Art installation commemorates victims of opioid epidemic

Newsrooms across the commonwealth have spent years documenting the opioid crisis in their own communities. But now, in the special project State of Emergency: Searching for Solutions to Pennsylvania’s Opioids Crisis, we are marshalling resources to spotlight what Pennsylvanians are doing to try to reverse the soaring number of overdose deaths.

WITF is releasing more than 60 stories, videos and photos throughout July. This week, you will find stories about education, prevention and community support.

The presentation is simple: A series of monofilament fishing lines hang from the ceiling, and attached to each small plastic baggies. Inside each baggie is a small plastic crystal bead.

There are 5,577 baggies — one for each of the people who died in Pennsylvania due to heroin or opioid overdoses in 2017.

The piece is titled “5577,” and is on display through Sept. 9 at the State Museum of Pennsylvania as part of the museum’s Art of the State exhibit.

“I think there are so many people that are involved in this issue — and this is just Pennsylvania,” said Maria Maneos, the artist behind the project. “It’s beautiful, but once you understand it, it’s horrific at the same time.”

Maneos is one of many Pennsylvanians with a personal connection to addiction.

“My son struggles with heroin addiction,” she said. “Smart kid, college, all that stuff. But when I found myself going to the Montgomery County prison to visit him, and seeing so many others just like him, I said, ‘the arts can do something here’.”

Maneos had already done art therapy with disabled veterans and people recovering from strokes, when she shifted to working with the incarcerated. Her nonprofit organization, Brush With the Law, built upon the art classes, and helps use art as therapy as well as a re-entry tool and source for community service: several inmates with the program created murals, including one for the Norristown Police Department in honor of a fallen officer.

Maneos partnered with another organization, a mental health advocacy group called Hope Works, in order to complete “5577.”

“After she told us her vision of how it will represent the people who have died of opioid or drug overdose, we wanted to be part of that,” said Ameika Malcolm of Hope Works. “Everybody had a connection with that in some shape or form. Everybody had, whether it was directly or indirectly, some story that they could tell you. ‘I know somebody’, or a family member is going through this crisis, or overdosed, or experienced the ripples of that.”

People enrolled in the Hope Works programs helped fill the baggies for the piece, which were then installed by Maneos, Malcolm and State Museum staff and volunteers. And in every step of the process, inevitably, conversation arose about the epidemic, and people shared stories about their own experiences and connections.

“They were able to support each other in conversation, Malcolm said. “It was very therapeutic for people who were going through loss, or whatever struggle they had at the time. “

One man in the Hope Works program, Malcolm explained, “doesn’t like to interact. But the fact that he was able to sit there and put the gems in the bag was his outlet, or his way of expressing, ‘I am out here in the world, I’m getting involved, and I have a sense of community around me.”

“This installation is obviously a very timely piece,” added Michele Ensminger, chief of exhibits at the State Museum. “It’s a focus of conversation everywhere around the world, not just central Pennsylvania.”

Ensminger, like Maneos, has a child that suffers from addiction.

“Every time I think about this – we’re standing here unwinding these strings, that are sometimes frustrating,” she said. “And every time I look at one of these little crystals in a baggie, I think, ‘that is representing someone’s life who lost that battle.’ It’s just very close to home for me.”

“When you read a number, and see a number, it’s completely different,” Maneos said. “The visual on this is very important, to help bring the awareness of those numbers. There are so many people struggling with this, it’s not just them by themselves. They’re not alone, and they’re remembered.”