Ivanka Vacuuming ft. Jennifer Rubell

For 20 years, CulturalDC has been making space for art. That means physical places like galleries, theaters and affordable housing for artists. But it also means we make space in the conversation. Podcasting is an exciting way to have those conversations and make our work and artistic programs accessible to a broader audience. We look forward to sharing insights from some of our key collaborators with you. Our first episode features a conversation between CulturalDC’s Executive Director Kristi Maiselman and critically acclaimed artist Jennifer Rubell about the exhibit you’ve probably heard of: Ivanka Vacuuming. A Q&A portion with the live audience follows. CulturalDC, as part of its 20th Anniversary Season presented this limited engagement performance art piece in early February 2019. Inspired by a figure whose public persona incorporates an almost comically wide range of feminine identities – daughter, wife, mother, sister, model, working woman, blonde – Ivanka Vacuuming was simultaneously a visual celebration of a contemporary feminine icon; a portrait of our own relationship to that figure; and a questioning of our complicity in her role-playing. Jennifer Rubell is an American conceptual artist whose work centers on the viewer’s physical interaction with the object. Her practice has long focused on the relationship between femininity and feminism, bridging the domestic and the monumental to create work of enormous visual power and poetry. She works in a wide variety of participatory mediums ranging from interactive sculpture, painting and video to food performance. Rubell received a B.A. from Harvard University in Fine Arts. She lives and works in New York City. Kristi brings over 15 years of experience in nonprofit and for-profit arts organizations including the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Rubell Family Collection, Conner Smith, Hamiltonian Artists and the National Gallery of Art. Maiselman received her BFA in Photography from James Madison University and her MA in Arts Management from American University. She lives in Shaw with her husband and daughter.