Welcome to Kindergarten

photograph: Midlibrary

Dear Reader,

Yayoi Kusama is “acknowledged as one of the most important living artists,” according to Wikipedia. So why haven’t I heard of her before starting my job at a museum, where I get paid 20 dollars an hour to know who Yayoi Kusama is? 

This question hit me today when I heard a five-year-old teach her mother about Kusama and the motives behind her work. I took notes on what she was saying—to use on the next guests—and then asked her how she knew all that. Immediately, I was reminded that anything you think you’re good at, a five-year-old is better. 

She told me about Kusama’s obsessive fear of infinity and her history as a schizophrenic. She told me details about the exhibit that I was standing before and feigning expertise. I learned information on the creation of the room, the motives behind it, and how much it cost. She learned all of this in school and was shaking at the thought of finally getting to see the exhibit for herself. 

I took this excessive excitement as evidence of her being an art prodigy, an outlier in the population of five-year-olds. However, a few groups later, a large gaggle of 7-10-year-olds were also jittery about seeing the Kusama exhibit. I asked if they learned about her in school and they all aggressively shook their heads yes. Their parents awkwardly laughed when I expressed my shock at this. I told them I didn’t know who she was until working here and learned nothing about her during my years in the public school system.

On my break, I did a quick Google search to inform myself further, maybe earn what I was getting paid. I learned she was influential to many famous artists that I did learn about school, like Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. They stole her work and ideas (of course).

I’m not writing this because it’s my first time realizing that sexism exists. For me, this felt like a small victory. Despite getting robbed by the public school system myself, it made me happy that some kids now are not. Little girls get to shake with excitement at the prospect of standing in a room worth 10 million dollars, they get to teach their parents something they don’t know, and they have an appreciation for art I will never achieve. 

Some people would bubble over in anger if a little girl told them they learned about a 95-year-old schizophrenic obsessed with balls in school. The discussion on mental health that comes with a discussion on Kusama, and many other influential artists, would make her “inappropriate” to some. Thinking about this and the face of the little girl who taught me so much, I’m saddened for the children who don’t get to go to museums and expose themselves to art from around the world and different perspectives. Robbing them of this knowledge is robbing them of the opportunity to fully express themselves and properly formulate their identity as a human being. 

I wonder what I would be like if I were exposed to more art as a kid, more discussions of real-world problems through pretty rooms like those created by Kusama. I turned out fine and made my way there on my own, but this isn’t a promise for all and shouldn’t be something considered extra and unnecessary. I didn’t mean to get political this week, but I also didn’t mean to get schooled by a 5-year-old, so the more you know. 

Love,

Isabella