AHTR Editor’s note: we’ve long published AHTR Weekly content on Wikipedia as a platform and a resource for teaching and learning in art history, including this post from 2016 on the TeachArt Wiki, and this early entry on the Art + Feminism project from 2015. In the last few weeks, the collaborative team behind the Art + Feminism project put together the resources below for students and teachers who want to get involved with the Art + Feminism project and include it as part of their curriculum.

Learn more or get in touch with the Art + Feminism project here: website: www.artandfeminism.org /// email: info@artandfeminism.org

And see also this great Panorama post from art historian Sarah Beetham on how they incorporated A+F into their classroom at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia–it includes a thorough and very useful description and reflection.

Wikipedia is the seventh most visited website in the world. More people use Wikipedia as a platform for teaching research and composition, more librarians describe it as a research tool. Google searches pull its biographical sidebar information from Wikipedia, and major museum websites pull from Wikipedia content. Absences in Wikipedia echo across the internet.  

Art+Feminism is an intersectional feminist non-profit organization that directly addresses the information gap about gender, feminism, and the arts on the internet. We envision dismantling supremacist systems and creating pathways for everyone to participate in writing (and righting) history.

Art+Feminism has tools for teaching with Wikipedia that can be easily adapted for remote learning and remixed to any subject matter. These tools are made for the virtual space, creating a rich opportunity for students to contribute directly to the act of knowledge sharing and information advocacy while honing research and writing skills.

Our annual campaign works with organizers around the world to host edit-a-thons to help close the gaps in information and the gender gap among editors in the Wikiverse. Over the years we’ve generated open-source learning materials that explain the various ways to participate in Wikipedia, Wikipedia Commons, and Wikimedia projects. These tools have been developed with a specific focus on feminist and anti-oppressive learning.

Course Work Examples

1. Example 1: Sample structure for organizing a semester-long course around an Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, created by Jennifer Kennedy + Johanna Amos, Queen’s University for an Art+Feminism Community Hours
2. Example 2: A three-assignment project that introduces students to Wikipedia’s editing guidelines through a feminist framework
   1. First assignment (reference assessment assignment): Work with students to assess references on relevant Wikipedia pages, then have them propose stronger and/or more neutral references.
   2. ​​Second assignment: Students modify content in Wikipedia articles to reduce bias, within a feminist framework. We suggest a minimum of three edits per student. 
   3. ​Third assignment:​ Students create a Wikipedia article for a missing subject (we suggest the Women in Red Index, the Black Lunch Table, or Whose Knowledge for suggestions of projects to work on). Submit off of Wikipedia for review and then have students post via the Sandbox for community review.​​

Art+Feminism Wikipedia Training

1. Art+Feminism Quick Guides for Editing on Wikipedia (available in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish)
2. Art+Feminism Training videos
3. Art+Feminism Beginner and Advanced Training Slides
4. Art+Feminism Training Lesson Plan
5. Advanced Wikimedia Training curricula
6. Adding Images to Wikimedia Commons (student activity example)
7. Wikidata
8. Art+Feminism Youtube training videos

Other tools and resources: 

1. Art+Feminism Community Hours: A+F in the Classroom (2 Case Studies)
2. Learning patterns/Using Wikipedia’s gaps as feminist teaching tools created by User: Shameran81
3. Wikipedia 101 Slides created by Erin O’Neil (she/her), Wikipedian in Residence, University of Alberta Library
4. Wikipedia Edit-a-thon BINGO assignment created by Amanda Meeks, Art+Feminism Regional Ambassador

Virtual Learning Resources

1. Art+Feminism Collaborative Resources for Virtual Events
2. Art+Feminism Outreach Dashboard Training

Security and Safety 

We have initiated a line of work to develop strategies and tools that help our community deal with and prevent online harassment that may occur as a result of their involvement with Art+Feminism projects. This initiative is a response to the experiences of harassment lived by members of our leadership collective, as well as to the reports that we have received from members of our community over the course of our organization’s history. We know from experience that Wikimedia’s online community is far from being a safe space for everyone, which is why we decided to create a group specifically charged with developing tools to prevent and document incidents of harassment or misbehavior, in order to guide users through the tools already in place via the Wikimedia Foundation. This work has been done in consultation with the Trust and Safety team, as well as the Legal team at the Wikimedia Foundation. The security toolkit can be found here.

Wiki Education

For broader Wikipedia learning tools, we encourage you to consult Wiki Education, who “engages students and academics to improve Wikipedia, enrich student learning, and build a more informed public.”

Contact information

If you have questions, or would like support on planning and implementing Art+Feminism assignments in your classroom, please contact Amber Berson via email at amber@artandfeminism.org.