Artemis Sisters Collective Records
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 4561
This collection documents the activities of the Artemis Sisters Collective through their various committees, collectives, and projects between 1982 and 1987. Additional materials outside of this date range document reunions and research.
The bulk of material relates to activities sponsored and hosted by the Artemis Sisters, including musical acts, study groups, and educational sessions. Of particular interest are their efforts in spreading awareness about individual rights, LGBT+ rights, women's rights, domestic abuse, and sexual violence.
Materials include posters, pamphlets, correspondence, cassette tapes, meeting minutes, flyers, press releases, photographs, and t-shirts.
The collection is divided into six series:
Series 1. Photographs: This series contains photographs from Artemis Sister activities and reunions.
Series 2. Concert Materials: This series contains correspondence, flyers, posters, and newspaper clippings regarding the various musical acts sponsored by the Artemis Sisters.
Series 3. Activism: This series contains information regarding the Artemis Sisters' various committees and collectives that sought to raise awareness about domestic abuse, sexual violence, and individual rights.
Series 4. General: This series contains materials detailing information about the Artemis Sisters and their reunions. Included in this series is information about the SisterSpace Collective.
Series 5. Radio Show Recordings: This series contains radio show recordings of musical acts and interviews.
Series 6. Ephemera: This series contains printed t-shirts created for various Artemis Sister activities. It also includes an addendum of 2023 October 16, including a ceramic sign hung in the Artemis Collective's Sisterspace Collective on High Street in downtown Morgantown.
Series 7. Interviews [Born-Digital Materials]: Addendum of 2023 November 14 includes oral history recordings gathered by West Virginia University doctoral student Celia Faux of the following individuals: Carrie Koeturius, Cynthia (Cindy) Williams, Diana Keena (née Murrell), Evelyn Tomaszewski and Ilene Klein, Judith Gold Stitzel, and Michele Flynn.
This collection is open for research.
Researchers may access born digital materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.
Published interviews in Series 7. Interviews [Born-Digital Materials], are under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. The creator retains the copyright of their interview, but the West Virginia and Regional History Center may make it and other material available to the general public for educational and noncommercial purposes, with proper attribution. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/deed.en. Other interviews in that series do not yet have deeds of gift/release forms, so they cannot be published.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
The Artemis Sisters Collective was a feminist collective formed in September 1982 after an informal network of women had worked together to produce the Holly Near concert which was part of a Women and Health conference in Morgantown. Due to the enthusiasm generated by the concert, the Artemis Sisters decided to continue creating events featuring women's music in the Morgantown area. By combining creative, political, and social engagements the Artemis Sisters sought to promote women's empowerment.
The early years of the collective were focused on sponsoring events featuring musicians, comedians, poets, and story tellers. Some musical acts and entertainers included Holly Near, Robin Flowers and Company, Robin Tyler, Sweet Honey and the Rock, ALIVE!, Hazel Dickens, and Deidre McCalla.
Almost immediately upon the group's formation, efforts were made to engage with the community politically and socially. Besides their interest in promoting creative and social pursuits, the Artemis Sisters became involved with political issues through committees and projects, including the Lorraine Momen Defense Committee, Stop Abuse of Womyn Project, Committee for Individual Rights, Justice in the House, People for Justice, Elizabeth Strickland Defense Committee, and the Linda Conway Defense Committee.
Members of the Artemis Sisters began their foray into activism with the Lorraine Momen Defense Committee in 1983, which sought to defend Lorraine Momen against the charge of murder of her husband, Wayman Momen, based upon the evidence of domestic abuse and self-defense. The Defense Committee engaged in community education activities to increase public awareness of family violence through leafletting, public meetings, media work, outreach, and event sponsoring. This committee developed into the Stop Abuse of Womyn Project (SAW) to support women facing violence more generally and educate the public on issues such as sexual assault, pornography, and domestic violence.
Artemis members ran a radio show, Something About the Women, focused on curating playlists of women’s music, interviewing women from West Virginia, and reporting current events pertaining to women’s lives. Something About the Women was aired on the West Virginia University student radio station and was instrumental in spreading news about Artemis activities among the University community.
Additionally, a gathering space and lending library called SisterSpace Collective was opened on December 3rd, 1983, to focus on creating spaces where women could learn and engage with other women in the community regardless of race, age, class, or sexual preference. The Sisterspace Collective was housed at 235 High Street in Morgantown and promoted and engaged with a wide variety of activities including hosting the Gay Alcoholics Anonymous and Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GALA) student group, Lesbian Incest & Rape Survivors Group and Gay Alanon. Although created by members of the Artemis Sisters, SisterSpace eventually became its own independent organization while maintaining close connections with Artemis due to the substantial number of women who were involved in both operations. The SisterSpace Collective worked with the National Organization for Women, Retired School Employees Association, Womens' Studies Program, West Virginia University School of Social Work, some members of the West Virginia Education Association, Womens' Information Center, and the Citizens' Action Group. They also collaborated with the local Morgantown Woman to Woman, Inc. group to host a Women's Help Line.
The Committee for Individual Rights was formed by the Artemis Sisters in response to the 1983 Opinion by West Virginia Attorney General, Chauncey Browning, that rumor and reputation may be used as criteria in determining fitness of schoolteachers. In 1986, the Artemis Sisters worked with GALA of West Virginia University in its hosting of the first West Virginia Gay and Lesbian Conference in West Virginia. The People for Justice Committee sought to support Betty Justice in her candidacy for the West Virginia House of Delegates.
In 1987, after almost four years of operation, the SisterSpace Collective chose to close its doors due to a lack of volunteers, library users, and meeting attendance. Despite the shuttering of the Artemis Collective upon the closing of SisterSpace, the members of the intertwined committees and collectives remained in contact and held reunions in 1990, 1993, and 2016.
1 Linear Feet (1 document case, 5 in.; 1 document case, 2.5 in.; 1 flat storage box, 1.5 in.; 1 flat storage box, 3 in.)
1.60 Gigabytes (18 files, including .mp4, .doc, .m4a)
English
The Artemis Sisters Collective was a local Morgantown, West Virginia feminist collective formed in September 1982 for the purpose of promoting women's empowerment through creative, political, and social engagement. The bulk of materials range in dates from 1980 to 1987 and include information regarding the SisterSpace Collective, various women's defense committees, musical acts, and social activism. Materials include posters, pamphlets, correspondence, cassette tapes, meeting minutes, flyers, press releases, photographs and t-shirts.
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Gift of Flynn, Michele; Koeturius, Carrie; Williams, Cindy; Klein, Ilene; and Transue, Judith, 2022 October 24
Gift of Ilene Klein, 2023 October 16
Gift of Celia Faux, 2023 November 14
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository