Conversations@Moore: Mierle Laderman

Best known for her decades-long role as the official, unsalaried artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation, this event will shed light on Ukeles’ early career in Philadelphia where she penned Manifesto for Maintenance Art, 1969! Proposal for an Exhibition “CARE”. This manifesto, written 50 years ago, laid out the hidden, yet essential role of maintenance in Western society—and the radical implications of actively valuing maintenance, rather than dismissing or hiding it.

Ukeles’ writing predicted a deep concern with reproductive labor found across feminist thought, contemporary art and activism that falls under the banner of “care” work. This event celebrates the 50th anniversary of the manifesto, looking back at how the concepts presented in it have intersected with Ukeles’ artwork, and how this historic work has since converged with present artistic and social movements. Ukeles will be joined in conversation by Moore’s Academic Dean, Patti Phillips, who co-curated a retrospective exhibition of Ukeles’ work at the Queens Museum in 2016.

This FREE, wheelchair-accessible event is co-presented by our Conversations@Moore public program series, organized by Moore College of Art & Design’s Graduate Studies MFA and MA programs in Socially Engaged Art. For more information, visit moore.edu/sea.

The event also kicks off a series of events between November 4–8, 2019, “Maintenance Art at 50: Mierle Laderman Ukeles in Philadelphia,” curated by Patti Phillips with various community partners at venues across Philadelphia. In honor of Ukeles’ visit to Philadelphia a wide range of arts organizations and academic institutions have come together to host and organize a range of public and invitation-only events, conversations, workshops throughout the city. Those organizations include: Moore College of Art & Design, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Trash Academy initiative, The Heim Center at the Free Library of Philadelphia, RAIR, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia Arts Alliance, Monument Lab, University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design MFA program, Temple Contemporary and Tyler School of Art.