High school students create art to raise money for local women’s shelter

Young artists are helping to paint a brighter future for the residents at Cornerstone Housing for Women. CTV’s Natalie van Rooy reports.

Young artists at an Ottawa high school are helping to paint a brighter future for some of the residents at Cornerstone Housing for Women. Portraits created from their photos will be on display this weekend at St. Pius X High School to raise money for new beds at the shelter.

The works of art help to tell the stories of the residents who have lived at Cornerstone for a period of time.

“It feels nice because I really like volunteer work and I think it does good for people,” said Favour Agbesua, a student at the school.

All of the paintings are created by students at St. Pius X.

“I think being able to support homeless or struggling community members really helped me like realize okay, I can do this for my friends, but I can also do this for other people in the community,” said Ollie Milling, a student that created multiple pieces of artwork.

It’s a new partnership between the school and Cornerstone Housing for Women, a shelter for those experiencing homelessness and fleeing violence.

“I think it was an eye opener for a lot of students to see how much need there was in the community,” said Julie Gant, a visual arts teacher at the school.

The paintings are based on photographs taken by Victoria Harris, a photography teacher at the school.

“It was heartwarming,” said Harris. “It was so nice to go to the space and meet the women and I photographed the rooms.”

The new partnership provides a chance for a bond between those most in need and those in the classroom.

“We bring in professional artists into the schools so that the schools are actually able to create an arts project that is dedicated to their community,” said Max Black, Pébéo Inc arts education coordinator, the program behind the partnership.

A showcase will be held at the school on Saturday to raise money for the shelter.

“We are launching a fundraiser tomorrow for $125,000 for new shelter beds. Last year, Cornerstone tripled the capacity of our shelter, going from 61 beds to 165 now,” said Chris O’Gorman, director at Cornerstone Housing.

Residents will also have a chance to see their portrait for the first time.

“It opens at 12 until 3:30 p.m. and we’re going to have student artwork here, as well as the artwork that they did for Cornerstone,” said Gant.

Some students put their own spin on the meaningful artwork, including Logan McEvoy, who created t-shirts instead of a painting.

“I’m more of a fashion guy, myself, so instead of doing the portraits that my colleagues did, I decided to do this to inspire people to donate, to raise awareness for Cornerstone, and because we obviously need more beds,” said McEvoy.