Artemisia: when gender-based violence meets disability
It is a project that stems from a long reflection and takes its name from Artemisia Gentileschi, the painter who lived between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and who reported her rapist, managing to have him tried and convicted. The full name is “Artemisia. Attraverso Reti Territoriali EMersione dI SItuazioni di violenzA” and it is promoted by Fondazione Somaschi together with a group of organizations and associations committed, on one hand, to combating gender-based violence and, on the other, to defending the rights of people with disabilities: Ceas – Centro Ambrosiano di Solidarietà, Fondazione Centro per la famiglia Card. Carlo Maria Martini, Fondazione Asphi, Ledha – Lega per i diritti delle persone con disabilità. “The project was created in response to a call by Fondazione Comunità di Milano. For some years, we at Fondazione Somaschi had begun to reflect on gender-based violence against women with disabilities, starting from a study conducted by Fish, the Italian Federation for Overcoming Handicap,” explains the project coordinator, Chiara Sainaghi. “The study showed that in Italy, the incidence of violence against women with disabilities was higher than that experienced by women without disabilities. Yet in our experience managing anti-violence centers, we almost never encountered these women.”
360-degree accessibility
From this observation began a process of reflection on the accessibility of anti-violence centers and shelters, culminating in a unique pilot initiative within the Lombardy region. The Artemisia project, launched in 2021 and concretely initiated in 2023, capitalizes on the diverse skill sets of a broad partnership not always accustomed to working transversally. “Services dealing with disability rarely consider the possibility that a woman with a different health condition might be experiencing violence within her home. So the first step was precisely to think in an intersectional way, attempting to bring together two different worlds to bridge and integrate their approaches,” Sainaghi emphasizes. From here came a series of training sessions throughout the metropolitan area of Milan dedicated both to disability rights organizations and to anti-violence centers. “We talk about 360-degree accessibility, which means not only eliminating architectural barriers but all types of barriers—from using augmentative and alternative communication and high-legibility fonts in informational leaflets to specialized training for staff to facilitate communication with women with sensory or intellectual disabilities.”
The rozzano house: a model of inclusion
But the heart of the project is the renovation, with accessibility in mind, of a property confiscated from the mafia in the Rozzano area. “The apartment was designed by incorporating all the features that allow it to be lived in as autonomously as possible even by women with motor or sensory disabilities,” the coordinator explains. After a long and complicated process involving countless setbacks and delays, the house finally welcomed its first resident last June. Today, a few months later, six women live there, two of whom have a disability. “It is not a place designed only for women with different health conditions,” Sainaghi clarifies. “We do not want to create segregated spaces. Our hope is that coexistence among people with different characteristics can trigger mechanisms of mutual support.”
The graphic novel with Russell-Newton students
Among the project’s most innovative initiatives is its collaboration with the Russell-Newton arts high school in Garbagnate Milanese to create an accessible graphic novel to be distributed in vocational training centers (CFPs) and social-educational centers (CSEs), where young people with disabilities find support for training and recreational activities after reaching adulthood. “The story of Artemisia Gentileschi has been reimagined and rewritten in a modern way, highlighting the violence she suffered and the mechanisms that helped her escape her situation,” Sainaghi explains. The work, which began in January 2025, is still ongoing: “It has been an extraordinary experience that allowed the students not only to reflect on gender-based violence, but also to gain skills related to producing accessible communication materials.” Once completed, the graphic novel will be printed and adapted into a digital version, to be used as an awareness-raising tool. “We are very satisfied,” the coordinator concludes. “It’s one of those things we had neither planned nor budgeted for, but it turned out to be the result of a connection as unexpected as it was fruitful.”