Black Lunch Table
Black artist oral-history archiving project
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Black Lunch Table (BLT) is a United States–based oral-history archiving project founded in 2005, focused on the lives and work of Black artists.[1] Its work includes oral archiving, salons, peer teaching workshops, meetups, and Wikipedia edit-a-thons.[2] The BLT brings people together to engage in dialogues about the writing, recording, and promoting inclusive art history.[1][3][4] One of its aims is to address the racial and gender bias on Wikipedia by encouraging Wikipedia articles about African-American artists.[5][6][7]
History
Artists Jina Valentine and Heather Hart founded the Black Lunch Table (BLT) in 2005 with an event at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture artist residency.[1][8][9] The BLT has hosted edit-a-thons at a range of institutions and settings including Boston University, Rutgers, The New School, BRIC Arts Media, and others.[3][7][9]
BLT gained non-profit status in 2019.[10]
As of 2020, the organization has hosted 72 Wikipedia events in six countries, creating 385 new articles and uploading 727 new images.[11] The organization has received funding from Mellon Foundation, the Warhol Foundation, the Reva & David Logan Foundation, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Ford Foundation, the Wikimedia Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, among other sources.[10][12][13]
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