By Rupal Karia |
On Saturday 15th November 2025 we were delighted to host our fourth annual Community Celebration. This yearly event is an opportunity for our community to gather online, share and celebrate the incredible work that’s taken place over the last year to support Wikimedia projects and open knowledge in the UK. We also announced the UK Wikimedian of the Year awards and celebrated the winners of the Wiki Loves Earth competition.
It was wonderful to see many of our community at the celebration and to observe the mutual support and encouragement of our community. There were around 45 community members, attending from all over the UK and even beyond.
We were welcomed by our Chief Executive Lucy Crompton-Reid, who thanked the community for the incredible work they contribute to Wikimedia projects and Open Knowledge in the UK.
We then launched into a series of lightning talks delivered by members of the Community about their Wikimedia projects this year. These presentations were a small selection to highlight the extraordinary and varied work the UK community have been working on over the last year.
Sophie Whitfield, Wikimedia UK trainer told us about her new year resolution which involved looking at Cambridgeshire plaques and who gets commemorated and who does not.
Ceryl Evans, Wikimedia UK Trainer talked about a few of the fascinating women she has written about on Wikipedia and how she has made friends with wiki critics along the way.
Keira Evans, Welsh editor talked about LGBTQ activists in Wales and how collective editing is encouraging new editors and improving representation of LGBTQ people in Wales on Wikipedia.
Josef Anthony from Nigeria talked about his Wikidata project which focused on increasing representation of underrepresented historical figures from the UK.
Colette Townend, a librarian at Lambeth Libraries in London talked about the monthly meet-up she runs from the library which encourages community diversity and cultural interests through the use of library resources.
Ian Watt, Wikimedia UK Trainer and Trustee of Wikimedia UK talked about Vibe Coding with Wikidata and how you can create a website or app in minutes, using data queried from Wikidata.
Janet Chapman from the Hackney History Society talked about the monthly edit-a-thons taking place in Hackney to improve coverage of historical and present day Hackney women.
Karen Bowman, Wikimedian based in Edinburgh, talked about the personal impact of becoming a Wikimedia editor.
And finally, Bee Campbell, Wikimedian from Norfolk, talked about how they have been creating and editing articles about the city of Norwich, uncovering rich layers of the city’s history.
UK Wikimedian of the Year Awards
The UK Wikimedian of the Year Awards recognise the work of the community that collaborates with and supports Wikimedia UK. Last year’s Partnership of the Year winner, Francesca Farmer from GLAM-e Lab, announced the winners of this year’s UK Wikimedian of the Year Awards. Thank you to everyone who made nominations and a huge well done to all the nominees and the winners highlighted below.
UK Wikimedian of the Year: Joint winners – Andy Mabbett and Jo Baines
Partnership of the Year: Khalili Foundation
Up and Coming Wikimedian: Colette Townend
Wiki Loves Earth Winners
We showcased the winners of this year’s Wiki Loves Earth. This was the first time we ran the competition in England and the calibre of photos was incredibly high.
Judges were so impressed by the quality of the images and commented on how difficult it was to choose winners. Thank you to everyone who was involved in supporting the competition to run this year; from those who contributed images, the volunteer judges and to volunteers Sophie Whitfield, Ian Watt and Ffion Cleverly for all their hard work behind the scenes ensuring the competition ran smoothly.
You can see the full list of winners for Wales, Scotland and England. If you’d like to hear about future UK community events and how you can get involved please sign up for our newsletter, or join our membership to help govern the charity.