ABSTRACT
In an emergent contemporary art center, housed in a dilapidated former public school, a new pantheon of monumental women was assembled for the first time on January 15, 1978. Viewers were enveloped by the circle of large paintings as they stood beneath an abstract ceiling, its mirrored center inviting the visitors to see themselves as part of this all-female Olympus. After four years of proposals, meetings, and changes in participants, The Sister Chapel had been realized. The Sister Chapel debuted in New York a full 14 months before the premiere of Judy Chicago's controversial feminist installation, The Dinner Party, which was exhibited in San Francisco. The Sister Chapel had its origins in consciousness-raising, a 'process' that appeared four years after the publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) and was prevalent by 1970. The Sister Chapel advanced substantially in the remaining months of 1974, in part because Elsa Goldsmith, the earliest supporter of Greenstein's endeavor, became more heavily involved.
