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Building WAAM

WAAM was founded in 2018 as a research platform to explore how community-based archives can better serve women artists. Inspired by archival activism and critical shifts in the field, we set out to understand how community-rooted sites can reposition the way we interact with archival spaces. In 2020, with funding from the Wavemaker Grant, WAAM launched a pilot project to help eight artists preserve their studio archives.

Today, WAAM operates across several spaces within the Miami community. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we center artists and their communities, emphasizing a participatory approach to archiving where the cultural producer remains in control of their own living legacy. By creating peripheral archival access points, WAAM reframes how institutions engage with and support local artists.

Objectives

To reposition archives that have traditionally operated as sites of privilege, to record the creative contributions of communities who have been left out of the historical record.

To re-examine archival practices and offer access points through multiple pathways that increase visibility for cultural practitioners through dynamic archival programs.

Mission & Vision

WAAM envisions an art world where the legacies of women and gender-expansive artists from all backgrounds are visible, celebrated, and prioritized.

Rooted in decolonial principles, WAAM is a Miami-based nomadic archival platform dedicated to preserving, documenting and bringing these histories to the forefront.

Our Team

Anita Sharma

Founder & Director

Anita Sharma is a Miami-based archivist, researcher, and collections manager with over twenty years of experience in the field of Visual Arts Archiving. She is the founder of WAAM (Women Artists Archive Miami) and specializes in community-based archiving initiatives, digital archiving practices and legacy preservation. She has worked at libraries, archives, museums and private collections in the US, England & India, including the British Library, Arani & Shumita Bose Collection, Rubell Collection, Debra & Dennis Scholl Collection, Zarina Hashmi Archive, Frost Art Museum, Aditi Singh Archive & SALIDAA (South Asian Diaspora Literature & Arts Archive).

Devora Perez

Digital Archivist

Devora Perez is a digital archivist and visual artist born and raised in Miami. She earned her BFA from New World School of the Arts in 2016, and her MFA from Florida International University in 2020. Perez is trained in Archiving and Digitization Fundamentals I & II and has digitized 25 years’ worth of DVCAI’s archive. The project was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and carried out in partnership with the University of Miami's Special Collections and Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) at Florida International University. Perez currently works as the Project Coordinator and Digital Archivist at Women Artists Archive Miami (WAAM).