2017 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon Doubles Entries Of Women Artists

Editors at work at the 2016 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at the Museum of Modern Art. Courtesy of Marily Konstantinopoulou via Wikimedia Commons.

The fourth annual 2017 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon happened in over 200 events held around the world in March 2017. Over 2,500 global participants edited the inclusion of over 6,500 women artists with new or expanded Wiki entries. Created after a 2011 survey confirmed that less than 10 percent of Wikipedia contributors were women, the 2017 events nearly doubled the impact of the 2016 campaign. 

“We were heartened by the response to our call to arms to fight against disinformation and fake news with facts,” Art+Feminism organizers Siân Evans, Jacqueline Mabey, McKensie Mack, and Michael Mandiberg told ArtNet News. “We continue to be inspired by all the dedicated folks who make room in their busy schedules to share skills and improve a collectively held resource like Wikipedia.”

Among the new entries in Wikipedia are Hannah Black, who called for Dana Schutz's 'Open Casket', the Emmett Till painting at the center of the 2017 Whitney Biennial controversy, to be destroyed.

Britain Honors Suffragette Millicent Garrett Fawcett With Statue In Parliament Square

Britain, now governed by its second female prime minister and a queen who enjoys the status of being the world's longest-reigning monarch, will get its first statue of a woman in Parliament Square in London. 

Prime Minister Theresa May announced that Millicent Garrett Fawcett, a key leader in Britain's suffragette movement will be honored with a statue enjoying the company of Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln (who knew!!) and Nelson Mandela. 

Mrs. Fawcett formed the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1897 and died at 82 in 1929, a year after all women in Britain won the right to vote. She may be dead for nearly a century, but Mrs. Fawcett, Mrs. May said, "continues to inspire the battle against the injustices of today." May added: "It is right and proper that she is honored in Parliament Square alongside former leaders who changed our country. Her statue will stand as a reminder of how politics only has value if it works for everyone in society."

A 5 million pound fund organized to celebrate next year's centenary of the British women's vote. Fawcett considered herself to be a moderate suffragette in contrast to campaigners like Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, a mother and daughter team who engaged in sometimes violent protests on behalf of women.  

Feminism 101 | Meryl Streep's Suffragette 'Voting Matters' Teaser Trailer

Meryl Streep ‘Suffragette’ Teaser Trailer

In this too brief teaser of the upcoming movie ‘Suffragette’ we hear Meryl Streep as the voice of strategic reason playing Emmeline Pankhurst, the Susan B. Anthony of Britain, who founded the Women’s Social and Political Union and was devoted to ‘deeds, not words’ in her determined effort to get the vote for British women.

‘Suffragette’s all-star cast that backs up Streep — who won an Oscar for playing Margaret Thatcher — includes Helena Bonham Carter, Romola Garai, Anne-Marie Duff, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson. The film opens on both sides of the pond on October 30, 2015.