The Women's Art Activation System (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 in The WAAS to make live art, performance and socially engaged works with humour, politeness and a little edge. 

We provoke conversation, especially around questioning norms and hierarchies, and we work with community groups, researchers, arts organisations and museums. 

We have made several works and projects around perinatal health, including mental health, and we often look at broader issues around gender such as visibility/invisibility, power, and institutional structures. We collaborate also with Stroud Against Racism on several projects to ensure Black maternal health is a focus in our work. Our concept of "women" is open to all marginalised by their gender, and we welcome working with people of all genders that want to activate women's art. Ultimately we enjoy and celebrate opening space for multiple voices in arts and culture, and creating new pathways or possibilities through persistence, mutual support, and imaginative play.

We incorporate textiles, comedy, care, ritual and improvisation into our work, and we love to collaborate so do get in touch if you need some WAAS in your life. We do commissioned and bespoke work as well as publicly funded and mutual support projects. 

You can also join us over in The WAAS Club, our Patreon channel, where you can be the first to see new works, access activation prompts, and be part of our coffee club sessions and shoutouts, connecting with artists and the issues we are all grappling with.  

Let's activate!

The WAAS

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