[1] WEAD (originally called Women Environmental Artists Directory) was founded in 1996 by Jo Hanson, Estelle Akamine, and Susan Leibovitz Steinman as a printed reference directory for entities interested in finding artists working with environmental issues.
The directory lists a wide variety of activist feminist artists, such as Agnes Denes; Mierle Ukeles; Betsy Damon; Jackie Brookner; Marina DeBris, a trashion artist; Betty Beaumont, often called a pioneer of environmental art; Lauren Elder, Judith Selby Lang; Robin Lasser; Jan Rindfleisch, Shai Zakai and Minoosh Zomorodinia.
[7] The WEAD co-founders were featured in a discussion about women artists of the American West whose art was about current social concerns.
[8] WEAD publishes an annual environmental and social justice magazine which focuses on such topics as dirty water and the legacy of atomic energy.
Notable magazine contributors and featured artists include Mildred Howard and Linda Weintraub,[11] the author of well known books on art and activism such as To Life!.