By Arlene Snyder April 16, 2010

A group of homeless women at the Kitty Dukakis Treatment Center in Forest Hills recently packed up memories, wishes and dreams to create unique sculptures as participants in the Suitcase Project, a community art-making experience.

From concept to exhibition, the project involved diverse Jamaica Plain groups and individuals, including hopeFound, which operates the treatment center; teaching artist and JP resident Julie Martini; the Eliot School, where she teaches; JP photographer Laura Wulf; and the local branch of Mt. Washington Bank, where the work is on display through April.

“A suitcase is a strong symbol that lends itself to personal stories,” said Martini, who conceived the Suitcase Project while working on other community art projects with homeless people. Many homeless people she worked with were “searching for ways to express themselves,” Martini said.

For the Suitcase Project, she turned the ideas of transporting and transience into a metaphor for the lives homeless individuals lead and the things they carry with them.

In a series of workshops over four weeks at the center, she challenged the women to translate thoughts and feelings into a visual language of associations using color, texture, found objects and other tools to fill a small suitcase frame with the results.

The project included 30 women from age 20 to mid-50s of various races and situations. Some are English speakers, and some needed help from translators to do the project. All of the women have histories of trauma, mental health issues and substance abuse problems and were taking part in an intensive post-detox program at the Kitty Dukakis Treatment Center.

In interviews, most said they did not think of themselves as artists, but one woman, whose mother was a nurse and whose father was an architect, said the project took her back to a creative past.

Twenty-year-old Kathy (not her real name, to maintain confidentiality) was having a hard time being separated from her daughter while at the center. Kathy’s suitcase is a vision of home, and the world of beauty she hoped to give her child. The backdrop of the suitcase lid is the star-studded night sky. A small clay figure of a little girl—her daughter—sits in the middle of a small room inside the suitcase, looking out the window into a darkened yard.

Marian (also a pseudonym) dedicated her suitcase to her grandson. Inside is a sandy beach at sunset, with flowers and birds. In a corner is a small kindling fire. A hand-made swing hangs from the top of the suitcase, and on the swing sits Marian’s grandson, swinging.

Though the original plan was to create an installation with all the suitcases, almost everyone wanted to take her suitcase home. “People get really proud when they make art,” Martini said.

To keep a record of the process and the art, the Eliot School brought in photographer Wulf, who documented the last day of the process. A few suitcases were lent to the center, as reminders of the power of creativity.

The photographs and four suitcases are on display in the lobby of Mt. Washington Bank at 515 Centre St. through the month of April.