Since the start of Wiki Women Design, 11 writing sessions have taken place. Despite the challenges posed by the coronal pandemic, the creativity and flexibility of our project partners meant that the writing sessions were always able to take place and produce very good results. Geert Van Pamel, president of Wikimedia Belgium, always provided the necessary expertise and support to make these workshops a success.
Below is a review of the Wikipedia edit-a-thons.
Just after the launch of Wiki Women Design, at the end of October 2020, the second corona wave struck. An alternative solution was immediately sought for the planned physical workshops. The first writing sessions were forced to be organised entirely via online meeting platforms.
Fortunately, all those involved, from the WWD project partners to the participants in the sessions, had by now gained several months of experience with the digital alternatives to social gatherings. At the very first sessions, which took place in December 2020 with KASK, KU Leuven, UGent (Digital Student Edition #1, 11 December 2020) and UAntwerpen (Digital Student Edition #2, 14 December), we brought everyone together via Google Meet.
As with all writing sessions, these participating institutions focused on their area of expertise or region. In the case of Digital Student Edition #1, students of Prof. Hilde Heynen (KU Leuven) focused on contemporary architects, those of Prof. Marjan Sterckx (UGent) on belle-époque designers and the students of Sara De Bondt (KASK) on profiles in graphic design, illustration and art publishing. For Digital Student Edition #2 the students of Prof. Lara Schrijver (UAntwerpen) prepared articles on figures from contemporary architecture in Belgium.
In a third digital workshop, students of the Faculté d'architecture La Cambre Horta (ULB) went to work. During the Semaine d'innovation pédagogique, they delved into the history of their own training. They examined women who are part of the history of La Cambre and who had had an influence on the Belgian architectural, design and art landscape. Accompanied by professors Véronique Boone, Irene Lund and Maurizio Cohen, the students conducted research in archives - such as C.I.V.A. and UfvAB - and libraries - such as La Cambre Horta and Rosa - and travelled through the city to photograph the realisations of the designers they chose.
During this writing week, Prof. Hilde Heynen also gave a lecture on Sybil Moholy-Nagy and conducted a debate on women in architecture with Apolline Vranken (ULB & L'architecture qui dégenre), Florencia Cardoso (KU Leuven & ULB) and the lecturers of La Cambre Horta.
As the Covid measures eased, the project partners looked for solutions to allow the writing sessions to continue physically. Eva Van Regenmortel and Marie Becuwe came up with a creative solution for the sessions in the Design Museum Gent: the participants were given a spot spread out over the museum rooms.
The first session in the Design Museum Gent (21 April) focused on female profiles recorded in the National Documentation Centre for Art Crafts, which is part of the Museum's collection and contains documentation on various actors in visual art in Belgium in the 1950s. The second session at the Design Museum in cooperation with Flanders DC (16 June) focused on contemporary designers.
For the session at the Art & History Museum in Brussels (15 May), we worked with Klara Herremans and curators Werner Adriaenssens and Ria Verstappen to build a session around the museum's collection and research: the Arts de la Femme art association, women in the institutional history of museums in Belgium and the museum's lace and costume collection.
For the in-house workshop at the Flanders Architecture Institute (20 May), we edited a day's worth of articles on women who have or had an impact on the Belgian architectural landscape; from practice to research and education.
The next day, we joined forces with UHasselt, Z33, Hogeschool PXL, Modemuseum Hasselt (21 May) to realise a session on Limburg designers. For this session, students of UHasselt had provided the documentation on these subjects.
Just before the summer we had two writing sessions. A first one in collaboration with AR-TUR and the Kempen heritage cells Erfgoed Noorderkempen, Kempens Karakter, Berg en Nete, Erfgoedcel k.Erf, Regionaal Landschap Kleine en Grote Nete and culture centre De Warande (21 June). This session focused on women who had made an impact on the designed environment in the Kempen.
The following week (28 June), Karolien De Clippel and Anaïs Huyghe of the Modemuseum Hasselt organised a session on Belgian fashion women in collaboration with MoMu Antwerp and the Éperon d'Or Izegem. Participants were also given a guided tour of the Activewear exhibition by co-curator Eve Demoen.
On the occasion of the Brussels Matrimony Days, organised by Apolline Vranken and Rosalie Lefèbvre (L'architecture qui dégenre) to highlight women's cultural heritage in Brussels, the Flanders Architecture Institute in collaboration with L'architecture qui dégenre, Design Museum Brussels, the Faculté d'architecture La Cambre Horta (ULB) and Wikimedia Belgium organised a final writing session. L'architecture qui dégenre and the Faculté d'architecture provided profiles of women who have had an impact on the Belgian architectural landscape; Terry Scott compiled a list of designers who are part of the collection of the Design Museum Brussels; and the Flanders Architecture Institute focused on contemporary (interior) architects, policy-makers, and researchers.
The participants of Wiki Women Design comprised an impressive audience of volunteers, students, designers, researchers and project partners. In total, 250 participants edited, translated and/or corrected about 220 Wikipedia articles.
We are extremely proud of this collective result!
