Collaboration is Critical: Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2018

Museum Studies Intern at the Carnegie Museum of Art - Spring 2018

For five years, Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon events have been held all over the world by groups of independent volunteers and activists. However, despite being the largest general reference source on the Internet, Wikipedia still lacks gender diversity in editors and articles. The goal of the Art+Feminism campaign is simple: fix this problem by having more people of diverse gender identities contribute their voices to Wikipedia and by training them to create and edit articles on women, gender, feminism, and the arts. 

This spring, I had the privilege of doing an internship working under Hannah Turpin, Curatorial Assistant of Modern/Contemporary Art and Photography at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Part of my role was to help research and plan for Pittsburgh’s 2018 Edit-a-thon. On March 25, 2018, all of our hard work culminated in the event held in the Hall of Sculpture at the Carnegie Museum of Art. 

Preparing thirty-four artist research folders for the event in the months leading up to it was intense. But this task was secondary to the energizing collaboration between local arts organizations, long-time Wikipedia editors, and, most importantly, the community. 

In total, we had eighteen editors who collectively edited eighteen existing articles. In the process we added over 8,000 words, and created six entirely new Wikipedia articles. Some of this work involved fixing Deana Lawson’s article to save it from being deleted; expanding on articles for Betsy Damon, Machiko Hasegawa and Winifred Lutz; and creating entirely new entries for artists like Carol Ann Carter, Alisha Wormsley, and Jane Haskell. 

These impressive numbers were as important as the individual stories and connections that were made along the way. Many of the editors became invested in the artists they wrote about and the articles they edited. Some editors came to the event with specific artists in mind that they wanted to work with, while others came to learn how to edit Wikipedia, in the process becoming experts on artists who they might never had heard of otherwise. One editor asked me for help in finding an artist that they might be able to connect with. I handed them one artist folder on a whim; and, coincidentally, the editor discovered a personal connection. Not only had the editor and the artist attended the same college at the same time, but they also had made similar artworks depicting the same exact spot from the North Side of Pittsburgh. 

This coincidence proved to me that even if this event by itself made a relatively small addition to Wikipedia, putting any effort into sharing knowledge and creating spaces for underrepresented people can make a big impact on an individual level.

Learn more about the Collecting Knowledge Pittsburgh initiative here