Art Saves Lives –
August 9, 2019 – Museum Director Denise Lebica hopes that the exhibit can raise awareness and start dialogue about the opioid crisis. It can also be a way to destigmatize addiction and foster compassion, she said. The artists are from Massachusetts and around the country. They participated in substance use training and met with the families to create their pieces. John Christian Anderson, who lives in Roslindale, made “Sacrificial Lamb.” It’s an upside down head nestled in drug containers, which represents how the urge to get high can turn a person’s life upside down. The arrangement resembles altars used in Aztec and Mayan rituals where human sacrifices honored the gods and asked for health to the community. In this case, he said the wealth came to drug corporations that misrepresented themselves to sell products. Anderson worked with a young woman whose brother fell into addiction after being prescribed OxyContin after a workplace injury.
