Grants:Project/Rapid/Jacob Lawrence Gallery/Art+Feminism Edit-a-Thon (Seattle, 2017-2018)

Recruits new editors, particularly of groups that are underrepresented in Wikipedia's editor demographic (womxn, people of color, queer identified)
Increase skills for existing editors
Add or improve content on queer and womxn of color in the arts.

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:

1. Are you doing one editathon or training or a series of editathons or trainings?

We will be doing a quarterly series of edit-a-thons, each with a pre-session workshop. There will be three edit-a-thons total over the course of the year, one in fall, one in winter, and one in spring.

2. How will you let your community know about the event? Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions.

The events will be publicized in the University of Washington's official event calendar, as well as the calendars for the School of Art, Information School, Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and other relevant departmental calendars on campus. We will send out invitations through various UW list serves and librarian and artist groups.

The events will also be on the front page of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery website, on the Gallery's calendar, and on the Gallery's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.

We hope to also publicize the events in the Daily, the student newspaper, and the Stranger's event page.

Flyers and posters wil also be posted throughout campus, and an organizer will visit classes in the art building to tell students about the events.

3. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event?

The Cascade Wikipedia group will be involved and will help facilitate editing training workshops.

4. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?

Pre-event workshops will be held to those who want to gain more experience before the edit-a-thon. Training will also be provided on a rolling basis throughout the day of each event. We will provide laptops for those that indicate the need in the RSVP form. A list of artists that need Wikipedia pages will be compiled and shared before the event that is relevant to the focus of that event. Books pulled from the UW Art Library with the help of a librarian will be on hand as resources, and a list of online resources will also be available.

5. How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

We will send out an email thanking participants for attending the event and asking about their interest in attending other events of the same nature. Ideally, instructors will be present and will be interested in using Wikipedia assignments in their classes or in encouraging students to continue editing on their own time. Posters will be created with some of the new articles and put up in front of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery.

Some articles created may also appear in Monday, the forthcoming student produced journal of the Jaco Lawrence Gallery.

6. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

We’re hoping to have QTPOC artists speak at the events, but this is contingent on getting a rapid grant. Having a guest speaker is not only a way for us to further support local artists and scholars, but is also a means to further share knowledge by bringing in a speaker who can speak to the focus of the edit-a-thon (the first will be focusing on Northwest Coast Indigenous Womxn artists) or to the importance of the work that edit-a-thons do (a scholar in digital humanities or sociology, for example). This not only gives participants another reason to come but also emphasizes collaboration, knowledge sharing, and forming connections which are all part of the Jacob Lawrence Gallery's mission as a part of the School of Art.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets:

Number of events
- 3
Number of participants
- 30-50, per event.
Number of new editors
- 60
Number of of articles created or improved
- 80
Number of repeat participants (for projects that include a series of events)
- 50

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

We have a venue (the Jacob Lawerence Gallery at the University of Washington's School of Art + Art History + Design) and interns who can help in the visual identity and promotion of the event. We have the support of the local Wikipedia group, and the help of the Art+Feminism group. There are also the lists created by the Women in Red project.

Gallery will provide space, table, chairs, pencils, internet access, publicity, way-finding, educational materials UW libraries provide books for editors to reference UW campus offers a rich intellectual context in which to host the Edit-a-thon, with a dynamic set of scholars and students to help support it.

The director of the Gallery and the Gallery's Wikipedia Fellow will be co-organizing the series of events.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.

Food and drink = $600 ($200 per event, for 3 events)
Child care = 4 hrs x $25 x 2 care providers x 3 events = $600
Speaker fees for a guest speaker for each event = $450
Miscellaneous supplies = $300 (name tags, power cords, swag for each event, additional books and magazines on the focus of the edit-a-thon to support editors that may not be in the holdings of the library)

Total = $1950 USD

Our budget seems high, but we are adamant in supporting women and queer POC speakers and businesses.

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!