June 6, 2025
Education News Canada

OTTAWA CATHOLIC SCHOOL BOARD
Art with Heart: Students Use Creativity to Shine a Light on Women's Homelessness

June 3, 2025

When Art Becomes a Bridge

Every community has stories that deserve to be heard. At St. Pius X High School, our Arts and Culture SHSM students are using paintbrushes, passion, and purpose to tell stories that too often go unseen.

Showcase Your Origins, a student-led art exhibit and fundraiser, will take place on Saturday, June 7. You can witness what happens when creativity becomes a call to action. Through powerful portraits and still-life pieces, students are shining a light on the lived experiences of women supported by Cornerstone Housing for Women women navigating homelessness, healing, and hope.

Opening Doors Through Creativity

This initiative was born from a new partnership with Pébéo Art Supplies, whose Pébéo Days program pairs students with professional artists to help them grow their technical skills and explore the role of art in social impact.

Guided by artist Max Black, students created two series of artwork: one featuring the quiet vulnerability of shelter beds spaces that hold the weight of untold stories and another celebrating women who have moved into housing and are rebuilding their lives with strength and dignity.

The students didn't just learn how to create art they learned how to listen, how to empathize, and how to build something that connects hearts across lived experience.

A Space to Belong and to Give

As a Catholic school community, we are called to nourish new beginnings not only for our students but for the wider community we serve. This exhibit invites guests to do just that. A donation station will be set up at the event, where attendees can contribute wish list items or monetary gifts to support Cornerstone's work.

Representatives from Cornerstone will be there to share stories, answer questions, and remind us that the shift from shelter to stability is never a solo journey it's something we do together, as a community.

Learning that Lives Beyond the Classroom

This event is a beautiful example of what it means to Be Innovative in education: students are learning through real-world impact. They're not just earning grades they're gaining understanding, developing empathy, and discovering the transformative power of service.

They are living our shared commitment to Be Well by recognizing the dignity of every person. They are choosing to Be Community by using their gifts to support those who need them most.

And in doing so, they are opening doors, building bridges, and nourishing new beginnings for others and for themselves.

Join Us

If you're free on June 7, come. Let the artwork move you. Let the stories stay with you. Let this be a moment where we come together not just as observers, but as people who care deeply about the world we create.

Because this is what Catholic education looks like in action.

For more information

Ottawa Catholic School Board
570 W Hunt Club Rd
Nepean Ontario
Canada K2G 3R4
www.ocsb.ca


From the same organization :
47 Press releases