ROCKLAND—On March 5, The Steel House will be hosting a Art & Feminism Edit-a-Thon from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. On a global scale, the Art and Feminism annual event is a movement to improve coverage of women and the arts on Wikipedia and to encourage female editorship.

Why is this so important? “Wikipedia is a collectively edited and produced source of international information,” said Maeve O’Regan, the event’s organizer. “I think the numbers are around 132,000 with millions of registered, non-active users with less than 13 percent of those editors identifying as female.”

The Art and Feminism website states that there is a lack of representation on Wikipedia on feminist art and gender expression and that’s why this international event was created to change that.

The main organizer of the Art and Feminism event is happening in New York City on March 5 with satellite “Edit-a-Thons” taking place all over the world at the same time. 

Last year, more than 1,500 participants at more than 75 events around the world participated in the second annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, resulting in the creation of nearly 400 new pages and significant improvements to 500 articles on Wikipedia.

O’Regan, a Maine native who lived in New York City before moving to Midcoast, thought Maine would be a great place to host one of these Edit–A-Thons.

“This is an opportunity to shed some light on the disparity of females editing the Wikipedia content, but it’s also a great opportunity for people to get together in a social setting and meet one another,” she said.

Artists, scholars, curators, librarians, and Wikipedians are all encouraged to come. Asked who she thought might be attracted to this event, she said: “This is an enclave for artists and of course, many artists are women. But, men are encouraged to come as well as people who identify of a different gender.”

One thing the event is not geared for is anyone who wants to edit their own Wikipedia page. Wikipedia guidelines forbid you from editing pages that represent a conflict of interest. Conflict of interest editing involves contributing to Wikipedia to promote your own interests, including your business or financial interests, or those of your external relationships, such as with family, friends or employers. Instead, you can suggest on the talk page changes that could be made to the article.

Bring your laptop, power cord, and ideas for entries that need updating or creation. Childcare requires advance registration by March 2; email art.edit.maine@gmail.com to let them know first names and number of children requiring care, their ages, and what time you plan on attending

For more information about the Steel House node event visit: rocklandsteelhouse.com/experience

For more information about the national Art & Feminism event, visit: art.plusfeminism.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com