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Art Exhibit Displays Road to Recovery for Many Who Had Drug and Alcohol Problems

Marie Heister

  September marks the beginning of recovery month, and Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare presented its clients with a challenge: paint their road to recovery.  The exhibit is now on display at its Recovery Festival of Arts Gallery.

Marie Heister is one of the clients whose photography is on display. But it wasn’t always this way. She was in an abusive relationship and had an alcohol addiction.  With the help of her case manager, she says she swapped a drink for a camera.

“I’ve had to borrow cameras or do different things and it just kind of started up again, and it was like really a gift. And that never would have happened if I was still drinking,” Heister said.

Heister’s display includes a picture of a tunnel. The caption reads, “Recovery is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel”. Heister says life is all about remembering that light is always there.

“Little by little you start to see that light, maybe you get a glimmer, you’ll have a good day, and then maybe you’ll have two days in a row and then you start to string them together and then all of a sudden it looks brighter."

Credit Carolyn Blackburne/WAER News
(click on image to see larger) Mural by Yegor Mikushkin as part of Recovery Arts Festival at Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare

  Yegor Mikushkin used to be addicted to drugs and was homeless, but now he has a 10-foot by 2-foot canvas on display. The canvas is just one of the multiple pieces he made for the show. He says making artwork is freeing for him because life has just recently started looking up.

“I got my first job, my second job, I got a job working with kids. So I really put things into order."

President and CEO of Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare Jeremy Klemanski says the gallery is important, not only for the clients, but for the public as well because it dispels so many negative stereotypes people have about addicts.

“Something, a trauma might happen that triggers substance abuse disorder or a mental health condition or untreated disorders go on for a period of time and people slip into a place in life that they’re not living the life that they want or feeling fulfilled," Klemanski said.  "But you can come here and see this art and see that’s not how it has to be."

The Recovery Arts Festival opened Friday at Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare's Learbury Center on North Salina Street. The festival will continue throughout the rest of September and is open to the public.. 

Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.