牛牛资源

A new App launched by the Women’s Art Library at 牛牛资源, provides a new way to learn about the women artists represented in this unique archive.

Users can read about artists, view their art and hear them 鈥榠n conversation鈥� - discovering how each artist鈥檚 personal journey informed the trajectories of their work.

A 鈥榩articipate鈥� feature on the App allows users to share their own artworks, while spreading awareness of the Women鈥檚 Art Library, by creating an 鈥榓rtist slide鈥� and posting it on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram.

The first seven artists featured on the WAL App include , , , , , and . Their work includes sculpture, painting, prints, photography and knitting.

Together, their art represents aspects of the wide diversity in women鈥檚 artistic journeys, providing the user with an opportunity to wander through artworks that deliver views into the 鈥渦napologetically domestic鈥�, 鈥渄ark humour鈥�, 鈥渟urvival鈥�, and the 鈥渦nconscious鈥�. Though perhaps most works unify on one (feminist) point 鈥� it鈥檚 all political.

The WAL App is part of a project called How to Make an Archive Travel?, which aims to promote the Women鈥檚 Art Library while making the politics of women artists 鈥� their artworks, journeys and archives 鈥� more visible.

The project is led by Dr. Ana-Maria Herman, Research Associate at the Women鈥檚 Art Library and Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Invention and Social Process in the Department of Sociology at 牛牛资源.

Dr. Herman decided to create the WAL App came as she was completing her PhD in Sociology at 牛牛资源.

Dr. Herman explains:

鈥淚n 2015 I heard about this amazing archive of artist slides, catalogues, and other materials related to women artists held at the Women鈥檚 Art Library at 牛牛资源. I was disappointed that I hadn鈥檛 heard about it sooner and, when I looked up its website, I realised little of the archive was available in digital form.

鈥淚 thought it would be great to develop an app that could inform 牛牛资源鈥� students and the wider public about the Library and the women artists represented. I also saw it as an occasion to do research 鈥� more precisely, to investigate how (and if) apps can act as feminist interventions in gender politics. 

鈥淚 pitched this idea to the Women鈥檚 Art Library and eventually to the Centre for Invention and Social Process 鈥� and was thrilled to have their joint support. The app will promote the Library, women and their artwork, while simultaneously enabling a most interesting 鈥榙igital鈥� sociological experiment!鈥�

Althea Greenan, Curator at the Women鈥檚 Art Library, adds:

鈥淲hy is it important to make an archive travel? My role is to ensure the Women鈥檚 Art Library is responsive to contemporary women鈥檚 practice; I think the archive is healthy when it is challenged. The WAL app is a new approach to digitally archiving artists by working directly with practicing artists as well as their beautiful 35mm slides to bring art documentation to life in the intimate space of a personal mobile device.鈥�

The Women鈥檚 Art Library, founded in the early 1980s as a place for women artists from around the world to deposit unique documentation of their work, now represents thousands of artists. It continues to collect slides, artist statements, exhibition ephemera, catalogues, and press material in addition to audio and videotapes, photographs and CD-Roms.

Download the WAL App via iTunes

Download the WAL App via the App Store

Find out more about the project at

Find out more about the Women鈥檚 Art Library at