Welcome to the WAAS

The WAAS is an artist collective formed in 2016 with the aim of activating women’s art. Principle artists Sharon Bennett and Sarah Dixon collaborate to make live art, performance and socially engaged works.

The Milky Way at the National Gallery London - Photo © Catherine Harder

The Milky Way

In August 2021, The WAAS were commissioned by an AHRC funded consortium of Manchester Metropolitan University, Social Art Network and Axis for Social Art for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (SAFEDI). We devised a game-activity for National Gallery visitors to play – with a board, stickers and a map of the paintings featuring breastfeeding around the Gallery.

The WAAS's Sarah Dixon attaches a Baby Makers handmade sign to the doorway of the meeting room.Photo © Catherine Harder Photography

The Baby Makers

The Baby Makers, a series of creative workshops for women in pregnancy, presented in collaboration with community midwives. Focussing on the power of making and crafting having a positive effect on mental health and wellbeing, the sessions create an intimate space where a group of women and midwives come together to make something. In doing so they form a community that supports them through the coming changes in their life.

Permission Slip

Permission Slip

The WAAS can be called upon to write Permission Slips for anything you need permission for PROVISOS: We don’t issue permission for anything unethical or illegal.

The Bureau for the Validation of Art

The Bureau for the Validation of Art

A Visit by the Officials from the Bureau for the Validation of Art is a performance art work that playfully mimics institutional and systemic power processes.