Mierle Laderman Ukeles and the Museum have conceived a series of public programs meant to engage and contemporize some of Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art’s important themes.

At 2,200+ acres, the Fresh Kills Landfill, which operated from 1948-2001, would span the equivalent of lower Manhattan to 34^th Street and is nearly 3x the area of Central Park.  Participants will learn about the history of the site and gain the perspectives of the Sanitation and Parks Departments on the transformation of the landscape during those years, what is involved in re-purposing a former solid waste disposal facility of this scale into publicly accessible space; current activities and visions for the future.

The first stop will be the site of Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Percent for Art project for the future Freshkills South Park entitled Landing. Upon completion it will have  three components: the soaring, cantilevered Overlook and the two earthworks, Earth Bench and Earth Triangle. These three components will be connected by the newly graded and ADA-accessible landbridge which connects the two mounds that form South Park (a combined 147 acres).  This will be followed by visits to adjacent viewing areas to get differing perspectives of the Landing site and appreciate the larger context of Ukeles’s experiential art. Framed by the city’s “landfill to landscape” master plan, the site reveals both the contradictions and unity of natural and man-made features.

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL, NO FURTHER RSVPS WILL BE ACCEPTED. 

Meeting Point: Staten Island Ferry Terminal, Staten Island side; Ramp E/ Taxi stand. You should be able to take the 11am ferry and join us at the bus by 11:30am.

Logistics: There will be a rest room stop. However, participants should bring their own nourishment (there will be no stops for food), dress warmly and wear sturdy shoes or boots. All visitors are required to sign waivers before entering the site.

Image: Site of Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Landing in Fresh Kills Park. Photo by Alex MacLean, 2009. Courtesy of NYC Parks.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art is made possible with leading support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts; Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc.; The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation; and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Contributions were also generously made by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Mark and Katie Coleman; Rivka Saker; the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc.; EMU Health; Gabriel Catone; Andrew Ruth; Helen and Peter Warwick; Manon Slome; and Elizabeth Smith.

The Queens Museum is grateful for significant in-kind support from the New York City Department of Sanitation. Additional in-kind gifts were provided by Shine Electronics, Inc.; Delta Air Lines; W X Y Architects; Lower East Side Print Shop; and SITU Fabrication. The accompanying publication is supported, in part, by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.