Bridging the gender gap

The virtual editathon will see Art Walks Mumbai’s founders Alisha Sadikot and Nishita Zachariah put the spotlight on women artists of the city. Representation pic

What if you could use the world's most popular "free encyclopedia" to learn about women involved in all kinds of art? In an age where we spend most of our day online, wouldn't that just make it all easier? Art+Feminism is a global campaign to close the information gap related to gender, feminism and the arts, beginning with Wikipedia. It follows a DIY format, and since its beginning in 2014, museums, galleries, universities, and individuals around the world have organised editathons. The Heritage Lab got acquainted with the movement in 2017 and since then, have tried to improve coverage of women artists from the Indian subcontinent on Wikipedia. "Can you believe, important artists such as Sunayani Devi, Mrinalini Mukherjee, YG Srimati had no Wikipedia pages? Many others had pages with only one paragraph," shares Medhavi Gandhi, founder, The Heritage Lab; Coordinator, South Asia region for Art+Feminism, adding, "We encourage creation of Wikipedia entries to make women artists visible on the Internet. The larger thought, of course, is making knowledge freely accessible to everyone - these Wikipedia pages are translated into multiple languages, and the content is also fed into videos, and other formats."

On March 11, in collaboration with Art Walks Mumbai, The Heritage Lab will be hosting an evening of editing. Gandhi adds, "Alisha Sadikot and Nishita Zachariah [founders of Art Walks] are known for their well-researched and curated walks around Mumbai's galleries. They will shed light on women artists of the city."

A community effort towards closing the information gap on women's history, the editathon is open to everyone, even if one hasn't edited Wikipedia before. Apart from writing, there are other tasks too, like citation, cataloguing and adding images to existing articles so even if you're not into writing, you can still sign up.

"Till 2021, we have trained 221 participants to create 44 new articles, edit 267 articles and upload 113 images on Wikipedia. Together, these articles about women artists and women in history have garnered over 2 million views," shares Gandhi, adding that if someone is keen to host an editathon at their office, university or at a museum or gallery, they are happy to help with training and organising.

What: Virtual Wikipedia Editathon
When: March 11
Where: theheritagelab.in/artandfeminism-india/