Artbank is teaming up with artist-led collaborative research project Countess.Report to bring greater attention to the work and achievements of Australian women artists.
The Countess.Report, who investigate the structures and frameworks that govern artistic production and legitimation in the Australian contemporary art world, will be curating Artbank Sydney’s window gallery with their exhibition Equalessable, on display from 3 September to 20 October.
In conjunction with Equalessable, Artbank, the Countess.Report and Wikimedia Australia are co-hosting a special Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to help increase information about Australian women artists on Wikipedia.
Currently, less than 20 per cent of biographies on Wikipedia are about women – and when it comes to women artists and creators, that number is even lower.
Attendees at the interactive workshop will have the opportunity to work on Wikipedia entries of women artists featured in Equalessable and the Artbank collection, increasing public access to information about these notable women and their works.
Artbank Director Zoë Rodriguez said she hoped the event would pique the public’s interest in Australian women artists.
“We are proud to have strong representation of women artists within the Artbank collection, but we know that’s not the case everywhere.
“Artbank is all about making art more accessible, enabling more people to discover new artists in their everyday lives. We hope this event goes some way to helping the public find out more about the many amazing Australian women artists out there.”
Key details
When: Tuesday 3, September, 2024
Time:
Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: 2-4pm (15 places only)
Opening Equalessable: 5-7pm (all welcome)
Where: Artbank Sydney, Unit 1, 222 Young St Waterloo
Artbank is part of the Australian Government Office for the Arts. For 40 years Artbank has supported Australia’s contemporary art sector, providing direct support to Australian contemporary artists through the acquisition of their work and promoting the value of Australian contemporary art to the broader public. Artbank is one of the largest collections of contemporary Australian art in the world with more than 11,000 works spanning media including painting, sculpture, video and photography. It includes some of the best examples of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artwork produced over the past four decades. These works are leased throughout Australia to individuals, companies and governments (at all levels), as well as internationally to Australian embassies and other overseas posts.
The Countess.Report is an ongoing independent artist-run research project led by Elvis Richardson, Miranda Samuels and Shevaun Wright with special guest collaborators including Melinda Rackham, co-author of Countess: Spoiling Illusions Since 2008 (2023). We publish data and analysis on trends in gender representation, the education of artists, the distribution of arts funding, media representation and related topics. Our research is self-published in quadrennial sector-wide reports.
Media contact
media@infrastructure.gov.au | (02) 6136 8112