Day for Yoko Ono
February 07, 202612:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964. Performance view, New Works by Yoko Ono, Carnegie Recital Hall, New York, NY, March 21, 1965. © Yoko Ono. Photo: Minoru Niizuma.
Day for Yoko Ono is part one of two days held in celebration of the close of Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind at the MCA.
In this fulsome day, see a rare performance of Ono’s influential Cut Piece (1967), a participatory work that invites the audience to slowly cut away the clothing of the performer, restaged live by artist Anna Martine Whitehead. Later, she is joined onstage by DJ Lady D (Darlene Jackson), Aram Han Sifuentes, and Hannah Higgins to discuss Ono’s influence on art, performance, and music. The day is capped with a screening of Fluxfilm Anthology, a set of more than 30 short films by Ono and her contemporaries.
Find information and tickets to part two, Night for Yoko Ono, on the event page.
Schedule
Noon–1:30 pm
Performance | Anna Martine Whitehead performs an iteration of Ono’s seminal instruction score, Cut Piece.
First performed in 1964, and now known as one of the earliest and most significant works of the feminist art movement and Fluxus, Cut Piece explores themes of power, violence, and objectification by inviting audiences to cut pieces of the performer’s clothing to take with them. Anna Martine Whitehead, a Chicago-based performance and visual artist whose own work is often shaped by her investigations of relationships between marginalized bodies and the ways they are perceived, enacts Ono’s iconic score.
1:30–2 pm | Break
Visit Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind on the 4th floor, or grab a refreshment at Marisol.
2–3:30 pm
Talk | Anna Martine Whitehead, DJ Lady D (Darlene Jackson), and Aram Han Sifuentes, moderated by Hannah Higgins
Hannah Higgins, author of Fluxus Experience, moderates a conversation with Chicago-based artists across disciplines to explore the wide-ranging influence of Ono’s legacy, including her impacts on performance, music, popular culture, and activism.
3–3:30 pm | Break
Take some time to walk through our exhibitions or grab a refreshment at Marisol.
3:30–5:30 pm
Screening | Fluxfilm Anthology
Compiled by George Maciunas, Fluxfilm Anthology is a classic in experimental film. Containing more than 30 shorts from 1962 to 1970, that last from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, the screening includes works by Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Mieko Shiomi, Dick Higgins, and more.
Related Exhibition
October 18, 2025 - February 22, 2026
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind
Related Event
February 18, 2026
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Night for Yoko Ono
Funding
Event
Lead support for the 2025–26 season of MCA Talks is made possible by The Richard and Mary L. Gray Lecture Series through a generous gift to the Chicago Contemporary Campaign.
Generous support is provided by The Antje B. and John J. Jelinek Endowed Lecture and Symposium on Contemporary Art; the Kristina Barr Lectures, which were established through a generous gift by The Barr Fund to the Chicago Contemporary Campaign; The Gloria Brackstone Solow and Eugene A. Solow, MD, Memorial Lecture Series; and the Allen M. Turner Tribute Fund, honoring his past leadership as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Lead support for the 2025–26 season of MCA Performance is provided by Elizabeth A. Liebman.
Generous support is provided by Anne L. Kaplan; and Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund.
The MCA is a proud member of the Museums in the Park and receives major support from the Chicago Park District.
Exhibition
Lead support for Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, Cari and Michael Sacks, Karyn and Bill Silverstein, and R. H. Defares.
Major support is provided by Bank of America; Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul; Christie’s; Nancy and Steven Crown; Laura and Tony Davis and Linden Capital Partners; Susie L. Karkomi and Marvin Leavitt, Karkomi Family Fund; Liz and Eric Lefkofsky; Lugano; H. Gael Neeson, Edlis Neeson Foundation; D. Elizabeth Price; Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund; Robin Loewenberg Tebbe and Mark Tebbe; Lynn and Allen Turner; Charlotte R. Cramer Wagner and Herbert S. Wagner III of Wagner Foundation; and the Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation.
Generous support is provided by The Francis L. Lederer Foundation.
This exhibition is supported by the MCA’s Women Artists Initiative, a philanthropic commitment to further equity across gender lines and promote the work and ideas of women artists.
