Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Limited Duration WikiProject Contemporary Art (ID: 23481392)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Phibeatrice
- Organization
N/A
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
N/A
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Limited Duration WikiProject Contemporary Art
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2025-11-30 - 2026-11-30
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
International (more than one country across continents or regions) United States, as well as some countries in Europe like France and Italy. We basically want to follow where the world's most notable and widely covered art fairs are, which include Art Basel Paris and the Venice Biennale.
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Not applicable
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
Despite a relatively active WikiProjects Visual Arts community, contemporary art content on English Wikipedia remains surprisingly out-of-date, erratically written, or is missing altogether.
This became apparent during the WikiPortraits Art Basel 2025 project that was generously supported by Wikimedia CH. Usually, high-quality photos from film festivals, Eurovision, the Nobel Prizes, SXSW and other events are added by a swarming community of editors across multiple Wikis within days, if not hours. But for Art Basel in Switzerland, this did not happen, and as photographers looked to add the images to pages themselves, they were surprised that the articles they expected were missing on English Wikipedia. This included pages about satellite art fairs like Volta, Liste, Basel Social Club, Photo Basel, all of which exist in other language Wikis. The Art Basel page on English Wikipedia itself was erratic and short, so one photographer took time out of taking photos to update it.
Our hypothesis is that the overlap of people who are natural Wikipedians and the people who are interested in contemporary art is minimal (in contrast to, say, trains and movies). In fact, the original WikiProject Contemporary Art project was deprecated in 2015 and simply redirected to WikiProjects Visual Arts. Reading the history, it seems there was some amount of ideological debate that caused conflict.
The photographers recruited by WikiPortraits in general are not trained editors, nor do many of them aspire to be, so the level of work needed to improve content around contemporary art is beyond the remit of WikiPortraits, its annual grant, and the ability of the photographers in its orbit. Nonetheless, this seems to be a necessary gap that could be addressed by new or lapsed editors that can be directed to do contemporary art writing.
This is all the more important because unlike classical art, which often flourishes on Wikipedia coverage, contemporary artists and galleries proportionally feature more women, BIPOC, and Global South artists and curators. For example, the curator for the 2026 Venice Biennale, who passed away suddenly, was Cameroon-born and worked in South Africa. Additionally, at Art Basel, we learned that the inaugural Africa Basel event was created in particular because of rising market demands for African art but minimal representation and support for African artists at present (including on Wikipedia). Overall, during our time in Switzerland, we encountered and got to know many artists from underrepresented backgrounds who shared our concern for the lack of contemporary arts representation, as well as diverse representation, on Wiki properties.
As such, the current contemporary art scene is a good, systematic way to diversify content on Wikipedia. Two editors who were trained by (([User:Ocaasi])) as part of the Wikimedia Immersive Training program, myself and Ariela, have a great interest in contemporary art and are interested in creating a small community of editors.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
We would reinvigorate the WikiProjects Contemporary Art for a limited duration, as we know how it is difficult to sustain WikiProjects communities for a long time. Specifically, we would announce that the project would largely be concurrent to the 2026 Venice Biennale, which generates a burst of global press that creates mainstream sources that thus make it more straightforward to create articles about notable art figures and organizations—similar to how the 2025 Art Basel gave us many sources to write about it, its venues, and its offshoot events. With a focus on mainstream coverage, we aim to stay clear of the ideological issues that seemed to have mired the project in 2015.
We would recruit some number of individuals interested in contemporary art through our networks with Wiki Education, Wiki GLAM, universities, and artistic communities. Through our preliminary conversations through these channels, we already know of a significant enough interest in this area. With your support, we aim to teach them to edit Wikipedia in small groups, with a specific eye towards the common templates and formats related to art (art fairs, curators, artists).
Among those who are trained and “stick,” we would give out small stipends to people who have achieved a certain amount of editing experience to go to Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Paris, or the Venice Biennale, where the expectation would be that they attend to write more articles. The stipend amount would not cover the full cost of their travel, but rather to serve as a subsidy to encourage enthusiasts that might go there as a vacation, but one where they can Wikify it.
Not everyone who is trained would likely get the stipend, as we would set a limit for the first five editors or so to hit a certain threshold of edits, whether set as new content, or revamping existing articles.
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
In addition to the participants:
- Jamie Flood (User:JamieF)
Jamie is a trainer who will help people understand how to write an article from scratch. In her professional role, Jamie has served as a Wikipedian-in-Residence at the U.S. National Agricultural Library and as an assistant professor and scholarly communications librarian at Butler University. She has trained and facilitated events at Universities across the United States, and has experience working with historically marginalized communities. She has worked with Montana Stars University Library, University of Illinois Libraries, and currently consults at Indiana University Indianapolis. Her work focuses on enhancing Wikipedia’s coverage of topics related to agriculture, rural sociology, and underrepresented groups in science and history. Beyond her editing contributions, Jamie is actively involved in organizing and leading Wikipedia editing events and workshops, including the WikiConference North American 2024 and 2025, aiming to bridge content gaps, promote knowledge equity within the Wikimedia community, and encouraging more women to edit.
- Bea Phi (User:Phibeatrice)
Bea is a trainer and organizer who will help coordinate the rapid grant’s activities in addition to helping people write articles. They are an active Wikipedian trained through the Wikimedia Immersive Training in the summer of 2024; since then, they have singlehandedly written over 340 original articles from scratch, placing them in the top 3000 of Wikipedians ranked by article count in history within one year of training. Their articles are mostly concentrated in the areas of literature, film, and music—specifically with regard to the Asian diaspora—as well as the relevant areas, here, of contemporary art and architecture. In May 2025, they were named an Editor of the Week. Outside of Wikipedia, they have worked in archival and database roles for arts nonprofits including the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Poets & Writers, BOMB Magazine, and others.
- Ariela Ortiz (User:Arielaortizb)
Ariela, another organizer, is a Wikipedian trained through the Wikimedia Immersive Training in the summer of 2024. They are a professional photographer and have contributed countless portraits of notable individuals to Wikimedia Commons.
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
We are looking to recruit people who have a natural interest in contemporary art and are also open to learning to Wiki. We do not think the target population is existing active Wikimedians that would then be converted to contemporary art enthusiasts. We do, however, think there may be “lapsed” Wikipedian editors that can be coaxed into activity by a sense of community, mission, and the potential to go to a contemporary art fair.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
We had a discussion within the Wiki GLAM Telegram chat, which has more than 230 members, asking what context there was for the relatively weak content around contemporary art.
They agree it’s not a natural subject area of interest for organic Wikipedians. Others offered that there were some senior figures in the movement who have since moved on, including the head of digital at the Smithsonian, which dissipated some momentum in contemporary art representation on Wikipedia.
They also noted that there is a lot of emotional labor interacting with admins for new Wikipedians. We were given an example of a back and forth between an art professor who had encouraged his students to work on articles, which then resulted in original research (interviews with family members, observations) that proved to be not a good fit for Wikipedia.
Moving forward from this insightful conversation, we think we can train people interested in contemporary art in the ways of Wiki while also giving them an emotional safety net, as well as mentorship and guidance, so that they can properly, appropriately contribute to Wikipedia while avoiding previously identified pitfalls. If we increase the scope of this eventually, we do think there may be others there who would want to partner. Meanwhile, the GLAM Telegram could help us with recruiting.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Culture, heritage or GLAM
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Identify Topics for Impact
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
We hope it is possible to create a small core group of contemporary art editors from scratch or near scratch. As organic Wikipedian editorship through on-Wiki traffic seems to be flatlining and declining (perhaps due to increasing LLM usage), we would like to see what techniques can bring people into the Wikiverse who do not naturally have an inclination to “self-teach” Wikipedia editing. At this modest scale, perhaps we will not succeed and wonder if it was too small in terms of resources.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 50 | 10-15 new or lapsed Wikipedia editors accounts who do a significant number of editing.
30 editors total who do some light Wiki editing involving contemporary art. This can include fairly active editors, where we just direct their attention. At least 6 people who go through the Wikimedia Intensive Training. |
| Number of editors | 2 | 2 senior editors. |
| Number of organizers | 2 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 250 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 250 |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
N/A
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
WMF events dashboard to track edits, page creations, and other statistics pertaining to editor performance. We also hope to use it to run and track editing events on the ground of certain events.
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
5000 USD
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
5000 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).