Timberline Knolls’ Renaissance Triumph: Empowering Voices Through Art
Illinois-based residential treatment facility Timberline Knolls and ad agency Bakery use Renaissance art to depict the strength of alumni with eating disorders.
// By Althea Fung //
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions characterized by unhealthy relationships with food and body image, leading to significant physical and psychological consequences. In the United States, approximately 9 percent of the population — about 28.8 million people — will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime.
Residential treatment centers provide 24-hour care in a structured environment for individuals requiring intensive support. These facilities offer comprehensive services, including medical supervision, therapy, and nutritional rehabilitation. The number of residential eating-disorder treatment facilities in the U.S. has increased over time, growing from 22 in 2005 to at least 75 by 2014, according to the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Rodrigo Rothschild, creative director, Bakery
Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, a facility in suburban Chicago, opened during this expansion. Founded in 2006, Timberline Knolls, operated by Acadia Healthcare, specializes in addressing specific challenges that women and girls face with addiction, eating disorders, and mood disorders. After almost two decades of serving women and children in Chicagoland, Timberline Knolls approached the advertising agency Bakery with a unique challenge: revitalize its public image while emphasizing its impactful work for individuals battling eating disorders.
“The center wanted to do a campaign to raise awareness of their work,” says Rodrigo Rothschild, creative director of Bakery. “After speaking with alumni [former patients], we knew we needed to tell their stories to show the impact of the work that Timberline Knolls does.”
To symbolize the impact that treatment offered at Timberline Knolls has on women and teens struggling with disordered eating, Bakery created a bold campaign — Every Bite a Battle — that brought Renaissance art to life and portrayed these survivors as heroic figures in their journey to recovery.
“Our goal was to heroize the survivors, not pity them. These women aren’t defined by their struggles but by their strength and resilience,” Rothschild explains.
“The alumni didn’t see themselves as victims,” Rothschild says. “They were warriors, and we wanted to depict them as such.”
Rodrigo Rothschild
Bakery