Cincinnati is about to be swimming in glowing gourds. The Cincinnati Art Museum is bringing Yayoi Kusama’s immersive pumpkin Infinity Mirror Room to town this summer, with All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016) set to run from July 17 through October 18, 2026. The installation surrounds visitors with mirrored walls and glowing, polka-dotted pumpkins, plus a group of companion paintings. Timed tickets are planned, general admission is $17, and only two visitors will be allowed inside the room at a time under tightly controlled photography rules.
Where the pumpkins will live
According to the Cincinnati Art Museum, the installation will take over the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Gallery and the Manuel and Rhoda Mayerson Gallery (G124 and G125), located across from the Terrace Café. Alongside the mirrored room, visitors will find a dozen Pumpkin acrylic paintings on canvas, on loan courtesy of the Masterworks Foundation. “Emotional and neuroaesthetic wellbeing are ever present in Yayoi Kusama’s art,” museum director Cameron Kitchin said in the announcement. Members get first dibs, with previews scheduled July 14–16 before the public opening on July 17.
Loan from the Dallas Museum of Art
This version of Kusama’s pumpkin room is visiting Cincinnati as a loan from the Dallas Museum of Art, which acquired the work in 2017 and recently featured it in its Return to Infinity series. As noted by the Dallas Museum of Art, the piece rotates between institutions and typically travels with related paintings and contextual materials that frame the installation within Kusama’s broader practice.
Tickets and visitor rules
Tickets are $17 for general admission, with discounts available for students, children and seniors, and are scheduled to go on sale in June. All visits will be timed and must be reserved online in advance, as reported by CityBeat. Only two people can enter the mirror room at once. Photography is allowed, but only without flash and only on cellphones or small cameras worn on lanyards. Large cameras, tripods, monopods and selfie sticks will not be permitted. The museum has also set up free Thursday evening admission windows and specific member viewing hours, though those time slots will still require reservations.
Why Kusama still draws crowds
Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms trace back to her 1965 experimental chamber Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, which used mirrors to create the illusion of endless space and helped define her now-signature experiential approach. The Hirshhorn Museum notes that those early rooms set the template for later environments like the pumpkin installation, whose mix of spectacle and intimate, almost meditative viewing keeps visitors lining up at museums around the world.
Plan ahead
With the mirror room limited to just two people at a time, high demand and quick sellouts are a safe bet. Previous presentations have relied on strict timing and very short viewing slots. Coverage of the Dallas Museum of Art run documented brief, tightly scheduled visits and heavy public interest, according to The Dallas Morning News, and the Cincinnati Art Museum has already signaled that members will get an early preview window before tickets open to the general public. The museum is urging visitors to watch its official announcements this spring for reservation windows and accessibility details.
With tickets slated to go on sale in June and a strict two-person, timed-entry policy in place, Kusama’s pumpkin room is poised to be one of Cincinnati’s biggest cultural draws this summer. Keep an eye on the museum’s website for reservation information, plus any updates to viewing rules or accessibility accommodations as opening day approaches.
