Despite the inaccuracy expected from a user-submitted database, Wikipedia is used by millions as a resource for information. This means that its editors, to varying degrees, shape the ideas on people, places and history. Tulane’s second Art + Feminism Edit-A-Thon aims to introduce input from women across a spectrum of genders about art that has been muted since history books were first written.

Female art, artists, art historians and other figures have always lived on the outskirts of the art world whether that be in regard to their inclusion in textbooks and research, or their acknowledgement in society. Eventually this spilled over into how the female role affects the type of art produced and talked about in 2016. Some even consider the female voice one often muted by our patriarchal society, and the constant focus on famous male artists and their work.

That being said, if heterosexual cisgender women artists don’t get the recognition they deserve simply due to their gender, then who will speak on behalf of those women who identify as trans or non-binary?   

Tulane University’s Newcomb Archives & Vorhoff Library Special Collections along with the Newcomb Art Museum are hosting the school’s second Art + Feminism Edit-A-Thon at the Woldenberg Art Center from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.

The organization and museum together aim to train, educate and orient new members of all gender identities to become more involved in editing and posting Wikipedia pages dedicated to women artists and figures globally, specifically for those who originate in the Gulf South region.

Art + Feminism’s mission is to try and recruit more active female members to the Wikipedia community, including those who identify as trans, cisgender or non-binary. Very few Wikipedia editors identify with non-traditional gender identities, resulting in an overwhelmingly traditional perspective and opinion on feminist art work and the female role in the art world.

Part of its goal is to both generally improve those articles about female artists and art world figures, and to heighten awareness that there are a multitude of research resources accessible through libraries, archives and museums.  

The event will teach those interested how to edit Wikipedia pages and articles, how to conduct proper and accurate research for those articles, and then will finish with a tour of exhibits on display at the museum.