Yoko Ono once wrote, “Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance”, but it’s hard to imagine that Ono herself has ever lost sight of this feeling. Liveliness lies at the heart of all of Ono’s music, art, and activism–a diverse set of modes which she’s dabbled in over the course of a seven-decade career. In connection with their Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind exhibit, on view until October 11th, The Broad recently hosted Yoko Only, an exclusive summer concert celebrating the artist’s extraordinary discography. The festivities featured a lineup of distinguished musicians including Theo Bleckmann, Sylvan Esso, and Emi Helfrich, who each performed interpretative selections from Yoko Ono and Plastic Ono Band.

“Music was the first thing on Yoko’s artistic mind,” Guest curator Yuko Honda shares of Ono’s musical foundations. “It began during her childhood and grew through many stages of her life. Like dandelion seeds, her ideas flew and landed in our hearts, opening our mind’s eye to new skies.” Honda’s distinctive understanding of Ono’s creative purpose shines through in a spirited collaborative performance with Yo La Tengo and Nels Cline. Each song on the evening’s setlist was intentionally matched with a musician who could best embody Ono’s prescribed vision. Additional acts that appeared in support of Ono include Finom, Satomi Matsuzaki, Maggie Perkins, Patrick Shiroishi, and Tune-Yards.

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind is Ono’s first solo museum exhibition in Southern California, organized as a joint project between The Broad and the Tate Modern in London. An interactive display ranging from early text-based works to large scale installations, the collection traces Ono’s creative trajectory through abstract concepts, campaign organization, and participatory artworks. Across Ono’s multifaceted productions, her work consistently challenges traditional perceptions of art as an external performance. By inviting the viewer into the artist’s process, Ono’s work becomes energetically fluid, existing equally within the creator and the viewer.