Yayoi Kusama

We were sad to hear that Yayoi Kusama has died, aged 97, but what a great age to get to!

She brought fun and colour to the art world, inspiring young minds with interactive installations.

Kusama was famous for her dots, bright colours and playful, unusual artwork – and our nurseries were lucky enough to get involved in one of her most interactive projects, The Obliteration Room, at Tate Modern.

We were among the first visitors to see the installation, visiting while the press were there and before it opened to the public. The room started out completely white, with white furniture and objects covering the space. Visitors were then given colourful stickers to place wherever they liked, gradually covering the room in dots.

Our nurseries got to be part of that transformation too. We painted some of our own nursery objects white and sent them to Tate, where they became part of the exhibition. And when the exhibition finished, our objects came back to the nursery – so we still had a little reminder of our time in the Obliteration Room.

The idea also gave us plenty to explore back at the nursery. We looked at Kusama's use of dots, colour and repetition and created our own artwork inspired by what we'd seen. It was a great opportunity to experiment with different materials, make patterns and, most importantly, have fun with art.

We also shared Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn't Sorry by Fausto Gilberti, which gave us another way to explore Kusama and her work with the children.

Kusama certainly knew how to make art fun, and we're very glad we got to be part of one of her wonderfully dotty projects!