By Hannah Wanamaker
Hopewell, Ottawa’s eating disorders outreach program, is melding drag, performing, and visual arts at their outreach and awareness event Art of Hope, partaking at Orange Art Gallery on May 11. Hopewell has partnered with local artists to feature cool things people want to do while promoting their resources to address stigma and misinformation surrounding eating disorders. Art of Hope will be hosted by local drag queen JD Merciii and will showcase a plethora of art, including pieces from student artists attending Beatrice-Desloges Catholic Secondary School, an arts-focused high school in Orleans.
September by Clara Kim. Photo provided.
Hopewell’s events and communications coordinator, Ameera Brown, hopes the event engages a larger audience.
“[I’m really hoping for] lots of awareness and for people to come and have fun,” she said. “[I hope] that they want to come back again, tell their friends and just get involved.”
This will be Brown’s second year organizing Art of Hope. After last year’s virtual event, the itinerary this year focuses on audience engagement in the experience. Other featured arts include spoken word poetry, live music, and foraged art workshops.
Host JD Merciii is very excited to raise awareness for eating disorders while sharing her passion for the art of drag.
“If I can invite random people that I don’t even know and have fun with them, make them aware and raise money for an amazing cause that has touched me so much, then that’s all I can really ask for.”
Art of Hope blends arts with recovery, bringing two communities together and encouraging positive and creative coping skills. As part of both communities, Merciii has delved into and explored her artistic talent to empower her recovery—something she didn’t have the opportunity to do in her youth. After spending her high school years battling mental illnesses, including anorexia, drag has become a vital coping mechanism in her recovery. She can practice body positivity and neutrality while exploring her authenticity and sharing that with her audience: “I can be silly, I can be sexy, I can be whoever I want to be, as long as I’m being respectful and having fun,” she said. In her work with Hopewell, Mercii hopes to build a support network for the Queer community, who experience higher rates of eating disorders and body dysmorphia.
Outer Body by Corinne Blouin. Photo provided.
Brown also reached out to Olivia Renaud, a grade nine student at Beatrice-Desloges who was the youngest artist to submit art featured in last year’s Art of Hope. This year, Renaud has become a liaison between Hopewell and her school, after Brown suggested involving some of Ottawa’s arts schools for youth engagement.
“It’s really cool that [Hopewell] wanted to include younger people and younger audiences in the community,” Renaud said. She looks forward to volunteering at Art of Hope this year and watching some of her classmates perform. She revealed that her school’s jazz band will kick off the night with a few numbers. Some student-artist pieces will also be on commission, with another of her creations featured. Brown also teased that some theatre students will present a busking performance in Venetian masks.
Renaud says she tried to convey hope in her featured art pieces for Hopewell.
“[Eating disorders] are an important topic that not a lot of people talk about, or they don’t really know about that much. I think it’s really important because it affects a lot of people, especially teenagers,” she said.
Goddess of the Sea by Olivia Renaud. Photo provided.
Brown explained that over the past few years, Hopewell has had to implement more programming due to the massive increase in people struggling with eating disorders and disordered eating throughout the pandemic. With a generous donation from a family whose daughter lost her battle with her eating disorder, Hopewell could begin implementing some new arts programs.
“[Hopewell wanted to] create arts programming and then build on that, so that we could have other ways for people to go through the recovery journey, more than just sitting and talking about it all the time,” Brown said.
She also shared the importance of community throughout recovery: “We don’t have to talk about it behind closed doors; we can talk about it openly and it doesn’t have to be this huge, heavy thing all the time if we’re all doing it.”
Art of Hope will be held at Orange Art Gallery (290 City Centre Ave) on May 11 from 7-9pm. The gallery is wheelchair accessible, and registration is available by donation on Hopewell’s website.
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