MFA offers free tours for homeless women from a day shelter

"I see a person," Cyrlene Codrington says, pointing to the center of a painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting is of cabbages with leaves in varying hues of green and purple.

Codrington is part of a group of around 10 women who are on a tour of the museum. Others murmur in agreement with Codrington or offer up their own interpretations of the painting.

"We all may see something different when we look at this," says Allison Sillers, a tour guide at the MFA. "That's the beauty of art — so much is left up to the viewer to interpret."

This is a special tour, organized through a partnership between Women's Lunch Place, a daytime women's shelter and advocacy center in Boston, and the MFA. For women who are patrons of Women's Lunch Place's, the curated tour of the museum is free.

From providing meals and counselors, to reiki sessions and art making, Women's Lunch Place offers many services to women who are homeless in the Boston area. The idea for the tours started with Carolyn Shannon, a volunteer at the MFA, who suggested the museum work with Women's Lunch Place to offer specialized tours. The tours began late last year and take place every month.

"Having the curated tour is really special to us, especially to the guests," says Stacy Zellen, program manager at Women's Lunch Place. "It just helps them see a different light in the world. There's beautiful art and giving the opportunity to share that with them has been really, really impactful."

The tour continues and the group stops in front of Georgia O'Keefe painting of a white rose. Once again, some of the women offer up interpretations of what they see. Codrington points out that she sees angels in the painting. "The rose itself is where the angels are coming from," she says. "It's like they're flying."

This is Codrington's second tour of the museum. Before visiting the MFA with Women's Lunch Place, she hadn't been to the museum in around 15 years. "You weren't sure if you were able or welcome to come in because there was so much art and it just seemed a little stuffy," she says of the museum. "But I like the MFA, it's like a plethora of happy."

Codrington has been frequenting Women's Lunch Place since 2021, when she became homeless and started utilizing the shelter's services. "I went, talked to the lovely ladies at the desk and I got hooked. And now I'm there almost every day," she says. Codrington, who is a beautician, is part of the Women's Lunch Place guest advisory council and offers services like manicures to other patrons at the shelter.

Finding housing is still a priority for her but a tour like this one provides a different, creative experience. "It makes it easy to come in, take a look at the African art or the Asian art and then have something to speak about," Codrington says.

The partnership with the Women's Lunch Place feels especially important, given the work the organization does. "We want them to all feel like they have a space here, like they are welcome here," says Jessica Doonan, the manager of accessibility at the MFA. "And that they have freedom to say when they don't like artwork or talk about artwork if they want to."

Large, institutional museum spaces can feel unwelcoming for certain populations, something the MFA has wrestled with in the past. Though the museum does offer free admission at certain times, the general price of a ticket ($27 for an adult) can be a barrier. "It's cost prohibitive," says Zellen. "Access to art is important, and to be able to see that there is beauty out there to look forward to."

Free tours like this one are part of a concerted effort to make the museum a place for everyone to interact with and experience art. "We hope that visitors come away with a feeling like they belonged here," Doonan says. "Like they found something that they had a connection to, a positive connection, a pleasant connection, a surprising connection."

While there are no definitive studies on the impact of art on homelessness, Women's Lunch Place recognize that access to art and creativity are just as important as other resources.

The MFA tours are part of a "much larger wellness programming at the Women's Lunch Place," Zellen says. "We have a lot of art classes and yarn classes and sewing. So this is part of tactical wellness to get folks out of the building." Women's Lunch Place plans on working with other museums to offer similar curated tours.

At the end of the tour, the group is invited into a private room with blank paper, drawing materials and vases of flowers. The women create their own abstract pieces, based on what they learned during the tour.  Codrington doesn't consider herself a visual artist but enjoys the activity nonetheless.

"What I think [these tours] accomplish is to open up the senses," she points out. "Giving you a way to open up your senses of just knowing that there's beauty out there. Because all things have to be beautiful, even on ugly days."