On October 12, 2025, during the Wikiconference in Kyiv, I organized at first a team building for the Wiki community on the topic of “WikiArt”. WikiArt is art through the use of wikiprojects (video, audio and images from Wikimedia Commons, catchphrases, idioms and famous expressions from Wikiquote, interesting facts from Wikiarticles and Wiktionary, etc.).
They identified the elements of Wikipedians, guessed cultural monuments in different regions, determined their mood through architectural objects, developed associative thinking using metaphorical cards with images of Olga Haydamaka’s paintings, created their own artistic masterpieces, and performed team-building exercises.
The “Wikimood” exercise is 5 images of architectural m…
On October 12, 2025, during the Wikiconference in Kyiv, I organized at first a team building for the Wiki community on the topic of “WikiArt”. WikiArt is art through the use of wikiprojects (video, audio and images from Wikimedia Commons, catchphrases, idioms and famous expressions from Wikiquote, interesting facts from Wikiarticles and Wiktionary, etc.).
They identified the elements of Wikipedians, guessed cultural monuments in different regions, determined their mood through architectural objects, developed associative thinking using metaphorical cards with images of Olga Haydamaka’s paintings, created their own artistic masterpieces, and performed team-building exercises.
The “Wikimood” exercise is 5 images of architectural monuments with certain associations, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons with the license and author of the photo indicated. The first photo shows the “leaning” Tower of Pisa in Pisa (Italy), 2 – the Golden Gate in Kyiv (Ukraine), 3 – the “sad” Taj Mahal (India), 4 – the “ancient” Colosseum in Rome (Italy), 5 – the “romantic” Eiffel Tower in Paris (France). This allows you to determine the emotional mood of the Wikicommunity, recall world architectural monuments, and remind you how to correctly indicate copyright on photos in a presentation. Participants can name their favorite architectural landmark as a form of art and choose their own epithet to describe their mood.
The second task is “Recognize the cultural card of Ukraine,” where participants must use the photos to name what type of art, what technique, what exactly is depicted in the photo, and which region of Ukraine it is from. Wikimediagroups was supposed to name the clay product “kumanets” from the pottery capital of Opishna, the Christmas gingerbread “Panyanka” from Kotelva, the carpet (tapestry) “Tree of Life” from Reshetylivka in the Poltava region, the Petrykivka painting from the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Kosiv ceramics from the Carpathians, and the “stone embroidery” on the buildings of the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region.
Reception “Choose your metaphorical card at random” – illustrations of paintings by Ukrainian artist Olga Haydamaka depicting stylized ethnic images with poetic lines by Olga Ptakha. Each member of the Wikimedia community, if desired, described their associations with the chosen metaphorical card and how it resonated with WikiArt.
The following exercises are for wiki community team building. Participants are given white A4 paper and markers. Using these materials, it was possible to illustrate Wikipedia or sister projects in a microgroup or individually. For example, Wikipedian from Kharkiv Iryna Buchneva depicted a sunflower flower with the image of the letter “W”, from the petals of which come out pictures illustrating the main wiki projects. Another participant, Viacheslav Mamon, depicted Wikimedia in the form of a tree being sharpened into a certain shape by Wikipedian beavers. Each drawing is a Wikipedian’s perception of WikiProjects through their own associations.
Next is the “Wikimosaic” exercise. The digital presentation features a photo of rounded sea stones near a body of water, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, and above the photo is a quote by Confucius from Wikiquote: “He who moves mountains first removes the small stones.” A kind of paraphrasing and understanding of this quote is that every Wikipedian does not immediately write “good” articles, but first edits small texts – pebble by pebble. The task is to create a kind of Wiki mosaic from the proposed colored pebbles. Each Wikipedian had to interact with each other to create a shared stone mosaic.
“Elements of the WikiCommunity” reception: participants discuss the basic elements – fire, earth, air, and water – through images from Wikimedia Commons. Interpretation of this exercise: “With true friends – through fire and water.” Then everyone stands in a circle, where we have to pass a glass of water filled to the top to each other with one hand, and try not to spill it. It’s about the interconnectedness of the Wiki community – from the Wikipedia editor to the reader and vice versa.
At the end of the WikiArt team building, participants share their thoughts through an “Open Microphone” session.
– Marysia Lebid
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