Yoko Ono Recipient of the 64th Edward MacDowell Medal
WATCH THE RECORDED CEREMONY BELOW
More than a thousand people joined us on Sunday, July 21 for MacDowell's annual Medal Day celebration, honoring interdisciplinary arts icon and activist Yoko Ono with the 64th Edward MacDowell Medal. The free and open-to-the-public celebration featured the installation of two Yoko Ono Wish Trees in our orchard.
Check back for an upcoming slideshow from the day and transcripts of speeches.
MacDowell Madam Chairman of the Board, Fellow, and best-selling author Nell Painter presented the Medal to Ono’s long-time music manager David Newgarden. Newgarden attended because the medalist could not make the trip. The brief ceremony featured curator, art historian, and arts policy specialist Nora Halpern, who spoke about Ono and her work in her introductory remarks. Halpern curated a retrospective exhibition of Yoko Ono in Venice, Italy in 2009. After the medal presentation, attendees enjoyed a picnic lunch, added personal wishes to the Wish Trees, and toured open studios, where visitors had the opportunity to meet MacDowell artists-in-residence.
American avant-garde multimedia artist, Grammy-winning composer, and musician Laurie Anderson chaired this year’s Medal selection panel. Other members included Bushwick Starr Arts Center cofounder and MacDowell Board member Noel Allain, MacDowell Fellow and acclaimed choreographer Bebe Miller, National Black Theatre CEO Sade Lythcott, MacDowell Fellow and interdisciplinary artist Christopher Doyle, and Arts Student League Artistic & Executive Director Michael Hall.
Since 1996, Yoko Ono has invited people from around the world to write their personal wishes on a piece of paper and tie them to Wish Tree installation sites around the world. The wishes are returned to Ono and continue on in connection with her Imagine Peace Tower, a 2007 installation on Viðey Island off Reykjavik, Iceland, dedicated to the memory of her late husband John Lennon. To date, more than two million people have shared their wishes. We welcome Medal Day participants to take part in this project after the ceremony.
For more information on how you can support MacDowell, please email events@macdowell.org or call 603-924-3886 for more information.
Yoko Ono (Bjarke Ørsted photo)
Livestream: The 2024 Medal Day Ceremony
Yoko Ono, Recipient of the 64th Edward MacDowell Medal
Yoko Ono is an artist, musician, and activist. Born in Tokyo, 1933, Ono grew up in Japan, with periods spent abroad in San Francisco and New York. In 1956 she settled in Manhattan and began to develop her own art practice. By 1960, Ono had become a vital part of New York’s community of artists and composers. Over the next decade, she would go on to live and work in Tokyo and London, developing her pioneering practice in art, performance, music, and film, with legendary works including the performance Cut Piece, and her foundational book of instructions, Grapefruit, both 1964. By 1968, Ono began collaborating in art, music, and peace activism with her partner and husband John Lennon. As a singer and songwriter, Ono has released thirteen solo studio albums and nine collaborative albums, including the 1981 Grammy award-winning Album of the Year, Double Fantasy. Ono’s work continues to be honored with numerous exhibitions in some of the world’s most prestigious international venues, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York (2015) and Tate Modern in London (2024). In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ono’s work as an artist and activist remains singularly relevant and continues to challenge the boundaries of artist and audience.
Help Create Yoko Ono's Wish Tree at MacDowell
One of Yoko Ono's Wish Trees, which was installed at The Museum of Modern Art (Pietro & Silvia photo / Creative Commons).
Since 1996, Yoko Ono has invited people from around the world to write their personal wishes on a piece of paper and tie them to Wish Tree installation sites around the world. The wishes are returned to Ono and continue on in connection with her Imagine Peace Tower, a 2007 installation on Viðey Island off Reykjavik, Iceland, dedicated to the memory of her late husband John Lennon. To date, more than two million people have shared their wishes. On Medal Day, MacDowell becomes a Wish Tree site along with museums such as the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. We have two awaiting Medal Day contributions to this conceptual art installation series in our orchard.
About the Edward MacDowell Medal
The Edward MacDowell Medal has been awarded annually since 1960 to an individual artist who has made an outstanding contribution to their field. These artists include Leonard Bernstein, John Updike, Georgia O'Keeffe, I.M. Pei, Stephen Sondheim, and Toni Morrison. The artistic discipline in which the award is given rotates in order to celebrate all of the creative fields practiced at MacDowell. Following the ceremony, visitors enjoy a picnic lunch and tour open studios. Both the award ceremony and the open studios are free, and open to the public.
Thank You to Our Sponsors
Medal Day History
Ceremony Participants
Yoko Ono Film Screenings in the James Baldwin Library
FILM NO. 1 ('MATCH') [aka Fluxfilm No. 14] ..................................... 1966, 5:05 min
CUT PIECE, 1964/1965 Performance March 21, 1965 ..................... 1965, 9:11 min
EYEBLINK [aka Fluxfilm No. 15], 1966 .............................................. 1966, 2:40 min
FREEDOM, 1971 .................................................................................. 1971, 1:05 min
Imagine Peace Tower, 2009 ............................................................ 2009, 10:26 min
Bad Dancer, 2013 ............................................................................... 2013, 2:04 min
Screenings Times: 2:00 p.m, 2:45 p.m., 3:30 p.m.
Run time is approximately 35 minutes
Edward MacDowell Medalist
Artists of Medal Day