This event will be presented in-person in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium. 

For in-person attendance, please register in advance here. 

“After the Revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage?” challenged Mierle Laderman Ukeles. A lifelong artist, she was home with a new baby, furious at the social marginalization that came along with motherhood. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp, she declared that from now on all her acts of childcare and household maintenance were performance art.

Maintenance Artist dives deep into the extraordinary life and work of the artist-in-residence at NYC’s Sanitation Department since 1977. A pioneering ecofeminist and social practice artist, Ukeles made the invisible labor of cleaning, caretaking and motherhood the focus of her artistic practice. Through a blend of rare archival footage and interviews the film explores how a single artist transformed “maintenance” and care — the often-dismissed work of women and working-class people — into one of the most profound artistic and political statements of the 20th century.

Premiering to acclaim as an Official Selection in Documentary Competition at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, the film has since been captivating audiences at DC/DOCS, HOT DOCS, the National Gallery of Art, the Museums of Fine Arts in Houston and Boston and many others.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Cooper Union faculty member Diana Agrest, former New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl and the filmmaker, Toby Perl Freilich.

Diana Agrest, FAIA, is an internationally renowned architect well known for her unique and pioneering approach to architecture and urbanism developed both in practice and theory, through work, writing and pedagogy. She is a founder and principal of Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects in New York and develops her own individual projects as well. Diana Agrest has been involved in the design and building of projects ranging from urban design projects and master plans to parks, civic and residential buildings, single family houses and interiors in the US, Europe, South America and Asia since 1970 and which have received numerous awards.
Agrest is The Irwin S. Chanin Distinguished Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art where she has taught since 1977.

Former NYC Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl has worked as a curator, educator and museum director for the last four decades, including twelve years each at PS1 MoMA and the Queens Museum, where he spearheaded a 50,000 square foot expansion.  As NYC Cultural Affairs Commissioner, Finkelpearl worked on 130 public art commissions. He has published two foundational books on public art: Dialogues in Public Art (MIT Press, 2000) and What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation (Duke University Press, 2013) and has taught social practice art and museum studies courses at NYU, RISD and Queens College. Throughout his career, Tom Finkelpearl has sought to promote social engagement in arts and culture and has worked tirelessly to support artists. Since 2023, he has been Teaching Scholar-in-Residence at the Social Practice Program at City University of New York.

Toby Perl Freilich produced and directed Maintenance Artist about pioneering artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Maintenance Artist premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and has had special screenings at the National Gallery of Art for DC/DOCS and the Museums of Fine Arts in Houston and Boston.  She co-produced and co-directed Moynihan, released theatrically in 2018 and broadcast on PBS’ American Masters series in March 2024. Freilich wrote, directed, and produced Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment, released theatrically in 2012 and hailed by the NY Times as “fascinating,” and  by NPR as “excellent.” She co-produced and wrote the documentary film, Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers, for which she was nominated for a news and documentary Emmy for Writing. Freilich was also co-producer of the Emmy-nominated Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans, an independent documentary that was broadcast nationally on PBS.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.