The WAAS is an artist collective formed in 2016 with the purpose of activating women’s art. Principal artists Sharon Bennett and Sarah Dixon collaborate to make live art, performance and socially engaged works. We have a very broad of the meaning of “woman” and recognise that gender binaries restrict everyone into preset ideas of who you may be. We are here to activate the art of those who are marginalised in arts because of gender.
Recent Projects
Listen Up! is a slideshow-live performance made for the Pecha Kucha night hosted by Nick Grellier at Stroud Valleys Artspace. The Women’s Art Activation System (The WAAS) is collaborating with the Women’s Health research group at King’s College London on a project supporting individuals navigating pregnancy after a previous loss or preterm birth. listening/shouting is a performance-film made for The Baby Makers: Making History. The project was a National Lottery Heritage Funded project in 2024, with Stroud’s Museum in the Park. We listened to stories of birth, as told by elder women and women of the global majority in Stroud District. Out of this listening we made a performance response. The WAAS were selected for a Walking the Land residency at the Gingerbread House, Oakbrook Farm, Stroud in November 2024. We presented our work at Stroud’s Museum in the Park in February 2025. 
Listen Up!
Take A Pause – Collaboration with King’s College London
listening/shouting
The Farmer Wants A Wife