Jennifer Vanderpool

Untold Stories: Youngstown

Youngstown, Ohio | 2019

Tyler History Center
Youngstown, Ohio

The exhibition narrative of Untold Stories: Youngstown objectified outmoded imagery of my blighted ‘Rust Belt’ hometown and employed these symbols as allegories to evoke questions about neighborhood decay and gentrification, segregation and integrated cities, generations of unemployment, and economic redevelopment. Exhibited at the Tyler History Center, I created archival photographic interventions and juxtaposed materials selected from the Mahoning Valley Historical Society holdings with my prints. I interviewed community members on camera for two Youngstown and the other Steel City.

JenniferVanderpool.mp3

Tim Francisco Interviews Jennifer Vanderpool for WYSU, Youngstown, Ohio

“Making Social Art in Youngstown,” in Car Bombs to Cookie Tables: The Youngstown Anthology, edited by Jacqueline Marino. Second Edition. Cleveland: Belt Publishing, 2020.

Yes She Can: Women and the Steel Industry Panel
March 12, 2019

Eliese Colette Goldbach, Noted author and former steel mill worker, Cleveland, Ohio
Jacqueline Marino, Author and Associate Professor of Journalism, Kent State University
Mary E. Triece, Author and Professor in the School of Communication and Director of the Women Studies Program, The University of Akron
Moderated by Jennifer Vanderpool

Pittsburgh to Cleveland, 2018 
84″ x 42″ 
Archival Photographic Intervention Print 

Pittsburgh to Youngstown, 2018 
36″ x 42″
Giclée Print

Youngstown to Toledo, 2018 
36″ x 42″
Giclée Print

Nostalgia and Heavy Industry from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Women and Working Class Jobs from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Deindustrialization from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Defining Deindustrialization from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Crisis of Masculinity from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Redlining from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Education from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

The Arts from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

The Rust Belt and the Shape of Work from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Opiods from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Social Amnesia from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Social Justice and Political Will from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Boots on the Ground from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.

Exhibition Documentation

Historic Image, Steel Worker

Historic Image, Ukrainian Folk Festival Dancers

Historic Image, Shoppers at Strouss Department Store in Downtown Youngstown

Untold Stories, 2019 Exhibition Panel “Yes She Can: Women in Steel” from Jennifer Vanderpool on Vimeo.



Leiden, Netherlands | 2020

“Performing Imaginary Life,” Sensing Style: Subcultural Movements in the 21st Century, Leiden University

Flyer for Artist Talk, Sensing Style: Subcultural Movements in the 21st Century Conference Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands Performing Imaginary Life December 11, 2020
Ha Noi, Vietnam | 2021

Keynote Speaker, 'Surviving the Fantasies of Modernization' Ha Noi Ad Hoc and RMIT Vietnam, with support from UNESCO

Flyer for Keynote Speaker, 'Surviving the Fantasies of Modernization'
Ha Noi Ad Hoc and RMIT Vietnam, with support from UNESCO, Ha

Noi, VietnamJennifer discussed her ongoing project, Garment Girl, which investigates women's labor in the global textile industry.

Her co-presenter was Mila Rosenthal, a human rights educator and professor at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights. She spoke about the March 8 Textile Factory, a significant site for the Vietnamese Communist Party's efforts in the 1960s and 1970s to manufacture a modern socialist society, economy, city, and family.

Michal Teague, Design Studies Lecturer at RMIT Hanoi City campus, moderated the discussion.

July 27, 2021

Quito, Ecuador| 2021

Artist Talk, Flores para el Trueque Museo de Arte, Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Flyer for Artist Talk, Museo de Arte, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador

November 18, 2021

Cardiff, Wales | 2022

Global Wales Fulbright Forum

Flyer for Artist Talk, Global Wales Fulbright Forum, Cardiff, Wales.

April 8, 2022

Liverpool, UK | 2022

Centre for the Culture of Everyday Life, the University of Liverpool

Flyer for Artist Talk in Conversation with Dr. Vid Simoniti, Centre for the Culture of Everyday Life, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK May 17, 2022
Derby, UK | 2025

Untold Stories: Social Activism through Art and Research Arts and Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield

Flyer for Artist Talk, Arts and Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield, UK May 24, 2022
Los Angeles, CA | 2023

Fine Arts Visiting Artist Lecture, Otis College of Art and Design

Flyer for Artist Talk, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA April 18, 2023
Sheffield, UK | 2023

Creating Thriving Post-Industrial Cities, Festival of Debate

Flyer for Symposium Creating Thriving Post-Industrial Cities, Festival of Debate, Sheffield, UK

Jennifer and Dr. Lizzy Craig-Atkins, from the University of Sheffield, co-organized this event.

The symposium evolved from Jennifer Vanderpool's ongoing social practice art exhibitions, Untold Stories, a series of community-specific and site-responsive exhibitions that have occurred in the Deindustrialized Midwest Region of the U.S.A. and the Industrial North of England. Panellists offered multivocal perspectives, including workers, activists, artists, and scholars from Liverpool, UK; Sheffield, UK; Akron, Ohio; and Youngstown, Ohio.

May 22, 2023

Birkenhead, UK | 2023

Crafting a Vibrant Future, Open Door Charity

Flyer for Artist Talk and Craftivism Workshop at Open Door Charity.

Birkenhead, UK.

May 31, 2023

Belfast, Northern Ireland | 2024

Queen Mary’s University Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time, Summer Institute

Flyer for Lecture, Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time, Summer Institute, Queen Mary’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Jennifer co-taught the Graduate Workshop Integrating Arts-Based and Community-Based Approaches in Post-Industrial Memory Research with Dr. Guilherme Pozzer from the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.

June 2024

Glasgow, Scotland | 2024

Gender, Family and Deindustrialization, University of Strathclyde Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time, Annual Conference

Flyer for Artist Talk, Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time, Annual Conference. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland June 20, 2024
Sheffield, UK | 2024

Crafting the Past, University of Sheffield

Flyer for Artist Talk

Empowering Communities through Creative Writing, Visual Narratives, Memory, and Place-Making, The University of Sheffield.

June 29, 2024

Sheffield, UK | 2024

Festival of Archeology, Council for British Archaeology

Flyer for Workshops, Sheffield Crafting the Past Online Workshops, Council for British Archaeology.

Dr. Gui Posser and Dr. Jennifer Vanderpool offered online workshops on creative writing and visual storytelling to address challenges faced by post-industrial communities.

July 27, 2024, and August 2, 2024

Los Angeles, CA | 2025

Call Festival, UCLA School of Law

Flyer for Artist Talk, Connecting Art and Law for Liberation, UCLA Law School

Visionary artists, activists, attorneys, advocates, legal scholars, and community members shared innovative, cutting-edge collaborations at the intersection of ART and LAW - aimed at imagining a world without prisons, policing, and surveillance.

Presented with Los Angeles-based curator Rachel Schmid.

April 19, 2025

Derby, UK | 2025

CivicLAB Annual Conference, University of Derby

Flyer for Artist Talk, CivicLAB Annual Conference, University of Derby

Neighbourhood Assembly: Arts-led, co-productive research & practice for comfortable, energy-efficient homes, green skills and quality jobs, and thriving places.

Presented with Dr Rachel Macrorie, Nottingham Trent University.

June 25, 2025