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USF Master’s in Museum Studies Student Recaps 8th Annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at Gleeson Library

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This spring semester, Gleeson Library | Geschke Center, together with faculty and students from USF’s Art History BA and Museums Studies MA programs, held it’s 8th annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon. Master’s student Vi Bui wrote an excellent blog post for the Master’s in Museum Studies blog, which we are pleased and grateful to share here too, in full. Many thanks, Vi! See you at next year’s edit-a-thon!

Enriching Collective Knowledge at USF’s Annual Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon

By Vi Bui MA ‘21

In celebration of Women’s History Month, University of San Francisco recently held its annual Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon for the 8th consecutive year. Taking place on March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day, this year’s Edit-A-Thon was part of the 20th anniversary of the university’s Global Women’s Right Forum.

Co-hosted by a team of librarians from Gleeson Library | Geschke Center, in collaboration with faculty from USF’s Art History BA and Museum Studies MA programs, students learned how to update the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, and expand entries related to women in history.

Participants take part in a tutorial on how to navigate the Wikipedia interface.

Wikipedia is known to have a significant gender issue. According to Art + Feminism, a 2011 survey from the Wikimedia Foundation revealed that less than 10% of its contributors identified as female. In addition, studies found Wikipedia had fewer and less comprehensive women-related articles, which showed gender bias. In response, a global movement began to uplift the voices of those who are underrepresented and tell their stories.

Art + Feminism was founded in 2014 to address one aspect of this problem by organizing an annual worldwide edit-a-thon to improve coverage of women in the arts on Wikipedia and to encourage female editorship: “Because when women, non-binary, people of color, and Indigenous communities are not represented in the writing and editing on the tenth most visited site in the world, information of people like us, gets skewed and misrepresented. The stories get mis-told. We lose out on the real history. That’s why we’re here: to change it.” (Art + Feminism)

Reference Librarian Colette Hayes (top) demonstrates how to add a source to an article about Christi Belcourt, a Métis visual artist and author living and working in Canada.

Usually, this event takes place in person, on site at Gleeson Library | Geschke Center; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year it was held virtually over Zoom. Nonetheless, the event was successful because of the number of changes that were made to Wikipedia pages regarding underrepresented artists. According to the Event Dashboard, together, Gleeson participants added more than a thousand words to various pages, alongside over 20 added references.

Students in our Modern European Art seminar made some edits to pages for several female artists from different disciplines, geographies, and time periods, most of whom were lesser known and marginalized. It was empowering to discover that learning is not confined to the classroom, but also expands out into the greater world. In terms of representation, we were able to make a real difference, elevating the immense collective knowledge of the life and work of under-represented artists.

A breakout group of students led by Librarian Gina Solares shares their experiences.

Museum Studies student, Katherine Fussell (MA ‘21), spoke about her experience: “Going to this event, I was unsure of what to expect because I had never edited on Wikipedia before. In fact, I usually use Wikipedia to find information for my own research, so it was interesting to have the roles reversed.” She worked on the Irish painter, Mainie Jellett (1897-1944), whose Wikipedia page already had a good amount of valuable information: “So in the breakout room, Reference Librarian Colette Hayes suggested I begin by adding a source to her page, rather than adding missing information.” Fussell reflected positively on her experience as a first-time editor: “Even though I wasn’t able to post something new on Mainie Jellett’s page the day of the Edit-A-Thon, I now feel like I’m equipped with the information I need to add to any Wikipedia pages going forward, if they need it!”

The 2021 USF A+F Wiki Edit-A-Thon Padlet, a virtual bulletin board showcasing some of the artists whose pages were edited.

I worked on the page of Fan Tchunpi (1898-1986) (also known as Fang Jungbi), a Chinese artist known for combining European and Chinese formal elements in her work. While I didn’t add many new details to her page, I carefully proofread the text and checked the bibliography.

The three most important things that I will take away from this project are: First, “knowledge is power.” It’s so important to keep on learning and expanding our consciousness. Second, “teamwork makes the dream work.” Together as a team, we were able to contribute more efficiently and effectively on a collective level. Third, “everything is possible if you keep your mind to it.” At first, I was intimidated by the “Sandbox” function in Wikipedia, but then after learning how it worked, I was able to submit my first edit to Fan Tchunpi’s page.

As a group, our class acknowledged that the annual Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon is only a beginning. Now, we are empowered to enrich collective knowledge. As the project continues, we feel confident in our ability to edit and initiate new entries in order to contribute to a more accurate and inclusive global history of art, culture and ideas.