The Opioid Project: Changing Perceptions Through Art and Storytelling
Partnering with organizations to fight stigma
and educate communities about the costs of the epidemic while supporting those personally touched by the crisis.
Community-based Workshops and Art Exhibitions led by Annie Brewster and Nancy Marks
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From 1999 to 2023 nearly 645,000 people died of an opioid overdose, from either prescription or illicit drugs. More than 80,000 of these overdose deaths occurred in 2021 alone, which was 10 times the number of opioid overdose deaths in 1999. The numbers continue to climb. The Opioid Project: Changing Perceptions through Art & Storytelling (The Opioid Project) is a response to this escalating epidemic. Started in 2016, the project is a collaboration between visual artist Nancy Marks and physician and Health Story Collaborative founder Annie Brewster.
The Opioid Project provides a safe place for those affected by the opioid epidemic to explore and process their personal experiences. Through artmaking and storytelling, and in collaboration with community partners, we strive to decrease stigma and promote positive social change through dialogue, education, and advocacy.
Decreasing stigma is critical to the health of a community and its members
Most people want to believe that the Opioid epidemic is happening ‘out there,’ not connected to those who they love, work with, or befriend in their communities. The dominant narrative is that those who use drugs are bad people and criminals, who come from dysfunctional families. This stigma, grounded in fear, misinformation, and lack of empathy separates and silences us as human beings. In fact, we are all touched by, and vulnerable to, this public health crisis. The human costs of the epidemic involve not just individuals living with substance use disorder, but also the family members and friends, the first responders and frontline workers, co-workers and neighbors, business owners and teachers. All of us. No community is spared.
I witnessed the powerful healing impact of The Opioid Project on patients, family members, and therapists. Communities appreciate the opportunity for candid self-expression and a safe space to share personal journeys, and amidst a rising need for attention to preventing opioid-related deaths, The Opioid Project is serving an important community care gap.— Hilary S. Connery, MD, PhD, Clinical Director, Division of Alcohol, Drugs, and Addiction, McLean Hospital, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
How The Opioid Project works
The Opioid Project consists of 4-hour art making and audio storytelling workshops where participants create collages and share personal stories. The art and recorded stories contextualize and bring to life the human costs of the epidemic. The finished work is hung in community multimedia exhibitions where each artwork is paired with its audio story.
The Opioid Project partners with community organizations to identify local participants and to disseminate the created art and audio stories. Participants — those in recovery, individuals who have lost a loved one, first-responders and frontline workers — continue to share the enduring benefit from participating in the workshops.
Art and Stories leads to dialogue, education and advocacy change
Using cell phones, visitors listen to Opioid Project participants share their stories while visually viewing the artwork. Community partners lead discussions with the goal of increasing public understanding about stigma and supporting advocacy efforts around addiction and access to mental health services.
The Opioid Project, based in Boston, has worked with over 15 communities from Massachusetts to Fairbanks, Alaska. The art and audio have been displayed in hospitals, places of worship, libraries, museums, schools, and town halls. Thousands of individuals — from young people to senior citizens — have visited the exhibitions, taken part in community discussions and/or have viewed the art and listened to the stories online
Partnering with The Opioid Project has been invaluable to our efforts to address the entrenched stigma in our community. People don’t want to accept that opioid use is real in a suburban community. The Opioid Project has pushed our community members to have some very real and difficult conversations and it brought it closer to home.
— Bea Duncan, SOAR (Supporting Outreach and Addiction Recovery, Natick MA)
Selected Press
The Washington Post, June 14, 2023 How a new generation has changed Grief
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/06/14/grief-changing-generations/
KFAR, 660AM-97.5FM, May 13, 2023 (Alaska) Nancy Marks and The Opioid Project https://kfarradio.com/audioarchives/MAY%2010%202023%20%20NANCY%20MARKS%20THE%20OPIOD%20PROJECT.mp3
East Boston Times-Free Press, October 18, 2019 The Opioid Project Comes to East Boston
http://eastietimes.com/2019/10/18/the-opioid-project-comes-to-east-boston/
Boston Globe, August 9, 2018 Fighting the Opioid Crisis, One Story at a Time
For a PDF Overview: https://3bfeca70-f259-4bf6-8162-b770aca21eef.filesusr.com/ugd/13c4a7_313f8d3fd0ed4b13a33203c07c419a54.pdf
For examples of the pairing of art/audio: https://www.healthstorycollaborative.org/the-opioid-project
Become a partner and bring The Opioid Project to your Community!
Workshop participants may include survivors of opioid overdose and those in recovery, family and friends, first responders, and staff/medical personnel.
