The WAAS is a women’s art collective based in Stroud, Gloucestershire but with an international remit. WAAS exists in order to activate women’s art. This includes activating the art of its members and also to create models and systems that can be used by others to activate their own or other women’s art.
We are currently a duo, Sharon Bennett and Sarah Dixon. We have been creating live art, participatory and socially engaged works together since 2018. Prior to that the WAAS was a larger, informal group with a focus on hosting women’s art activation events.
We are open to collaboration and new projects. We have a Facebook group for those wanting to engage that way and contact us from afar. We also offer Activations in which you can bring your art block and we will help you move through it. We successfully activated Motherhood and Metamorphosis, a group show in Stroud, featuring a wide range of women artists, and several other events which you can browse here.
You can book the WAAS at your venue or organisation for:
- speaking and panel discussions about the subjects we explore in our work (validation, permission, ritual, institutional critique, creative practice for health, and women’s activation)
- performance of Validations by the Officials from the Bureau for the Validation of Art
- issuing Permission Slips
- Activations for women’s art
- Baby Makers sessions for women in pregnancy
Please contact us if you would like to discuss working together.