Catherine Pizzuto, who lives about a half-mile from Wheaton College, remembers when her son John “Jack” Pizzuto used to romp around on the bucolic Norton campus when he was young. “This was his playground,” Pizzuto said. Jack died at age 27 in December 2022 of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, benzodiazepines, and alcohol, his mother said.
Today, his portrait, mementos and story are displayed in a new exhibition at the college that opened this week. It aims to present the human side of drug addiction, using art to promote healing and the understanding of different perspectives. The opening was in time for International Overdose Awareness Day, which is Saturday.
The exhibition, titled “Drug Addiction: Real People, Real Stories, Massachusetts Into Light Project” is in the Beard and Weil Galleries and is open to the public. It features 41 hand-drawn portraits and personal belongings of people who have died from drug overdoses, including Jack Pizzuto, a Norton native. The art initiative is being presented throughout the country and Wheaton was chosen to be the host of the Massachusetts exhibition by the Into Light Project, a national nonprofit whose mission is to change the conversation about drug addiction through the power of original art and stories.
“It’s become more powerful than I thought possible. It’s an example of what I could have hoped an exhibition could be,” Elizabeth Hoy, director of the Beard and Weil Galleries, said. The pencil drawings of th.