Wiki Loves Art
Wiki Loves Art in Malta is a fluid set of activities that constitute one of the two main content development and editing activities for Wikimedia Community Malta.
The first iteration of Wiki Love Art in Malta was produced in collaboration with the Gabriel Caruana Foundation in 2017. This also included a public discussion on Documenting Maltese heritage through Wikipedia, produced with the Department of Information and Archive Science at the University of Malta.
Around the start of 2018, WCM were approached by Blitz to participate in the Art & Feminism project. We immediately developed the idea for this activity to form part of on-going initiatives around Wiki Loves Art, particularly relating to the documentation of the Fondazzjoni Kreattività art collection, coordinated by the M3P Foundation.
A number of sessions relating to creating and editing pages on Wikipedia and the M3P wiki about visual arts in Malta will be held within the Wiki Loves Art programme during February and March 2018. A public discussion about Wiki Loves Art which introduces the mechanics of the wiki platform and its value as a way to document visual arts in Malta will take place on 15 February, followed by two focused edit-a-thon sessions in March that will guide contributors to take a hands-on approach to editing wiki pages relating to the visual arts. During this period, an exhibition of artworks that form part of a related research project at Spazju Kreattiv was held at St James Cavalier in Valletta.
Since 2019, Wiki Loves Art in Malta has been primarily focused on Art+Feminism. In 2020, the entire programme of Wiki Loves Art in Malta coincided with the Art+Feminism 2020 activities in Malta in an effort to boost the visibility of A+F in Malta as fully as possible.
Contents
Wiki Loves Art 2021
The Wiki Loves Art activities for 2021 form part of the programme for Wikipedia 20 in Malta.
Wiki Loves Art 2020
- See Art+Feminism#2020 - the entire Wiki Loves Art programme for 2020 coincides with A+F exhibitions, workshops, and edit-a-thons
Wiki Loves Art 2019
Talks & Workshops
- Wikipedia Editing Workshop 1
- Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Thursday 7th February, 17:30 – 20:30
- Presentation by Dr Tracy Prince - Publishing Women's Stories
- VC101 IT Services Building, University of Malta - Tal-Qroqq Campus
- Tuesday 5th March, 14.00 - 16:00
- Presentations by Nadette Xuereb, Caroline Tonna, Dr Tracy Prince, Letta Shtohryn and Dr Andrew Pace
- Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Friday 8th March, 15.30 - 18:30
- Curator's Tour of the Wiki Loves Art 2019 Exhibitions by Dr Toni Sant
- Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Saturday 11th March, 11.00 - 12:00
- Presentation by Dr Tracy Prince - Art Residencies, Fellowships and Fundraising
- Studio B, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Tuesday 12th March, 19:00 - 20:00
Edit-a-thons
- Gabriel Caruana Legacy Edit-a-thon
- Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Friday 8th February, 17:30 – 20:30
- Art+Feminism Edit-a-thon
- Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Friday 7th March, 15:30 – 18:30
Exhibitions
- Art from the Fondazzjoni Kreattività Collection
- 2013-2018
- Space A - Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta: 25 January - 7 April 2019
- Art from the Fondazzjoni Kreattività Collection
- Art+Feminism
- Space C - Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta: 1 February - 31 March 2019
- Wikimedia Community Malta Info Space
- Space B - Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta: 14 February - 17 March 2019
Wiki Loves Art 2018
Talks & Workshops
Art+Feminism talk by Flora Katz
Blitz, Santa Lucia Street, Valletta
Facebook event page
- Friday 9th February, 19:00 – 21:00
Art+Feminism is an international project aimed at improving Wikipedia content on women and the arts and to encourage women’s participation in the online encyclopaedia. Flora Katz – a curator, art critic and organiser of three wiki edit-a-thons in Paris – will present a talk on the 2017 Paris edition and discuss some of the issues at the core of the project, such as how art and Wikipedia can be a driving force to gather a community and act upon feminist issues, and what is at stake in the elaboration of an activist and co-creative project within artistic institutions.
Wikipedia Editing Workshop
Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Thursday 15th February, 15:30 – 18:30
During the opening day of the "Art from the Fondazzjoni Kreattività Collection: Documenting 2007-2012" exhibition, Spazju Kreattiv will host a workshop on editing Wikipedia. The workshop will also include an information session on how Wikipedia and wiki technology are being used to document the art scene in Malta. In collaboration with Wikimedia Community Malta and the M3P Foundation, Dr Toni Sant will explain how wikis are being used to catalogue art works and exhibitions, and how Wikipedia can act as a collaborative encyclopaedia of artist biographies and works that will preserve their legacies in the long term.
Archives and Libraries Brought into the 21st Century Through the Use of Technology
Talk by Alexandra Angeletaki
Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Wednesday 7th March, 19:00 – 20:30
Alexandra Angeletaki of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology discusses the challenges of integrating VR and mobile technology tools in disseminating archival material, and whether its introduction has led to a change in the experience of the contemporary museum-archive. Using the case of the University Library's Mubil and ARK4 projects, she explores how 3D technology workshops, gaming and mobile technology were used in the Mubil lab in order to develop open access educational workshops for university students and schools with source material drawn from archives and museum objects; and how the ARK4 project focuses on archaeological context, experimenting with user interactivity, digital technologies and gaming.
Edit-a-thons
Edit-a-thon: Wiki Loves Art
Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
- Friday 2nd March, 15:30 – 18:30
- Saturday 3rd March, 10:00 – 16:00
This hands-on wiki edit-a-thon, led by Toni Sant and other collaborators from Wikimedia Community Malta and the M3P Foundation, guides attendees about how to edit wiki pages about the visual arts scene in Malta. We are particularly eager for artists to attend, edit pages about themselves, their work and their exhibitions over the years. We also encourage you to bring along any printed or digital media files that would help document art works, such as copies of exhibition flyers, photographs of events, etc. Please also bring a laptop computer or tablet device.
Edit-a-thon: Art+Feminism
Blitz, Santa Lucia Street, Valletta
- Friday 9th March, 15:30 – 18:30
- Saturday 10th March, 10:00 – 16:00
As part of the Art+Feminism project, Blitz hosted a wiki edit-a-thon across two days to bring together people who are interested in learning how to edit Wikipedia to create new articles and improve existing content about women and the arts. This hands-on event was facilitated by Wikimedia Community Malta and the M3P Foundation, in collaboration with Spazju Kreattiv.
Exhibition
Art from the Fondazzjoni Kreattività Collection: Documenting 2007 - 2012
Space A, St James Cavalier, Valletta
Facebook event page
- Thursday 15th February - Sunday 18th March
This exhibition is an integral part of a research project which commenced in January 2016 to compile a detailed catalogue of the Fondazzjoni Kreattività Art Collection, currently stored at St James Cavalier. The previous display of work from this project occurred in 2017, featuring works that were originally exhibited at St James Cavalier between 2000 and 2006. This time artwork dating from the period 2007 to 2012 are being displayed.
Apart from exhibiting the actual works of art, the project identifies and documents important elements that remain after a creative project has been exhibited to the public: proposals, press releases, artist profiles, photos, reviews, posters, videos, and other material can provide an indication of the significant context in which the works of art were originally presented. This material can also help researchers better understand the artwork itself, as well as the work of the artist in a broader cultural spectrum.
This ongoing project makes use of workshops and open discussions to help document the works of art held in Fondazzjoni Kreattività’s collection, as well as to document the contemporary Maltese visual arts scene more broadly. This project is set to be completed in 2020 as part of the Fondazzjoni Kreattività’s 20th Anniversary celebrations.
Wiki Loves Art 2017
Documenting Maltese heritage through Wikipedia - public discussion
- Date: 2 February 2017
- Time: 6pm
- Location: Studio B, Spazju Kreattiv - Valletta
This discussion focussed on thinking about how organisations and interested citizens can bring more attention to Maltese heritage, culture and art through its documentation on Wikipedia, and how to incorporate such practices into their ongoing work and into the national digital cultural strategies. The debate brought together highly-experienced international Wikimedians and local policy makers and cultural professionals.
The discussion addressed a real gap in the cultural sector for guidance on institutional strategies related to engagement with the citizens, and discussed how to effectively direct limited resources towards engagement of communities in the digital space.
Speakers:
- Xabier Cañas (Donostiapedia, Donostia/San Sebastián 2016)
- Birte Christense-Dalsgaard (Digital Humanities Lab Denmark)
- John Cummings (Wikimedian-in-residence, UNESCO)
- Sandro Debono (MUŻA)
- Rebecca O'Neill (Wikimedia Ireland)
- Vincent Zammit (Institute for Tourism Studies)
- Velislava Hillman (University of Westminster)
The discussion was chaired by Professor Seamus Ross (University of Toronto).
See also: Facebook event page here.
Edit-a-thon on art and cultural heritage in Malta
- Date: 3 February 2017
- Time: 9am-midday
- Location: MAKS Room 507, University of Malta
In collaboration with the Gabriel Caruana Foundation. Registration here.
