Exhibition at Berman Museum explores opioid crisis through artist’s lens

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n Bearing Witness, running January 25 through May 18, Adam DelMarcelle responds to losing his brother to a heroin overdose and discovering countless more families torn apart by addiction. (Photo courtesy of the Berman Museum)

A Lebanon, Pa.-based artist is expressing his personal experiences with the opioid crisis in museum exhibition co-curated by Ursinus College students at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art.

In Bearing Witnessrunning through May 18, Adam DelMarcelle responds to losing his brother to a heroin overdose and discovering countless more families torn apart by addiction.

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The exhibition is organized in conjunction with Ursinus College’s museum studies class and is co-curated by five students: Tiffini Eckenrod, Abigail Krasutsky, Greta Lagerberg, Alfredo Negron Paradis and Max Stout, and their instructor, Gloria Mast.

DelMarcelle uses design activism to address larger societal issues and has devoted his art to bringing awareness to the opioid epidemic that is gripping local and national communities.

“I started making art as a way to deal with my grief,” DelMarcelle says. “It began as something very personal, but I’m looking to spread this message nationally by traveling to schools around the country to teach art activism and to speak to students about using their artistry for the betterment of their community. There’s power in art and design. It has the ability to raise awareness, to question and to take action.”

The exhibition brings together numerous mediums, including video and slide projections, audio recordings, and street art style prints, that inspire personal reflection and advocate the need for public dialog and action.

DelMarcelle’s design activism has included posting screen prints around his hometown and projecting images onto the sides of buildings, leading to local and national attention.

In addition to the exhibition, DelMarcelle and the Ursinus students will host several public programs throughout the spring, including an opening reception on Feb. 7 at 4:30 P.M.

The Berman Museum, located on the Ursinus College campus and accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed Mondays. Admission is free. Visit ursinus.edu/berman.

One of the nation’s “Colleges that Change Lives,” Ursinus College is a residential undergraduate liberal arts college with 1,500 students that is widely recognized for its first-year Common Intellectual Experience. Founded in 1869, Ursinus’s new “Quest: Open Questions Open Minds” core curriculum re-envisions a liberal education and presents students with an inquiry-driven academic experience. Ursinus’s $100 million Keep the Promise comprehensive campaign culminates during the college’s sesquicentennial anniversary in 2019-20. The tree-lined, 170-acre campus is located 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia in Collegeville, Pa.

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