The Hungarian-American mathematician and educator, George Pólya, had some ideas. He studied many different problems of elementary mathematics and reflected on the process of guessing, testing, thinking, writing, drawing, and proving involved in their solutions. Pólya found that mathematical ideas emerge from a number of general methods or "heuristics," in contrast to the stereotypical lightbulb illumination of genius. For him, mathematical discover was a craft that could be taught and learned. 

These last two lines from his 1945 best-seller, How to Solve, sound like a quote from the bulletins of Black Mountain College. In fact Pólya did not have, as far as I am aware, any association with the college. But his writings reflect and focus the educational approach and interests of his contemporary at BMC, Max Dehn.