User:Tupisthree/sandbox

Artemisia Gallery was an alternative exhibition space in Chicago, Illinois. Opening in 1973, it was one of the first women artists’ cooperatives in the Midwest along with ARC Gallery (another venerable Chicago women’s cooperative that opened on the same block that month). Twenty women, frustrated by the lack of opportunities for women artists in Chicago, came together to form the gallery. They named the space after Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian 17th-century artist who was an accomplished painter but whose best work had been attributed to her father. As dues-paying members of the cooperative, each member was granted a show annually in the gallery's exhibition space and participated in monthly meetings to plan and execute the programming. Member applicants, guest artists, and educational programming were selected by consensus by the membership, which ranged from 10 to 20 members. From 1973 until closing in 2003, Artemisia Gallery exhibited local, national, and international artists and supported the careers of over 150 women artist members, their mentees, and exhibiting guest artists. Artemisia was an active site for exhibitions, lectures, discussions, artist exchanges, and meetings. In 1975 Artemisia was home to the first meeting of what was to become the Chicago Artist Coalition. Artemisia also created a video library of interviews of women artists and critics, established a learning resource center which made information about the role of women in contemporary art available to the public in the form of periodicals, slides, and videotapes, provided a speaker's bureau, offered a mentorship program, and launched a public education pilot program to strengthen links between art and education and stress the roles of women in art.

Founders: Barbara Grad, Phyllis MacDonald, Emily Pinkowski, Joy Poe, and Margaret (Harper) Wharton

First Members: Phyllis Bramson, Adrienne Drapkin, Shirley Federow, Sandra Gierke, Carole Harmel, Vera Klement, Linda Kramer, Susan Michod, Sandra Perlow, Claire Prussian, Nancy Redmond, Christine Rojek, Heidi Seidelhuber, Alice Shaddle, Mary Stoppert, and Carol Turchan