Today, for our final field trip of the year, the school decided to take advantage of the last-minute offer for half-priced tickets to see Yayoi Kusama’s latest exhibition downtown off of the Bund. We, the teachers, were excited about this since we thought this would be a more interesting place to visit than a local history museum. Overall, it was interesting, but I do wish there were more pieces in this exhibit. Since we ended up going through it faster than expected, we had to kill time until the buses returned later in the afternoon, so we went through it again. The second time was notably less exciting. At least one of the teachers was not impressed with the simplicity of her art and wondered what educational value this trip provided. It was decided among us that it wasn’t so much an educational trip but rather an end-of-year fun trip.

Anyway, for anyone who enjoys modern art, Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist (now 90) who is obsessed with polka-dots and pumpkins. She has said that “I love pumpkins because of their humorous form, warm feeling, and human-like quality and form.” Polka-dots and pumpkins are the centerpieces of her creations.

After going through the exhibition, the kids had a craft activity using polka-dots. Our group did their work on the fourth-floor terrace overlooking the Bund.

On the bus ride back to school, some of the kids (OK, many) decided they were not yet finished being artistic, so they took advantage of the leftover polka-dot stickers.