Musicians united by survivorhood.
The Artemis Musicians Society is a group of musicians united by their individual experiences as survivors of sexual assault and the love of playing great music. They hope by sharing art they can de-stigmatize survivor-hood and empower others to persevere.
Vision.
Artemis Musicians’ Society is dedicated to advocating for survivors of sexual violence through positive representation, creation of professional opportunities for survivors, and direct artistic confrontation of the issue of sexual violence, as well as its causes and effects, from the perspective of the survivor.
Through positive representation, we seek not only to showcase the talents of survivors, but to combat the dehumanization we face in our daily lives, as discussion of sexual violence, when it happens at all, often treats the survivor as a concept more than a person; an inconvenient obstacle in the life of a significantly more human perpetrator. By showing audiences that sexual violence happens to real people, with faces, names, formidable talents and admirable qualities, we seek to shift the shame of sexual violence away from the survivor and back onto the perpetrator. By showing people that survivors are gifted and remarkable members of the community, we aim to force a significant perceptual shift, in both how the general public views survivors, and how survivors view themselves.
Group Objective.
1) To bring visibility and opportunity to those who have suffered the systemic trauma of sexual assault;
2) In so doing, to shift the stigma of sexual assault away from the survivor and onto the perpetrator;
3) To elevate discussion and raise awareness of sexual assault and its prevalence, particularly (but not exclusively) in the classical music world;
4) Above all, to create an avenue for affirmative, assertive recovery from sexual violence, which focuses on survivors and their professional talents.
Group Name.
The group is named after Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian Baroque painter who was widely respected and sought-after in the 1600s. She was raped by another painter when she was 12 — he was charged and convicted after she testified against him in court — and much of her work depicted strong and suffering women from myths and the Bible.
