Center Helps Women Find Peace of Mind in Art

It was envisioned as their room, a quiet retreat for women to explore artistic endeavors without the stresses of their homes.

Screenwriter Wendy Cooper-Porcelli wanted it to be a “room of their own,” where women could write fiction and poetry, paint, take pictures or learn to edit videos.

Virginia Woolf’s 1929 book “A Room of One’s Own,” a collection of lectures the author had given on women in fiction, played heavily in Cooper-Porcelli’s decision to found the Women’s Multimedia Center in Claremont. Woolf’s theme was the need of such women for private space.

“It struck me, being a young mother of two small children at the time,” said Cooper-Porcelli, 37, who now has four children. “I guess it caused some sort of epiphany in me. I so needed my own space.”

In time, the center would exceed her vision.

Instead of simply being a space for women interested in learning and art, the center has become the headquarters of many such “rooms”--seminars and workshops held at group homes and shelters for women who are struggling to get back on their feet.

Judy, for example, attended Women’s Multimedia Center classes while at a women’s shelter in Pomona.

Judy had never written about her feelings before then, she said, but the words came easily to her, and she was able to make sense of a traumatic childhood while learning to reconcile her sexuality with her image of God.

“Sometimes it was extremely painful and emotional, and like a relief, in a way,” said Judy, 47, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her privacy.

“Some of it still doesn’t make sense,” she added, “but other stuff came together nicely.”

The Women’s Multimedia Center, in a building painted royal blue with terra-cotta trim, opened in September 1999 with an art exhibit featuring works by local women.

Since then, organizers and volunteers have spent most of their time teaching classes outside the building--at women’s shelters, group homes for parolees, continuation schools for troubled teens and detention camps for youth offenders.

Focus on Older Women

There aren’t many other programs like this one, according to officials at Community Partners, a Los Angeles-based organization that helps nonprofits in their first years of operation. Annually, about 44 organizations countywide join the Community Partners network.

Most programs with multimedia elements focus on young people--among them PF Bresee Foundation in Los Angeles and Community Digital Initiative at UC Riverside. But the Claremont center specializes in older women, often those in transition.

Lisa Rodriguez, a professor with the Claremont Colleges and center co-founder, facilitates a weekly session at Crossroads, a group home for women on parole. Sessions vary from open discussions, to watching and critiquing movies and recording video diaries.

“We watch a lot of movies with strong female roles in them,” said Robin Steffen, a resident staff member at Crossroads, who spent six months as a client before getting a job at the facility. Steffen, who once served a three-year prison sentence for receiving stolen property and drug possession, said the program tries to show women “that they aren’t powerless.”

“A lot of women come here thinking, ‘I only know how to work the streets. I only know how to use drugs,’ ” she said. “There’s a vast world out there.”

Another program working with the center is Prototypes of Pomona, which offers psychological treatment and group therapy sessions to battered women and those addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Judy, who spent 13 months at Prototypes after suffering a nervous breakdown, said the classes helped her to develop “tools for life.”

After growing up in a strict Christian household, Judy struggled in her young adult life to come to terms with her homosexuality. When she was 16, she told her mother she was a lesbian, and was sent to therapy.

“I always had a problem with religion,” Judy said. “I had this thing with God, because I always thought I was going to hell. Homosexuality was the ultimate sin. At least that’s what I’d been taught.”

Judy said she couldn’t deal with a precarious relationship with her father, who, until she was older, never had much to say to her. And most of her childhood memories--everything that happened before she was 12--remain a blur.

“I didn’t have the tools to deal with life,” she said. “The only way I knew how to deal with the pain was through drinking.”

Judy’s breakdown took place in early 2000. She had ended a long-term relationship and lost her business and her house. In the end, she checked into Prototypes.

“The therapy was great,” Judy said of her experiences at Prototypes. “But the writing gave me a whole new insight into myself. It wouldn’t have worked if I didn’t do the writing.”

Poetry has allowed her to release emotions: “Why does everything happen so quickly in the minds of the insane/ There and back/ Only to be returned to the un-breathable sameness that caused the sickness to begin.”

Founder Funds Center

Since the Women’s Multimedia Center opened, it has existed on a budget of $35,000 a year, most of which comes from Cooper-Porcelli.

Cooper-Porcelli was able to work out a deal with the landlord so that, instead of paying rent, the organization foots the bill for all building renovations, which have amounted to $45,000. The rest of the budget goes to supplies and equipment.

The center is writing grant proposals to help pay operating expenses.

But even without the extra help, Cooper-Porcelli said, she’d continue to fund the center. “It’s not easy, but it’s a priority,” she said. “I just don’t get to treat myself to some things, like shopping sprees or trips.”

“It’s worth it to me,” she said later. “It’s worth my money and my time.”