AOOM – Page 5 – Art on our Mind

PUBLICATIONS: Lallitha Jawahirilal

Art catalogues, books and journal articles featuring works by Lallitha Jawahirilal

Chambers, E. (2014) Black Artists in British Art: A History since the 1950s. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Google Books preview here

Cooney, L. (ed.) (2011) South Africa: Artists, Prints, Community: Twenty-Five Years at the Caversham Press. Boston: Boston University. Exhibition Catalogue, p. 70.
[download pdf here]

Brzyski, A. (ed.) (2007) Partisan Canons. Durham: Duke University Press.
Google Books preview here

Marschall, S. (2004) Serving Male Agendas: Two National Women’s Monuments in South Africa, Women’s Studies, 33:8, 1009-1033,
DOI: 10.1080/00497870490890816

Pissarra, M. (2004) The Luggage is Still Labelled, Third Text, 18:2, 183-191
DOI: 10.1080/0952882032000199696

Vale, P., Ruiters, G. (2004) The Right Way Up? South Africa Ten Years On. International Politics, 41, 375–393 (2004).
https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ip.8800083

Khan, S. (2004) Lallitha Jawahirilal. In: Khan, S. (ed.) The ID of South African artists. Amsterdam : Stichting Art & Theatre, 134-137.
[download pdf here]

Deliry-Antheaume, E. (2003) Readings from the walls: art and education. Perspectives in Education, 21:2, 1 – 14.
https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC87202

Marschall, S. (2001) The Poetics of Politics. Imagi[ni]ng the New South African Nation. Safundi, 2:2, 1-20, doi: 10.1080/17533170100102201

Deliry-Antheaume, E. (2000) Murs des écoles, école des murs en Afrique du Sud. Les institutions éducatives vues du dehors. In: Lange, M.F. (ed.) Des écoles pour le Sud. Aube: IRD Editions, 167-175.
[download pdf here]

Abstract (english)
School walls, the school of walls in South Africa : how education institutions are seen from the outside
School walls reflect local architectural story in educational establishments. Graffiti and mural art witness to the recent transformations in South African society and often draw attention to the right to education and to the environ- ment in which education is offered. By review- ing a number of creative experiments (with photos), we see that the walls are themselves transformed into « schools » and provide an alternative form of teaching which can contri- bute to the healing as well as the reconstruc- tion of a society undermined by decades of segregation.

Bedford, E. et al. (eds.) (1997) Contemporary South African Art 1985 – 1995 from the South African National Gallery Permanent Collection. Cape Town: South African National Gallery.

Delfina Studio Trust (1990) Annual Group Show at Delfina Studios. London: Delfina.

Sebestyen, A (1990) Lallitha Jawahirilal, City Limits, 6-13 December 1990, 24

Oliphant, A. W. (1989) The art of Lallitha Jawahirilal. Staffrider8:2 (1989), 48-53
[download pdf here]

Academic theses mentioning works by Lallitha Jawahirilal

Lilla, Q. (2018) Setting Art Apart: Inside and Outside the South African National Gallery (1895-2016). PhD Thesis, Stellenbosch University, https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/103265.
[download pdf here]

Adendorff, D. A. (2017) The Princess in the Veld: Curating Liminality in Contemporary South African Female Art Production. PhD Thesis, University of Pretoria.
http://hdl.handle.net/2263/63007

Pillay, T. (2014) The artistic practices of contemporary South African Indian women artists : how race, class and gender affect the making of visual art. MA Thesis, Unisa, http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/18736
[download pdf here]

Malatjie, L. P. (2012) Framing the artwork of Tracey Rose and Berni Searle through black feminism. MA Thesis University of the Witwatersrand
http://hdl.handle.net/10539/11750
[download pdf here]

Moodley, N. (2012) Culture, politics and identity in the visual art of Indian South African graduates from the University of Durban-Westville in KwaZulu-Natal, 1962-1999. PhD Thesis, UKZN, https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/10724
[download pdf here]

Khan, S. (2006) A critical analysis of the iconography of six HIV/AIDS murals from Johannesburg and Durban, in terms of race, class and gender. MA Thesis University of the Witwatersrand, http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/4694
[download pdf here]

Burger, M. A. C. (2005) Transformation within personal and public realms through contemporary artmaking processes. MA Thesis, University of Johannesburg
http://hdl.handle.net/10210/5247
[dowlnload pdf here]

White, E. 2004. There’s no place (like home) : a graphic interpretation of personal notions of home and displacement. MA Thesis, Unisa, University of Cape Town
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10891
[download pdf here]

Khan, S. (2002) A critical analysis of the depiction of women in murals in Kwazulu-Natal. Thesis in partial fulfilment of MA (Fine Arts), University of Durban-Westville. Supervisor: Sabine Marschall). [download pdf here]

WORKS: Lallitha Jawahirilal – Projects and Research

Projects and Research run by Lallitha Jawahirilal

1998 Research proposal
Puddled Sand and Red Ashes: A photographic documentary of the Kumbh Mela
Supervisor: Vedant Nanackachand, Department of Fine Art & History of Art, UDW
[download project outline here]

1997 Research survey
The role of public art in a post-apartheid society with special reference to the Greater Ladysmith area 1997-1998
Field workers: Lallitha Jawahirilal, Vukile Ntuli (Lecturers in Painting, UDW)
Supervisor: Vedant Nanackachand, Department of Fine Art & History of Art, UDW
Research Assistant: Tracey Andrew
[download questionnaire results here]
[download Aloe Park Primary Mural Project letters here]
[download Aloe Park Primary photo documentation here]
[download Ladysmith Provincial Hospital Mural Project letters here]

1995 Research project
The role of public art in a post-apartheid society with special reference to the Greater Ladysmith area 1995-1996 (coordinated together with Mr Vukile Ntuli, Lecturer in Painting)
Participants:
Vedant Nanackachand, Department of Fine Art & History of Art, UDW
Students and artists from UDW and the greater Durban and Ladysmith Area
[download project outline here]

On the Wall of Reconciliation in Ladysmith (painted in 1995 by students from the Fine Arts Department at the University of Durban-Westvilleunder the co-ordination of Lallitha Jawahirilal) the rainbow motif dissolves and disintegrates into a layered wavy pattern that, in a sweeping motion, formally links separate panels and provides a useful compositional structure for dividing up the wall into separate emblematic units. With its expanding and contracting motions it appears alive and throbbing, thus off-setting some of the more rigid images. Its further appeal lies in the ambiguity of its meaning. In some sections the parallel stripes of primary colour, partly flowing out of a flag, prompt a reading as a rainbow, while in other sections the “rainbow” dissolves and integrates with the features of the landscape.
In: Marschall, S (2001) The Poetics of Politics, Safundi, 2:2, p. 9
doi: 10.1080/17533170100102201

WORKS: Lallitha Jawahirilal – Visual Art

Selected works 1990-2000

Alone in this wilderness I remain silent and unyielding (1991) 153 x 168 cm, oil on canvas
Untitled (1992)
Where does this mointain lead to (1993) oil on board
Untitled (1998)
I could severe this mind and lay it on your feet (2000)

Selected works 1980-1990

Untitled (Royal College of Art, 1980s) 56 x 41 cm
Untitled (1987) 76 x 63,5 cm, etching
What will become of you (1987), 76 x 56 cm, etching
Untitled (1988) 79 x 61 cm, oil on board
Untitled (1988) 137 x 152 cm, oil on board
Light vibrates with pleasure at the small of pire tragedy and restless nights (n.d)
No 10 (n.d)

INTERVIEWS/FEATURES: Lallitha Jawahirilal

Vuyile C Voyiya; Julie L McGee (2003) The luggage is still labeled : blackness in South African art. Documentary film, 60 mins.

Smithonian Libraries Modern African Art: A Basic Reading List
“For South African artists of color the demise of apartheid did not radically change access or attitudes. Separateness and difference still divide the contemporary art world into black and white. Black artists are beginning to take on some of these issues – – access, recognition, education. Despite initiatives such as Vakalisa (“Awake”), the Community Arts Project, or BLAC art project, South African artists of color are still disadvantaged. Formal art education, which was not available to artists of color in the apartheid days, remains an elitist enterprise with little collegial support. Michaelis School of Art in Cape Town has not yet shaken off its institutional racism in terms of student intake, faculty recruitment, or Eurocentric curriculum. Art criticism is similarly biased against artists of color. Old paradigms persist, e.g., “township art” or “black art.” Artists are still pigeon-holed. Freedom of artistic expression has not really arrived. Where are the black art critics? The South African National Gallery (SANG), formidable, unwelcoming, admits to huge gaps in its collections. Artists of color perceive SANG as another white bastion not yet breached. They feel that SANG is not interested in them and their work. To explore these issues of race and access the filmmakers conducted interviews with several South African artists and players on the art scene. Among those on camera are Peter E. Clarke, Garth Erasmus, Thembinkosi Goniwe, Zayd Minty, Gavin Younge, David Koloane, Mgcineni Sobopha, Berni Searle, Lallitha Jawahirilal, Gabisile Ngcobo, Moshekwa Langa, Graham Faulken, Marilyn Martin, the director of SANG, and writer Lionel Davis.”

Press clippings Lallitha Jawahirilal

WORKS: Lallitha Jawahirilal – Exhibitions

Exhibitions by/with Lallitha Jawahirilal

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2008 The African Art Centre, Durban
2002 Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
2001 Puddled Sand and Red Ashes, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Australia
1999 Curwen Gallery, London
1996 New Academy Gallery, London
1994 New Academy Gallery, London
1991 Galerie Trapez, Berlin
1990 Gallery 21, Johannesburg
1990 198 Gallery, London
1985 Africa Centre, Stockholm

Selected Group Exhibitions

2007 ‘Confluence’, Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad
2007 16th Anniversary Art Salon, Bangalore
2006 ‘Art Camp’, Renaissance Art Centre, Mumbai
2005 River Arts & Music Festival, Ladysmith, South Africa
2004 ‘Decade Of Democracy’, South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2003 ‘Journeys’, Ernest G. Welsh School of Art and Design, Atlanta
2001 ‘Jabulisa, The Art of KwaZulu Natal’, Durban Art Gallery, South Africa
2000 African Art Centre, Durban, South Africa
1999 Nico Malan Theatre, Cape Town
1998 ‘Kunst aus Südafrika’, Gallerie Seippel, Stuttgart, Germany
1998 Newcastle Museum, United Kingdom
1997 Trienalle, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
1996 ‘Conjures’, First Gallery, Johannesburg
1991 ‘Discerning Eye’,The Mall Galleries, London
1991 Barcelona International Biennale, Spain
1990 Contemporary Art Society, Art Market, Smith Gallery, London
1990 ‘Broadgate’, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1989 ‘Art London/89’, London
1987-8 Third International Bienniale Print Exhibition, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
1985 Mirror Reflecting Darkly: Black Women’s Art, Brixton Art Collective, London.

Mirror Reflecting Darkly: Black Women’s Art.
18 June – 6 July, Brixton Art Gallery, London.
Unpag. (10 pp.) exhibiyion catalogue. Group exhibition of 16 Black women artists collective. Artists included: Brenda Patricia Agard, Zarina Bhimji, Jennifer Comrie, Novette Cummings, Valentina Emenyeoni, Carole Enahoro, Elisabeth Jackson, Lallitha Jawahirilal, Rita Keegan, Christine Luboga, Sue Macfarlane, Olusola Oyeleye, Betty Vaughan Richards, Enoyte Wanagho, and Paula Williams. 8vo, orange covers.
Source: Brixton 50. Brixton Art Gallery A rchive 1983-86

WORKS: Mamela Nyamza – Choreography — SHIFT

Choreographed and danced by Mamela Nyamza. Assistant director: Hannah Loewenthal

The performance celebrates the lives of, and commemorates, all women in sport, including Eudy Simelane, the Banyana Banyana soccer player who was stabbed 27 times because she was acting ‘like a man’. The work draws attention to the stryggle of women in sport and to girl children who experience discrimination in their own country, such as is currently the case with Caster Semenya. Mixed media link the drama and the dance, the 1960s and the present day, contextualizing the stories and serving as a bridge between different places, times and spaces, giving context to the idea that issues relating to sexuality necer take place in isolation.
Fifteen years after democracy, what are the gaps between anti-apartheid aspirations and present day realities? Hoe can the most progressive constitution in the world, which was worked our and earned through a historic liberation struggler in South Africa and which enshrines equality for people of all sexualities, be fulfilled in reality? It looks at private and public life, tradition and the law, the state and the individual, and at the struggle against apartheid and for sexual liberation.

The British Council funded Nyamza to create a piece about Eudy Simelane, Banyana Banyana star brutally murdered in 2008. apparently in response to her openly lesbian lifestyle. Initially, Nyamza struggles with the piece; ‘I got stuck because I felt like I had written the same work, about the two women. It was a simila thing. The others were shot and tied but this one was gang raped, stabbed and left in the field.’ ‘They said… she a “shero” in sports, a Banyana Banyana soccer player… While I was creating this work, when I was not actually creating, I was thinking about it the whole time. I was researching about her a lot, to a point where I thought, “It doesn’t take me somewhere I want to go.” Then there was a story about Caster Semenya… and I thought “Wow! Here’s the piece.” I realised I wasn’t going to talk about Eudy SImelane along {but] about women in sports.

‘So then I looked at women in sports in general; I looked at Zola Budd, back in the day; I looked at Caster Semenya. I even looked at wo,en overseas like the Williams sisters, Navratilova and the tennis; Eudy SImelane’s soccer, Banyana Banyana, and other women.’

With this change in direction, Nyamza’s imagination caught fire, leading to the creation of Shift. the work she performed at the Dance Umbrella. “Then is became personal. I went back – I was an athlete myself, at school; I was a sprinter… I used to be teased that I had legs like a boy’s, because I also used to do ballet, and then [my calf muscles] were really huge to a point where I was embarrassed to wear skirts. SO I saw the similarities, and then I thought the piece [would just show] my legs. SO I sis the piece in a white box – all white – with hanging balls.’ Nyamza begins the piece hanging suspended from a bar; this, along with the all white set, the presence of a fridge – which she ultimately climbs into, a cold coffin – are all symbolic of death, while several references to a kitchen also hark to the belief that women ‘must be cooking in the kitchen, [and] the fact that they’re killing women saying they they look so macho – those remarks about women in sports’.
CreativeFeel (formerly ClassicFeel)

WORKS: Natasha Becker – Writing

Texts by Natasha Becker

MA Thesis

Becker, Natasha (2002) Inside and Outside the Family Album. Making, exhibiting and archiving the photograph in the South African National Gallery and the National Library of South Africa. Univerity of the Western Cape.
Available here

One of the first things that reached me about photography was how a photograph tells a story or stories. This experience is perhaps most common when viewing personal photographs. A few years ago I was looking through a vast number of personal photographs, of a family I knew well, and was struck by how all the photographs (in albums, framed or lying loosely about) were part of a particular family narrative. Even without the storytelling, which accompanied my viewing of the photographs, I could still ‘read’ bits and pieces of the family history (and the broader social, political and cultural histories) in their photographs.

Journal articles and essays

Becker, Natasha (2021) ‘In the Wake of Okwui Enwezor’. NKA: Journal for Contemporary African Art. Special Issue on Curator Okwui Enwezor.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘To Imagine a Future World’. Curatorial Essay, exhibition catalogue, Present Passing, Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong, China. March 2020.
Book available here

Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘Forever if Composed of Nows’ Curatorial Essay, exhibition catalogue , A.I.R gallery, New York, NY. February 2020.
Press release PDF

Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘Pushing Through a Public Memorial’. Guest Contributor, Brooklyn Rail Critics Page, New York, NY. February 2020.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2019) ‘An Ode to Love’ Curatorial Essay, Ford Foundation Art Gallery, New York, NY. may 2019.
Available here

Becker, Natasha. 2015 ‘Encountering Virginia Chihota’ Exhibition catalogue essay, Tiwani Contemporary: Virginia Chihota. A Thorn In My Flesh (munzwa munyama yangu). October 2015.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2008) ‘Primitivism revisited: After the end of an idea’. African Arts, 41:1, 86-88.
Available here [download pdf here]

Becker, Natasha (2001) ‘The “Lives of Colour” Exhibition. South African National Gallery, September 1999’ Kronos 27 Visual History, 270-291.
Available here [download pdf here]

News Articles

Becker, Natasha (2021) Tschabalala Self with Natasha Becker. The Brooklyn Rail. March 2021.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2022) Gary Simmons with Natasha Becker. The Brooklyn Rail. May 2022. Available here

Becker, Natasha (2019) ‘Where Does My Heart Reside?’ Guest Contributor, Brooklyn Rail Critics Page, New York, NY. November 2019.
Available here

WORKS: Natasha Becker – Curatorial Work

Selected exhibitions

2020

A PERFECT STORM
Group Show, Faction Arts Project, New York, NY, February 15 – March 8, 2020
View here

FOREVER IS COMPOSED OF NOWS
Group Show, A.I.R gallery, New York, NY, February 14 – March 15, 2020
View here

2019

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS
LeAndra LeSeur Solo Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY, October 17 – December 1, 2019
View here

RADICAL LOVE
Group Show, Ford Foundation for Social Justice Art Gallery, New York, NY
https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/ford-foundation-gallery-radical-love-1612009

PERILOUS BODIES
Group Show, Ford Foundation for Social Justice Art Gallery, New York, NY
View here

INTERIOR LANDSCAPES
Group Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY
View here

2018

MULTIPLICITIES
Group Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY
https://hyperallergic.com/468273/assembly-room-curatorial-collective/

WHAT CAN BE SEEN
Group Show, Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY
View here

2017

DIALOGUES IN DRAWING
Group Show, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
https://www.artsy.net/show/jenkins-johnson-gallery-dialogues-in-drawing#

AMERICANAH
Group Show, Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-16-curators-watch-springbreak

WEIGHTS & MEASURES
Solo Show and Civic Dialogues, Constitution Hill Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/justice-under-the-spotlight/

2016

SHIRIN NESHAT: DREAMERS
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa,
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/624

SUE WILLIAMSON: THE PAST LIES AHEAD
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/611

2015

RUBY AMANZE ONYINYECHI: SALT WATER
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/590

EDGE OF SILENCE
Group Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/573

SPEAKING BACK
Group Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/559

Wikipedia Workshops

Our workshops are open to everyone who is interested to learn about editing Wikipedia, our focus is on increasing the number of Wikipedia entries presenting women-of-colour artists from different fields of creative and cultural production. We are collaborating with experienced Wikipedia editors or representatives of Wikimedia South Africa to facilitate workshops and give recommendations about our work.

Participants will learn how to create and upload new articles or to expand existing entries. We will draw from research generated by the Art on our Mind research project and participants will work together creating and expanding Wikipedia entries on artists and creatives. To prepare, please identify an artist or artist group whose entry you want to create or expand. Please bring your laptop as we will work online, editing and creating entries.

Read an article in The Guardian what Wikimedia is doing about the fact that women make up only 15-20% of the editors on Wikipedia. [pdf here]

Art on our Mind received a Wikimedia Foundation Rapid Grant from July 2019 to June 2020, which helped facilitate our meetings.

Current Art on our Mind Wikipedia Workshops

Due to the current pandemic, all physical Wikipedia Workshops were moved online.
We are currently collarborating with different institutions, training staff, creatives and the public:

Johannesburg Art Gallery Wikipedia Workshops
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Johannesburg_Art_Gallery/JAG_Wikipedia_Workshops

Phototool Wikipedia Workshops
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Phototool/Phototool_Wikipedia_Workshops_(March_2020)

Bridge Books Edit-a-thons
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Bridge_Books/ArtAndFeminism2020_(February_2020)/home

Coordination of AOOM Wikipedia Workshops

We make use of a Wikimedia platform AOOM Wikipedia Workshops to coordinate our work, find more information here:

Past workshops

Wikipedia Workshop at Phototool
Thursday, 5 March, 10-15h

The Wikipedia workshops at Phototool are run in collaboration with Art on our Mind, aiming to enable participants to upload new articles or to expand on existing entries. Phototool has been running a research project since 2016, entitled “Survey of Photography Training and Learning Initiatives on the African Continent” which plots a map of the photography training and learning initiatives that are currently operating in African coutries.
In the workshop, we engaged with the research material which was generated by the project and participants learned how to generate references for Wikipedia entries. Participants also identified photographers/artists/creatives whose entry they helped to create or expand (individually or in group work).

Find more information here:
https://www.phototool.co.za/blog/2020/3/11/wikipedia-workshop
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Phototool/Phototool_Wikipedia_Workshops_(March_2020).
http://survey.phototool.co.za/about.html
https://www.phototool.co.za/blog/2016/10/27/survey-of-photography-learning-initiatives-on-the-african-continent

Bridge Books Edit-a-thon
Wednesday, 26 February 16h, 90 Commissioner Street.
The Bridge Books Edit-a-thons are run in collaboration with Art on our Mind, focussing on women fiction writers. They are convened in collaboration with art+feminism, more information here:
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Bridge_Books/ArtAndFeminism2020_(February_2020)/home

Oral Histories Workshop
Wednesday, 5 February, 9-13h
Seminar Room 207, 2^nd floor, Robert Sobukwe Block.

The Art On Our Mind Wikipedia group joined the Orientation Workshop by the Wits History Workshop as part of our work around Oral Citations in Wikipedia entries. More information about the use of oral citations in Wikipedia here:
Oral Citations research project
People are Knowledge. Exloring alternative methods of citation on Wikipedia
When Knowledge Isn’t Written, Does It Still Count?

African Feminisms (Afems ) Wikipedia panel discussion
Saturday, 7 September 2019, 16h, Wits Graduate School
Find out more about African Feminisms (Afems) or register here.

As Wikipedia enters the voting age this year, we will look a bit closer at the online encyclopedia’s accountability and in terms of its race, gender, sexuality and other bias, to inquire what programmes are in place to educate and decolonise this space of global knowledge collection. For this panel, Afems has invited Wikimedia South Africa director Bobby Shabangu and Wiki Loves Women co-founder Isla Haddow-Flood to speak about recent efforts of Wikimedia South Africa to change the way the online spaces frame what is “knowlege” who has access and who owns it.

Bobby Shabangu is Wikimedia ZA director of projects since 2013. His editing activities on Wikipedia focus on the African continent and the Joburgpedia project which involves several institutions. He organises workshops for Wikipedia training and is part of the Community Process Steering Committee for the Wikimedia Foundation working on formulating the 2030 Movement strategy.

Isla Haddow-Flood is a writer, editor and project strategist who is passionate about harnessing communication technology and media platforms for the advancement of open access to knowledge; specifically, knowledge that relates to and enhances the understanding of Africa via the Open Movement (and especially Wikipedia). Since 2011, Isla has been working with members of the WikiAfrica movement to conceptualise and instigate #OpenAfrica, Kumusha Bus and WikiEntrepreneur. She is the co-leader of projects such as Wiki Loves Africa (an annual photographic contest), Kumusha Takes Wiki (citizen journalists in Africa collecting freely-licensed content). In 2016, Isla has co-lead the NGO Wiki In Africa to instigate Wiki Loves Women (content liberation project related to African Women), WikiFundi (an offline editing environment that mimics Wikipedia) and WikiChallenge African Schools (that introduces the next generation of editors to Wikipedia). She also volunteers her time to the Wikimedia Movement’s strategy process by being a Working Group member for Advocacy and is a member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Annual Plan Grant committee.

Wikipedia edit-a-thon
Friday, 23 August 2019, 15h, Wits Writing Centre

Wikimedia Strategy 2030: Capacity Building and Diversity
2 August 2019, 15h, Wits Writing Centre

More than 20 participants came to engage in discussions during the Wikipedia Salon with Wikimedia ZA director Bobby Shabangu, focussing on two areas chosen by Wikimedia South Africa for the discussion of the Wikipedia 2030 strategy: Capacity Building and Diversity.

From the invite: Many people use Wikipedia as their first point of reference for their school research projects and general update on daily subject topics. The Wikimedia Foundation which runs Wikipedia would like to find out from you through a workshops which will be held in Johannesburg and Cape Town, how can they improve Wikipedia’s user interaction and how can they support content contribution so that it represent the diverse people who reads it, it’s a movement strategy which they aim to reach by year 2030 where Wikimedia content represents everyone who consumes and contributes to it. This will not be edit workshops but Salon Strategy where participants will discuss and take a short survey afterwards. So, we would like to invite you to take part in this Salon Strategy Survey. Over the next months Wikipedians around the world will be getting together to be part of this survey, so any ideas you have are very important to us. Come through! Even if you want to listen to how the conversation is going.

Poster: Senzeni Marasela Creative Dialogue

An Art on our Mind CREATIVE DIALOGUE with Senzeni Marasela.
26 April | 16.30h | 2018
Seminar Room | School of Fine Arts | Somerset Street
Grahamstown, South Africa