Convocation Series: Yoko Ono: Thursday May 6th, 7:30pm.

Yoko Ono, legendary artist and widow of John Lennon, will deliver the last of Oberlin College’s 2009-10 convocation series addresses at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Finney Chapel, 90 North Professor Street, Oberlin, Ohio, OH, USA [map]

She will also oversee “Wish Tree for Oberlin,” an art installation where college and community members write a wish on a paper and tie it to a Wish Tree in front of Wilder Hall. The wishes will be collected and become part of Ono’s IMAGINE PEACE TOWER outside Rykjavik, Iceland.

For “A Conversation with Yoko Ono,” with limited free tickets for the general public, Ono will screen excerpts from her films, discuss her work and take questions from the audience.

Free tickets with an Oberlin ID are available beginning Monday, April 26, 2010 at noon from Central Ticket Service, Hall Auditorium. Oberlin College students, faculty, and staff must show their OCID and pick up their tickets in person.

Limited tickets for the general public are available beginning Monday, April 26, 2010. These may be requested in advance by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope, along with request, to Central Ticket Service, Hall Auditorium, 67 North Main Street, Oberlin, Ohio 44074, by Monday, April 19, 2010. 2 Ticket Limit.

For any remaining tickets, call Oberlin Central Ticket Service, Hall Auditorium, at (800) 371-0178 or (440) 775-8169.

http://www.oberlin.edu/artsguide/convocation-series/ono.shtml

Yoko Ono Biography

Yoko Ono is a multi-media artist who constantly challenges the traditional boundaries of art, known for her groundbreaking conceptual and performance pieces, experimental films and music.

Yoko was born in Tokyo in 1933. She moved to New York in 1953 to study music composition and poetry, and began to take part in many of the city’s early ‘happenings’ and avant-garde art activities. In the early 1960s, she joined the Fluxus group of artists, and in 1962 held a one-person exhibition at The Sogestu Art Center, Tokyo. In 1964 she published her seminal art book ‘Grapefruit’. In 1966, Yoko moved to London where she met John Lennon, and in 1969, formed The Plastic Ono Band.

Selected exhibitions include: 1971, solo exhibition “This Is Not Here” at the Everson Museum of Art (New York); 1989, solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); 1990, solo exhibition “Fumie” at Sogetsu Museum of Art (Tokyo); 1993, exhibits work at the Venice Biennale; 1997, solo exhibition “Have You Seen the Horizon Lately” at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; 2000, solo exhibition “Yes Yoko Ono” at the Japan Society (New York); 2008, retrospective exhibition “Between the Sky and my Head” at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Bielefeld, Germany), and at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead, UK). In 2001, YES YOKO ONO, a forty-year retrospective of Yoko’s work, received the International Association of Art Critics USA Award for Best Museum Show Originating in New York City. In 2009, Yoko received the prestigious Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement from the Venice Biennale.

Getting to Oberlin

• Oberlin is easily reached from I-480, I-90, or I-80 (Ohio Turnpike). The campus is located at the junction of Ohio Route 58 and Ohio Route 511, about a 40-minute drive from downtown Cleveland, Sandusky, or Ashland.
• Finney Chapel is located at 90 North Professor Street, at the corner of Ohio Route 511 (Lorain Street).
• Hall Auditorium is located at 67 North Main Street, between the Allen Memorial Art Museum and the Oberlin Inn on Ohio Route 58 (North Main Street).
• Warner Concert Hall and Kulas Recital Hall are located at 77 West College Street, within the Conservatory of Music.
• Fairchild Chapel is located at 50 West Lorain Street, within Bosworth Hall.
• The Allen Memorial Art Museum is located at 87 North Main Street, at the corner of Ohio routes 58 (North Main Street) and 511 (Lorain Street).

If you’re driving from the:

• East on I-80: Take exit 140 (Amherst-Oberlin Interchange). Go south (left) on Ohio Route 58 directly into Oberlin.
• East on I-480: Follow I-480 west as it turns into Ohio Route 10 and then Ohio Route 20. The Oberlin exit (Ohio Route 511 west) takes you into town.
• East on I-90: Take I-90 west to I-71 south. Follow I-71 to I-480 west; I-480 to Route 10 west, which becomes Ohio Route 20. The Oberlin exit (Ohio Route 511 west) takes you into town.
• West: Take I-80/90 to exit 140 (Amherst-Oberlin Interchange). Go south (left) on Ohio Route 58 directly into Oberlin.
• South: Take I-71 north to exit 186 (Ashland/ Wooster). Go east on U.S. Route 250 to Ohio Route 89. Go north (left) on 89 to Ohio Route 58. Continue north on 58 into Oberlin.