Why hundreds of activists are mass-editing Wikipedia this weekend
- Text by Marta Bausells
- Illustrations by Laurene Boglio

If Wikipedia is the encyclopaedia by and of the people, it should strike us all as strange that only 10% of all its contributors identify as female (according to a 2011 survey by the Wikimedia foundation). According to New York-based collective Art + Feminism, this has led to significant gaps in content, and the collective are keen to fill in the gaps.
This group, created in 2014, has been working hard to fix the underrepresentation issue, mostly through their annual “edit-a-thons”; all-day events involving the communal updating of Wikipedia entries on subjects related to art and feminism. Their objective? To encourage female editorship and generate coverage of feminism and the arts.
Before the US government started promoting “alternative facts” – and before fake news possibly influenced elections –, this was already necessary, argue Jacqueline Mabey, Michael Mandiberg, and Siân Evans, co-founders of the Art+Feminism collective. “Wikipedia is something that belongs to all of us. It’s not a privately held resource, its content isn’t motivated by the whims of any owners. When you have a government actively pushing ‘alternative facts,’ improving the reliability and completeness of Wikipedia is an important act of everyday resistance,” they say.
An edit-a-thon can be as small as five people and as big as 600, explains Mabey. Art + Feminism started in 2014 after these friends, all with backgrounds in the arts, teaching, activism, and information, realised they’d all been frustrated by the problem separately. “We never expect to be doing this,” says Mandiberg. “We figured we’d have to strong-arm 20 of our friends to do what we were thinking might be perceived as homework; but as soon as we posted it publicly, we had several locations that had hosted other edit-a-thons contact us to host sister events.”
The project has grown exponentially ever since, doubling every year, thanks in part to word of mouth and to funding from organisations like the Wikimedia Foundation. Since then, more than 4,600 articles have been edited in more than 280 events worldwide, held annually around International Women’s Day.
“If our goal is to make of Wikipedia more of the encyclopaedia that it could be, not like the encyclopaedias that have been, what do we need to do to do that?,” asks Mandiberg. Accessibility seems to be one of their priorities. The edit-a-thons have a big didactic component – in fact, if you’ve never edited a Wikipedia article before, this is perfect for you. The first thing attendees are asked to do is as simple as signing up for Wikipedia, and then they go straight to training sessions. “We have experienced Wikipaedians – some of whom were totally new a few years ago – jump in and show people how to do things.”
On your first edit-a-thon, you will be expected to make “baby steps” like correcting the grammar on a page, or adding a few links. “It all builds towards the main goal for participants, which is to add a citation or two. If they have added a paragraph or two by the end of the day, that’s even better.” The organisers also encourage people to edit articles that have “specific meaning” to the part of the world in which they live, to their job or their interests.
Information activism is perhaps even more important when we’re facts are ever increasingly being thrown by the wayside. “While we don’t have any specific plans to address Trump’s presidency and policies, we do see our project as particularly vital at this point in history. Affirming the importance of the work of women and other marginalised communities is pivotal,” says Siân Evans, who works as a librarian day to day.
“I’m not an archivist, although I think the power dynamics in archiving and the narratives that get collectively told are fascinating. […] I see my work with Art+Feminism as an extension of my role as a librarian: to advocate for broad access to information, to challenge power structures and shed light on structural racism and sexism in information production and organisation, to empower people to see themselves as information users and creators,” she adds.
This year, the main event at New York’s MoMA will include conversations about information activism with writer Joanne McNeil and Data & Society Research Institute Fellow Zara Rahman, moderated by Kimberly Drew, the creator of the Tumblr Black Contemporary Art.
Find out about other events happening around the world here. In the UK, Wikimedia UK organise year-round events around the country – find out more here.
Latest on Huck

Maryam El Gardoum is breaking new shores for Morocco’s indigenous surfers
The Amazigh Atlantic — Through her groundbreaking career and popular surf school, the five-time Moroccan champion is helping women find their places in the waves.
Written by: Sam Haddad

Youth violence’s rise is deeply concerning, but mass hysteria doesn’t help
Safe — On Knife Crime Awareness Week, writer, podcaster and youth worker Ciaran Thapar reflects on the presence of violent content online, growing awareness about the need for action, and the two decades since Saul Dibb’s Bullet Boy.
Written by: Ciaran Thapar

Volcom teams up with Bob Mollema for the latest in its Featured Artist Series
True to This — The boardsports lifestyle brand will host an art show in Biarritz to celebrate the Dutch illustrators’ second capsule collection.
Written by: Huck

A visual trip through 100 years of New York’s LGBTQ+ spaces
Queer Happened Here — A new book from historian and writer Marc Zinaman maps scores of Manhattan’s queer venues and informal meeting places, documenting the city’s long LGBTQ+ history in the process.
Written by: Isaac Muk

Nostalgic photos of everyday life in ’70s San Francisco
A Fearless Eye — Having moved to the Bay Area in 1969, Barbara Ramos spent days wandering its streets, photographing its landscape and characters. In the process she captured a city in flux, as its burgeoning countercultural youth movement crossed with longtime residents.
Written by: Miss Rosen

Tony Njoku: ‘I wanted to see Black artists living my dream’
What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s avant-garde electronic and classical music hybridist Tony Njoku.
Written by: Tony Njoku