Dear Friend,

To lift up our commitment to community care, we want to share with you the ongoing work Art +Feminism is engaged in to realize our vision and goal of being an open, inclusive and transparent organization. Our process is emergent and we are excited to both share and welcome you, our community, to share with us during this time. 

Started as a grassroots, collective project in 2014, Art+Feminism has evolved into a global community of activists working to close information gaps on the internet, starting with Wikipedia. In May 2019, Art+Feminism completed the process of establishing a non-profit organization to support our expanded network and activities. A central part of our journey is transitioning from a collective to an organization that works collectively. 

We are taking a number of critical steps to move closer to our vision: 

• New Website: We worked with Partners & Partners, a worker-owned design practice in New York, NY on our web redesign. Our new site is accessible, using accessible fonts and colors and screen reader friendly. It is also available in English, Español, Français, and Português to start. ¡Echa un vistazo! www.artandfeminism.org. We created a veiled RFP process — removing all names and personal information — to maintain a non-biased approach. Upon reflection, we look forward to integrating our ongoing training to specfically incorporate anti-racist practices in our future RFP and hiring processes. 

• Restorative Practice and Anti-Blackness Training: In 2020, the Art+Feminism leadership team completed three training sessions with Joyell Arvella of Harp+Sword covering Restorative Practices and Anti-Blackness, with more sessions planned in the future. This work is supporting our process to create a framework for developing our own internal policies. 

• Strategic Planning: We’re currently working with Wayfinding Partners (Washington D.C) a consulting firm that centers racial equity and justice to facilitate our first formal strategic planning. Our Strategic Planning Task Force includes members from our own leadership, the board of directors, and community members from around the world. We are asking ourselves big questions like “How do we collectively define intersectional feminism? What does decolonization mean to our practice? How do we participate in information activism?” This work will serve as the foundation to identify goals and develop a strategy for the future of Art + Feminism. This process will conclude in April with Wayfinding Partner’s providing a written statement of Art+Feminism’s agreed upon vision, values, and mission and a written strategic plan, outlining high-level goals and benchmarks and associated timeframes. 

• Board of Directors: In collaboration with board members Roderick Schrock, Michael Mandiberg and Sheetal Prajapati, we have invited and elected a board of directors that is over 60% BIPOC and women/non-binary. We are committed to these voices not just having a seat at the table, but taking part in building an open table at the leadership level that embodies the values of Art+Feminism. We’re humbled and delighted that this group of changemakers are joining us in our work and believe their expertise and experience will be invaluable to this critical moment of the organization. Please help us welcome:

As we continue to move forward, we realize this work is ongoing, and will go far beyond these initial first steps. We are prepared to grow and change as we learn and unlearn together. You, our community, is at the center of our motivation and we are ever grateful to be in service and work with you now and in the future. We will share the outcomes of the strategic planning with you once it’s complete and look forward to a great 2021 campaign together!  

We welcome you to send us any thoughts, feedback or questions from your experience or work with us at info@artandfeminisim.org 

Onward,

Sheetal Prajapati (she/her)
Board Chair

Kira Wisniewski (she/her)
Executive Director