Black Lunch Table (BLT) is a nonprofit organization and eighteen-year ongoing artist collaboration. BLT’s primary aim has been the production of discursive sites, wherein cultural producers engage in dialogue on a variety of critical issues.

Black Lunch Table Wikimedians mobilize the creation and improvement of a specific set of Wikipedia articles that pertain to the lives and works of Black artists. In the field of mainstream contemporary art, Black artists are still marginalized within our field.

Wikipedia estimates that 77% of their editors are white and 91% of their editors are men. Our work shifts this demographic and empowers people to write their own history. Our sessions and events, including BLT Photobooth and edit-a-thons, equip new editors with the skills and resources to create, update, and improve Wikipedia articles and encourages existing editors to focus on Wikipedia knowledge gaps.

Wikimedia Fellowship with Pace Gallery[edit]

This six-month-long fellowship will culminate with an exhibition at Pace’s New York gallery to mark Black History Month in February 2023. The first appointed fellow, Kristen Owens, will create a new bibliographic text based on her research into the Black American and Black diasporic artists in Pace’s history.

Kristen Owens is a librarian, curator, and arts educator whose interdisciplinary research, writing, and curatorial work is situated in African American and Black Diasporic studies. She is currently Librarian for African American and Black Diaspora Studies at New York University Libraries. From 2019 to 2022, Owens worked as Associate Curator at Paul Robeson Galleries at Express Newark, Rutgers University, and from 2018 to 2019 she was Coordinator of Public Programs, Education, and Engagement at Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture. Owens holds a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Studies from Montclair State University, a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Long Island University, and a master’s degree in Visual Culture from New York University.

Read more about the fellowship, exhibition and events here.

BLT Photo Booth[edit]

In an effort to make notable artists that fall in the Wiki gaps more visible, BLT began a photographic initiative that includes WikiCommons contests, partnerships with art schools, and invites professional photographers to host a pop-up portrait studio at some of our edit-a-thons and make that work open license for free use, edit and distribution. You can find these photos on Wikimedia Commons.

• 2021:Wikimedia Foundation - Annual Plan Grant
• 2020: Wikimedia Foundation - Annual Plan Grant
• 2018: Wikimedia Foundation - 2018 Project Grant

Grant Showcase 2018

• 2018: Foundation for Contemporary Art - Emergency Grant
• 2016-present: Creative Capital – Black Lunch Table (Artist Project)
• 2016: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – DIL/IAH Faculty Fellows, Digital Innovative Lab Fellowship to Jina Valentine
• Spring 2017: Wikimedia Foundation – Spring 2017 Rapid Grant (US$1,450.00) – food for events
• Summer 2017: Wikimedia Foundation – Summer 2017 Rapid Grant (US$1,234.73) – for computer and swag

Chronological

• Carlson, Frankie (21 February 2021). "Wikipedia archiving project partners with Minneapolis art institutions". Minnesota Daily.

• Knecht, Lyndsay (2 September 2020). "The Internet's Public Square Is Mostly White and Male. These Groups Are Changing That". Next City.

• Melendez, Lauren (7 March 2019). "Students create Wikipedia pages for underrepresented artists at Penn Libraries event". The Daily Pennsylvanian.

• Kim, Katherine (15 January 2018). "'Three Questions with The Black Lunch Table'". DLF.

• Teplitzky, Alex (15 February 2017). "The Black Lunch Table Helps Give Exposure to Black Artists Through Wikipedia - Creative Capital Blog". Creative Capital.

• Williams, Clay (23 January 2017). "'Black Lunch Table' Gatherings Foster Discussions About Race". Edible Brooklyn.

• Kessenides, Dimitra; Chafkin, Max (22 December 2016). "Is Wikipedia Woke?". Bloomberg.com.

• Jene-Fagon, Olivia; Yoshi Tani, Ellen (17 January 2016). "Why Are All the Black Artists Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Welcome to the Black Lunch Table: Jina Valentine and Heather Hart on Creating Space for Communities of Color in the Art World". Artsy.

• Cembalest, Robin (12 October 2015). "Museums Open Up to Power of Wiki". The Wall Street Journal.

• Steinhauer, Jillian (12 May 2015). "ArtRx NYC: The Black Lunch Table Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon". Hyperallergic.

• "WXYC Reports. Interview: Black Lunch Table: Black Lives Matter at UNC Chapel Hill" (Radio show). WXYC 89.3 FM. 8 March 2015.

• Hart, Heather; Jemison, Steffani; Valentine, Jina (25 October 2012). "The Present Classification" (PDF). Skowhegan Journal. Skowhegan, ME: Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture: 8–10.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Black Lunch Table Project.

• BLT on Meta
• Black Lunch Table – Wikipedia meetup page
• Black Lunch Table website