INTO LIGHT Project—Drug Addiction, Real People: Real Stories

• Duration:Temporary
• Location:Hundley Central Core

(date) 2/9/2027–6/30/2027

Since 2019, the INTO LIGHT Project has partnered with families across the country who have lost someone to substance use disorder. A team of professional artists creates an original graphite portrait of each person, paired with a professionally written narrative drawn from stories shared by the people who knew them best. The portraits and narratives are displayed together in free public exhibitions—in museums, universities, and community spaces—designed to humanize addiction rather than show each person as a statistic or negative stereotype attributed to the disease. At the close of each exhibition, families are gifted their loved one’s original framed portrait, and every story is permanently preserved through the project’s archival partnership with the University of California, San Francisco. The portraits and narratives are replicated and become part of the Community Traveling Collection that travels around the state.

INTO LIGHT is bringing Drug Addiction: Real People, Real Stories to the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures in Urbana, Illinois opening February 9th, 2027. Save the date for the opening event on March 27th, 2027 at 1:00 pm.