Grants:Project/Rapid/Fouadas/AOOM
Project Goal
[edit]The Art on our Mind research project makes use of Wikipedia workshops to realise its aims, among others:
- Showcasing South African women-of-colour (WOC) creatives online and in print.
- Researching and archiving WOC artists work, and making it available online.
- Upload primary sources (interviews, writing, and artworks) to Wikimedia, create Wikidata entries so as to increase the presence of WOC works online.
- Publishing small booklets on South African women-of-colour artist which will be distributed in schools and universities.
- Publishing theory readers on South African creative feminist practices.
- Collaborate with a growing network of regional institutions and stakeholders regionally.
In this context, this initial series of Wikipedia Workshops aims at:
- Building a community of Wikipedia editors and recruit new editors.
- Inviting experts to train essential skills which are needed to create entries for South African creatives on Wikipedia, among others: audio-visual recording, preparing oral interviews as valid resource of knowledge, working with Wikidata and Wikimedia (e.g. OTRS).
- Inviting representatives of arts and culture organisations in South Africa to discuss how to access archives to be able to retrieve further information on creatives.
- Assigning Wikipedia entries to be created and mapping of existing entries which need editing.
- Preparing archiving and digitisation of researched material.
Project Plan
[edit]Activities
[edit]Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?
We are planning to run 12 Wikipedia workshops (2 hours) over the next 10 months: 12 July 2019, 2 August 2019, 23 August 2019, 27 September 2019, 18 October 2019, 8 November 2019, 7 February 2020, 28 February 2020, 20 March 2020, 3 April 2020, 24 April 2020, and 15 May 2020.
We have managed to get lecturers and postgraduate students of the Wits History Workshop to join our Wikipedia sessions on 27 August and 17 September, to provide training in oral history methods.
Additionally, we will invite a Wikipedia expert (from Art+Feminism or WikiLovesWomen) to give a presentation and run a Wikipedia Workshop at the African Feminisms conference (Afems, 5-7 September 2019).
How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience?
The workshops are open to the public and take place at Wits Writing Centre, which is open to students from all faculties. The aim is to involve not only students but also creatives outside of academia. Therefore, workshops are announced on social media and relevant arts and culture websites, such as VANSA.
Creatives in South Africa engage in research which informs their artistic practice. Most importantly, they are engaging with South African art collectives which were active during the anti-apartheid struggle, such as Mihloti, Mdali, or MEDU Art Ensemble. An exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery on MEDU in 2008 had a huge impact on young creatives. At the same time, it is difficult for local collectives to disseminate their research, such as the publication edited by South African artist Clifford Charles Lihlo la tsa setso. A Gauteng Directory of Arts Groups & Debates on Cultural Life. Johannesburg, 2000. We recognize that Wikipedia has the widest reach to inform the public about creatives and art and culture organisations which remain under-researched and -represented.
What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?
This is an ongoing project, and we apply for the Rapid Grant to kickstart larger projects, including large scale digitization, archiving, and publishing initiatives. We use the Wikimedia Outreach tool to assign articles and to follow up: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Art_on_our_Mind/AOOM_Wikipedia_Workshops
Impact
[edit]How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:
- Number of total participants: 8-12 editors/session (plus inviting 4 creatives from Katlehong)
- Number of articles created or improved (if applicable): 12 articles created, 50 articles improved
- Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (if applicable): 12-50 photos (1-4 per article) uploaded
- Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects (if applicable)
- Recruiting further Wikipedia members during the audience of African Feminisms Conference (5-7 September)/
Resources
[edit]What resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).
We make use of the seminar room at the Wits Writing Centre (WWC) as in-kind funding, and use projectors from the Wits School of Arts (WSOA) in our sessions as in-kind funding. The invited speaker, Isla Haddow-Flood (user:Islahaddow), will present the work of Wiki Loves Women during Afems 2019 Conference (which is part of the Art on our Mind project), and we will use the conference's administration resources, space and technical equipment).
Our workshops are facilitated and supported by members of Wikimedia Foundation, Bobby Shabangu (Bobbyshabangu) and Dumisani Ndubane (Thuvack).
In the next phase, we plan to apply for a larger grant in the next phase so as to buy a scanner, projector and other hardware which we need for our work.
What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense:
| Item | Number | Cost (ZAR) | Subtotal | 12 Workshops | Cost (USD | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food and beverages | 10 | R50 | R500 | R6000 | 402 | |
| Transport | 4 | R60 | R240 | R2880 | 193 | |
| Travel speaker (CPT-JNB) | 1 | R2400 | 161 | |||
| Accommodation speaker (3 nights) | 1 | R2400 | 161 | |||
| Conference registration speaker | 1 | R500 | 33 | |||
| Supper | 1 | R600 | 49 | |||
| Catering event at Afems 2019 | 40 | R40 | R1600 | 107 | ||
| Print of posters | 20 | R52 | R1040 | 70 | ||
| Workshop material (flip chart, stationery) | R300 | 20 | ||||
| Material for banner painting | R200 | 13 | ||||
| Total | R17,920 | USD1,209 |
Endorsements
[edit]- Fouad has organized and supported edit-a-thons in the past. They're doing great work in South Africa and our community could use more of their SA based events. McKensie Mack (talk) 18:43, 6 June 2019 (UTC)
- Wikimedia ZA supports this grant application. One of our board members has been helping Fouad out with his edit-a-thons in Johannesburg and we feel this is an important effort that helps grow the editing community. --Discott (talk) 11:19, 8 June 2019 (UTC)
- Fantastic initiative and really helpful, community oriented wikimedian! Has generously helped other projects and connected Wikimedians worldwide. Heathart
- it is important work to increase representation as well as archiving of histories 2406:7400:71:DEC2:7DFE:B436:D190:972B 12:32, 10 June 2019 (UTC)
- I support Art on our Mind and Fouad organising edit-a-thons as they did in the past and should be able to do so in future. They're doing great work in southern Africa and encourage new editors from different backgrounds, which is necessary and enriching for the whole community and content on Wikipedia. We worked together in Johannesburg for an A+F edit-a-thon, which was a great experience. Elena Patrise