Yoko Ono Honored at Brooklyn Museum's Women in the Arts Fundraising Luncheon, 11/15

Multi-media Conceptual artist Yoko Ono will be honored at the tenth annual Women in the Arts luncheon on Thursday, November 15, 2012. Proceeds from the event will benefit the many educational and artistic programs offered by the Brooklyn Museum and its Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

The program will begin at 11 a.m. with an introduction by Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman followed by a conversation between Ono and Catherine Morris, Curator of the Sackler Center. The program will conclude with the presentation of the 2012 Women in the Arts Award to Ono. A reception and luncheon in the Museum's Beaux-Arts Court will follow from noon to 2:30 p.m.

Based on availability, tickets for Women in the Arts 2012 are offered at $250, $500, and $1,000. Tables are available for purchase at the following levels: $2500 (Host), includes ten tickets for the program and preferred luncheon seating for ten guests; $5,000 (Patron), includes ten tickets, priority seating for the program, and prime luncheon seating for ten guests; $10,000 (Benefactor), includes 12 tickets, special reserved seating for the program, and VIP luncheon seating for 12 guests. To purchase tickets and for further information, contact Mira Abramsohn at mira.abramsohn@brooklynmuseum.org or (718) 501-6589.

Ono's work challenges people's understanding of art and the world around them. From the beginning of her career, her work as a Conceptualist has encompassed performance, instructions, film, music, and writing.

In 2011, Ono was honored with the prestigious 8th Hiroshima Art Prize, and opened the one-person exhibition THE ROAD OF HOPE at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. Most recently, she presented the solo exhibitions UNCURSED at Galerie Lelong in New York, LIGHT at Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo, and OUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS at the Vadehra Art Gallery in New Dehli. This past summer, she had her first solo exhibition in London in more than a decade, TO THE LIGHT, at London's Serpentine Gallery.

Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933 and moved to New York in 1953 after studying philosophy in Japan. By the late 1950s, she had become part of the city's vibrant avant-garde activities. In 1960, she opened her Chambers Street loft with a series of radical performance work and exhibited some of her early Conceptual works there. In 1961, she had a one-person show at the legendary AG Gallery in New York of her Instruction Paintings and performed a solo concert at Carnegie Recital Hall of revolutionary works involving movement, sound, and voice.

In 1962, she returned to Tokyo where she extended her New York performance at the Sogetsu Art Center. In 1964 she performed Cut Piece in Kyoto and Tokyo and published Grapefruit. At the end of that year she returned to New York, and in 1965 and 1966 she performed another concert at Carnegie Recital Hall, participated in the Perpetual Fluxus Festival, exhibited The Stone at the Judson Gallery, and made her first version of Film No. 4 (Bottoms). In summer 1966, she was invited to take part in the Destruction in Art Symposium in London. She had a solo exhibition at the Indica Gallery in London later that year and another solo exhibition at the Lisson Gallery in London the following year. During this period, she also performed a number of concerts throughout England. In 1969, together with John Lennon, she realized Bed-In and the worldwide War Is Over! (if you want it) campaign for peace.

Ono has made a number of films, including Fly and Rape, and many records, including Fly, Approximately Infinite Universe, Rising, and, most recently, Between My Head and the Sky, co-produced with son Sean Lennon on his Chimera Music label. In 2007, she created IMAGINE PEACE TOWER on Videy Island in Iceland. She has had numerous exhibitions in museums, including traveling exhibitions organized by the Museum of Modern Art Oxford and the Japan Society in New York. In 2009, she exhibited ANTON'S MEMORY at the Bevilacqua Foundation in Venice and received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Biennale.

Previous Women in the Arts honorees include Shirin Neshat, Kara Walker, Kiki Smith, Cindy Sherman, Annie Leibovitz, Maya Lin, the Guerilla Girls, Dr. Elizabeth A. Sackler, and Dr. Mary Schmidt.

Photo Credit: Synaesthete