Editing Yoko Ono (section)

=== College and downtown beginnings ===
Ono graduated from Gakushūin in 1951, and was accepted into the philosophy program of [[Gakushuin University]] as the first woman to enter the department. However, she left the school after two semesters.<ref name="sayle">Murray Sayle, [http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op18.html "The Importance of Yoko Ono"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221150020/http://www.jpri.org/publications/occasionalpapers/op18.html |date=December 21, 2007 }}, JPRI Occasional Paper No. 18, Japan Policy Research Institute, November 2000.</ref>

Ono joined her family in New York in September 1952,<ref>"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925–1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2HMN-WZL {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125104127/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2HMN-WZL |date=January 25, 2022 }} : March 2, 2021), Yoko Ono, 1952; citing Immigration, New York City, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).</ref> enrolling at nearby [[Sarah Lawrence College]]. Ono's parents approved of her college choice, but disapproved of her lifestyle and chastised her for befriending people they felt were beneath her. In 1956, Ono left college to [[elope]] with Japanese composer [[Toshi Ichiyanagi]],<ref name="Stan" /><ref name="BioA">{{cite news|title=Yoko Ono|publisher=biography.com|url=http://www.biography.com/people/yoko-ono-9542162|url-status=live|access-date=February 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140216080529/http://www.biography.com/people/yoko-ono-9542162|archive-date=February 16, 2014}}</ref> a star in Tokyo's experimental community, then studying at Juilliard.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Farago|first=Jason|date=2015-06-25|title=Hearing Yoko Ono All Over Again|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/arts/music/hearing-yoko-ono-all-over-again.html|access-date=2021-11-07|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=November 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107054739/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/arts/music/hearing-yoko-ono-all-over-again.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

At Sarah Lawrence, Ono studied poetry with [[Alastair Reid (poet)|Alastair Reid]], [[English literature]] with Kathryn Mansell, and music composition with the [[Vienna|Viennese]]-trained André Singer.<ref name="MH231" /> Ono has said that her heroes at this time were the [[twelve tone technique|twelve-tone composers]] [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and [[Alban Berg]]. She said, "I was just fascinated with what they could do. I wrote some twelve-tone songs, then my music went into [an] area that my teacher felt was really a bit off track, and... he said, 'Well, look, there are people who are doing things like what you do, and they're called avant-garde.{{'"}} Singer introduced her to the work of [[Edgar Varèse]], [[John Cage]], and [[Henry Cowell]]. Ono left college and moved to New York in 1957, supporting herself through secretarial work and lessons in the traditional Japanese arts at the [[Japan Society (Manhattan)|Japan Society]].<ref name="MH232">{{harvnb|Munroe|Ono|Hendricks|Altshuler|2000|p=232}}</ref>

Ono has often been associated with the [[Fluxus]] group, a loose association of [[Dada]]-inspired [[avant-garde]] artists which was founded in the early 1960s by Lithuanian-American artist [[George Maciunas]]. Maciunas promoted her work, giving Ono her first solo exhibition at his AG Gallery in New York in 1961. He formally invited Ono to join Fluxus, but she declined because she wanted to remain independent.<ref>{{cite news|last=Newhall|first=Edith|date=October 2000|title=A Long and Winding Road|page=163|work=ARTnews}}</ref> However, she did collaborate with Maciunas,{{sfn|Munroe|Ono|Hendricks|Altshuler|2000|p=40-41}} [[Charlotte Moorman]], [[George Brecht]], and the poet [[Jackson Mac Low]], among others associated with the group.{{sfn|Munroe|Ono|Hendricks|Altshuler|2000|p=233}}

[[File:112 Chambers St jeh.jpg|thumb|112 Chambers Street, the location of Ono's 1960s loft where [[Fluxus]] events took place, pictured in 2011. ]]

Ono first met John Cage through his student Ichiyanagi Toshi, in Cage's experimental composition class at the [[New School for Social Research]].{{sfn|Munroe|Ono|Hendricks|Altshuler|2000|p=65}} She was introduced to more of Cage's unconventional [[neo-Dada]]ism first hand, and via his New York City protégés [[Allan Kaprow]], Brecht, Mac Low, [[Al Hansen]] and the poet [[Dick Higgins]].{{sfn|Munroe|Ono|Hendricks|Altshuler|2000|p=233}}

After Cage finished teaching at the New School in the summer of 1960, Ono was determined to rent a place to present her works along with the work of other avant-garde artists in the city. She eventually found an inexpensive loft in downtown [[Manhattan]] at 112 [[Chambers Street (Manhattan)|Chambers Street]] and used the apartment as a studio and living space, also allowing composer [[La Monte Young]] to organize concerts in the loft.{{sfn|Munroe|Ono|Hendricks|Altshuler|2000|p=233}} They both held a series of events there from December 1960 through June 1961;<ref name="MH232" /> the events were attended by people such as [[Marcel Duchamp]] and [[Peggy Guggenheim]].<ref name="MH21">{{harvnb|Munroe|Ono|Hendricks|Altshuler|2000|p=21}}</ref> Ono and Young both claimed to have been the primary curator of these events,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kotz|first=Liz|author-link=Liz Kotz|date=Winter 2001|title=Post-Cagean Aesthetics and the "Event" Score|journal=October|volume=95|pages=55–89 [56]|jstor=779200}}</ref> with Ono claiming to have been eventually pushed into a subsidiary role by Young.{{sfn|Munroe|Ono|Hendricks|Altshuler|2000|p=65}} Ono presented work only once during the series.<ref name="MH232" />

In 1961, Ono had her first major public performance in a concert at the 258-seat [[Carnegie Hall|Carnegie Recital Hall]] (smaller than the "Main Hall"). This concert featured radical experimental music and performances.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cherix |first=Christophe |title=MoMA Yoko Ono One Woman Show 1960 – 1971 |url=https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/publication_pdf/3218/MoMA_YokoOno_PREVIEW.pdf |website=[[Museum of Modern Art]] |pages=12–13}}</ref>

The Chambers Street series hosted some of Ono's earliest conceptual artwork, including ''Painting to Be Stepped On'', a scrap of canvas on the floor that became a completed artwork as footprints were left on it. With that work, Ono suggested that a work of art no longer needed to be mounted on a wall and inaccessible. She showed this work and other instructional work again at Macunias's AG Gallery in July 1961.<ref name="MH21" /> After Ono set a painting on fire at one performance, Cage advised her to treat the paper with [[flame retardant]].<ref name="Stan">{{cite web|url=http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/january7/yoko-010709.html|title=Yoko Ono to speak at Stanford, Stanford Report|last=Haven|first=Cynthia|date=December 19, 2008|publisher=Stanford University|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112012256/http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/january7/yoko-010709.html|archive-date=November 12, 2013}}</ref> She is credited for the album cover art for the album ''Nirvana Symphony'' by [[Toshiro Mayuzumi]], released by Time Records in 1962.

After living apart for several years, Ono and Ichiyanagi filed for divorce in 1962. Ono returned home to live with her parents, and, suffering from [[Major depressive disorder|clinical depression]], was briefly placed into a Japanese [[mental institution]].<ref name="allmusicB" /><ref name="BioChannel">{{cite news|url=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/yoko-ono.html|title=Yoko Ono Biography|publisher=Biography Channel (UK)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213213142/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/yoko-ono.html|archive-date=December 13, 2013}}</ref>