Swampscott 18-year-old provides Hope for Creativity

SWAMPSCOTT – The artist palettes hanging in the State House this week represent the dreams of artists from places as far as Scotland and Australia and as close as Lynn and Swampscott. But hanging among them will be clouds with dreams from a more local population – one whose hometown is difficult to state, because the dreamers are homeless.”We need to have something to show their thoughts and their dreams,” said the show’s organizer Moira Landry, 18, the founder of the nonprofit Hope For Creativity. “They are not just a statistic, they are kids, they are families and this is what they are thinking.”Hope for Creativity is a nonprofit that provides art supplies for homeless children throughout Massachusetts. Landry began Hope for Creativity in July 2009 and – along with youth volunteers and a very dedicated and supportive mother, Mindy Hanlon – has delivered 2,500 packages of art supplies to children staying in more than 30 family shelters and motels throughout the state. Landry believes every child should have a means of artistic expression.The art show is one of the organization’s biggest events of the year. For the third year, Landry has asked artists to use a wooden 12-by-16-inch oval artist palette as a canvas to show a theme. This year, the organization asked artists to consider their biggest dream, what inspired them to achieve dreams and dreams for the future. The palettes are then offered for sale in an online auction to benefit Hope for Creativity.”I was thinking (Hope for Creativity) has exceeded all of my wildest dreams,” Landry said, explaining how that became this year’s theme.This year’s submissions came from 30 artists representing 12 states and five countries. They will be hanging for a week at the State House, with an opening reception Monday. The show is sponsored by State Sen. Thomas McGee. Among the palettes will be clouds showing the dreams of many of the homeless children that Landry has met as she visits shelters and motels and hotels across the state.Landry said she is particularly interested this year in a project concerning the homeless population temporarily living in motels and hotels.”It’s such an invisible population,” Landry explained. “When we think of the homeless, we don’t think of them in hotels, we think of them in shelters or as on their own and finding their own way.”In fact, Landry and Hanlon said this year marked the first time they were able to meet and work with homeless families living in hotels. Landry is also doing an independent study at school on the population.”In a family shelter, you have offices and staff and families come in contact with service providers pretty often. But in the hotels and motels, there’s none of that,” Landry said. She said that service providers and case workers come in occasionally to check in on families’ needs, but there are not enough workers to regularly meet with people spread out among different hotels and motels throughout the state.”I just think personally it’s not a good system,” Landry said. “I just wanted to try and figure out a way to fix it and maybe bring legislation to the State House.”Landry has other ambitions more typical for an 18-year-old high school senior; although in that she’s dreaming big, too: She applied early decision to Harvard.But she said her college decision is based not on prestige or rankings.”I had to decide whether I was going to keep Hope for Creativity and stay active president or hand it off,” Landry said. “But I wanted to keep it and stay in the role I’m in.” That led to her to only consider schools in Boston.”I’ll stay in Boston and hopefully expand the organization as well,” Landry said.