Grants:Project/Rapid/Artexte MAC Art+Feminism edit-a-thon/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2018-19 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Artexte MAC Art+Feminism edit-a-thon.
You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Yes, we achieved our three main goals through the two Art+Feminism edit-a-thon that were hosted. Our first goal was to recruit new editors, with a special attention given to individuals who are currently underrepresented in Wikipedia. A large majority (90%) of our participating editors were women. We estimate that approximately half the participants were editing Wikipedia for the first time. Returning editors accounted for 14 individuals.

Regarding our second goal, we observed a significant improvement in the skills of returning editors, including the use of the content translation in the beta features as well as a greater variety of contributions, including Wikidata and Wikimedia commons. Furthermore experienced Wikipedians not only participated in the event, they also shared their knowledge with new editors in a collegiate fashion.

Our third goal was to add or improve content on the work of artists and authors who identify as female, or non-binary, people of colour and people from the LGBTQ+ community. To this end, Artexte librarians developed an extensive project page that points to strong reference material and sources. The November 9th edit-a-thon specifically highlighted the work of Indigenous artists and authors. We inaugurated a short Wikipedian in residency program with Camille Larivée, Indigenous artist and curator. Larivée’s contributions focused on Indigenous people, people of colour and LGBTQ2S+ identified individuals. Furthermore, we invited guest speakers to both events for a participatory discussion that focused on issues surrounding representation in Wikipedia.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
2 events	2 events	March 30th 2019 and November 9 2019
80 participants	69 participants	Editors stayed for the entire day, we had originally imagined a greater turnover
40 new editors	41 new editors	Based on the number of people who attended the introductory training
80 articles created or improved	171 articles created or improved	Our numbers are more important than initially expected. This is a positive outcome that we attribute to participants engaging for long work periods and repeat participants that are more experienced.
30 repeat participants	14 repeat participants	Less than initially hoped for.

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

What worked well?

Artexte as a venue is an ideal context for an edit-a-thon. The documentation centre holds files on artists and curators that includes reliable sources. Editors can quickly evaluate if an individual qualifies for notability criteria.
The renewed partnership with the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal is a fantastic asset, both in regards to spreading the word in the community but also in terms of access to interesting documentation.
This year we tried a new communication strategy with emphasis on call to action and activism. This was very effective.

What did not work so well?

Many pages that were translated necessitated extra work to respect Wikipedia article conventions. More specifically, references were not correctly translated which resulted in error messages. Much work was needed after the edit-a-thon from Artexte’s team and the Wikipedia community to correct the situation. Editors who choose to use the translation features need to be more aware of the importance of properly referenced content in Wikipedia.
The daycare was poorly attended on both events. One child present at both events. Although, we strongly believe in the importance of offering the service to facilitate participation to edit-a-thons for parents of young children.

What would you do differently next time?

We will offer an extra training session specific to content translation.
We will re-evaluate the childcare formula. One solution we are planning to try is a children’s corner in the same room as the event with a creative workshop for children aged 3 years and older. This solution would be less costly than hiring an external service provider and would maintain our offering. If a larger need becomes apparent, we will re-assess the needs.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

Numbered list item

Food and drink = 321.54 USD (423,82 CAD) Child care (including equipment and insurance) = 654.21 USD (862,31 CAD)

We were able to find a daycare provider that was much less expensive than initially estimated (545.79$ under the 1200$ budgeted). For this reason we have a significant amount left over. Food and drinks were slightly more expensive than initially planned (21.54$ over the 300$ budgeted).

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

524.25 USD

We request that remaining funds be considered for our new Rapidgrant application regarding our 2020 events under the terms of use for other approved mission-aligned activities instead of returning them to WMF. The grant application can be viewed here. The application is in draft status as we are planning on applying in January for the Art + Feminism application period.

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of US$524.25 were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/Rapid/Artexte_MAC_Art+Feminism_editathon_2020.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

Following the first round-table during the March 30th 2019 edit-a-thon, a blog article summarizing the discussion was published in french and in english.
Project page for the 2019 events here
Dashboards for the March event and November event