Mierle Laderman Ukeles

Mierle Laderman Ukeles was born in Denver, Colorado in 1939. She was raised in a Jewish household with her father being a rabbi and received her associates in International Studies in Barnard College. She then went on to receive her artistic training at the Pratt Institute in New York. Finally Ukeles, achieved her honorary doctorates in art at School of the Art Institute in Chicago. She wrote a manifesto titled “Maintenance Art Manifesto 1969!” where she talked about the role a woman plays in her home as well as proclaiming herself to be a maintenance artist. What provoked Mierle Ukeles to make this kind of work was the simple fact that she believed that there is so much work that goes unrecognized by people who devote their lives and she didn’t want those people to go unnoticed.

- Sheila Hernandez Cruz

I Make Maintenance Art One Hour Every Day (1976)

Touch Sanitation Performance (1979-80)