Toteful was a collaborative project between a class work group and members of the St James Community Center in Montreal. The St James Center was a daytime drop-in center where homeless individuals could stay warm, eat healthy meals and rest.

The project involved designing, producing and selling a series of tote bags which would serve as a mobile gallery for the center participants’ work with all proceeds going to the center itself.

Our team spent several days hanging out in the center’s art room, drawing and getting to know some of the members. Members who wished to participate submitted their drawings to us. We chose 3 pieces to feature on the front of the bags and created a collage of all of the submissions which was featured on the back.  We then hand-sewed and silkscreened all of the bags and sold them.

Our team raised close to $2000 for the center and we also hosted a silkscreening workshop at the center where participants were able to silkscreen the designs onto bags and t-shirts.

Greater than what we gave, however, was the experience we gained and the beautiful, bright, funny and talented people we got to know in the time we spent there.

Our hope is that these bags will serve to remind those that see them that just because someone’s socio-economic situation might not be the same as ours doesn’t mean they have nothing to offer the world.

Project design, bag design, fabrication and silkscreening were all done collaboratively by Keltie Larter, Crissy Jarvis, Maddy Newey and Michael MacLean. All artworks were created and contributed by members of theSt James Center.