Pacific Northwest College of Art Hosts Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

April 07, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 7, 2017

Contact: Lisa Radon, lradon@pnca.edu

Portland, OR—April 7, 2017— The Albert Solheim Library at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) hosts the second of two Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons this spring in Portland on Saturday, April 29 from 11am – 4pm. These events are part of an annual international effort to redress the gender imbalance of Wikipedia’s volunteer editors and thus content. The events require no previous experience and are open to people of all gender identities. PNCA is located at 511 Northwest Broadway and the front entrance is on the west side, on Portland’s North Park Blocks.

Art+Feminism is an annual worldwide edit-a-thon to add content to Wikipedia about female artists. The project, founded by Siân Evans, Jacqueline Mabey, Michael Mandiberg, and Laurel Ptak, has been described as "a massive multinational effort to correct a persistent bias in Wikipedia, which is disproportionately written by and about men.” In 2014, Art+Feminism's inaugural campaign attracted 600 volunteers at 30 separate events. The following year, 1,300 volunteers attended 70 events in 17 countries, on four continents. And it has continued to grow each year.

Wikimedia’s gender trouble is well-documented. In a 2011 survey, the Wikimedia Foundation found that less than 10% of its contributors identify as female. While the reasons for the gender gap are up for debate, the practical effect of this disparity, however, is not. Content is skewed by the uneven gender participation. This represents an alarming absence in an increasingly important repository of shared knowledge. And the bias is not just about gender.

This event at PNCA, the earlier event this spring held at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and the hundreds of others that have been held in the years since 2014 in Portland at Portland State University and Yale Union, around the United States and internationally aim to change that.

At the event, tutorials for beginning editors will be provided. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop if they own one and ideas for entries that need updating or creation. Computers will also be available in the Library. Childcare is available.

About Pacific Northwest College of Art

As the Northwest’s premier college of art and design since 1909, PNCA has helped shape the region’s visual arts landscape for more than a century. Today PNCA is a dynamic platform for 21st century art and design education at its new campus in the heart of downtown Portland. PNCA offers ten majors within its BFA program, six graduate programs within the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies, and a Post-Baccalaureate program. pnca.edu

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