P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) is an American advocacy organization founded by artist

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work explores in snapshot-style the emotions of the individual, in intimate relationships, and the Bohemian style, bohemian LGBT subcultural communities, especially dealing w ...

to respond to the

opioid crisis The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse or abuse, and Drug overdose, overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs called opiates or opioids since th ...

, specifically targeting the

Sackler Family The Sackler family is an American family who owned the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and later founded Mundipharma. Purdue Pharma, and some members of the family, have faced lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical dr ...

for manufacturing, promoting, and distributing the drug Oxycontin through their corporation

Purdue Pharma Purdue Pharma L.P., formerly the Purdue Frederick Company (1892–2019), was an American privately held pharmaceutical company founded by John Purdue Gray. It was sold to Arthur Sackler, Arthur, Mortimer Sackler, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler in 1 ...

LP.

History

Nan Goldin founded P.A.I.N in 2017 in response to coverage of the opioid epidemic and the Sackler family's involvement in production of Oxycontin in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' and ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'', and as a result of her own addiction to Oxycontin. The goal of P.A.I.N.'s advocacy work is to hold the Sackler Family accountable and to demand that they fund opioid addiction treatment programs. They highlight the financial support that Sackler has given to museums and cultural institutions as a mechanism for improving their public image, and ask the corporation to instead fund harm reduction, rehabilitation, and public education projects. P.A.I.N. demonstrates at these museums and cultural institutions to request that they remove the Sackler name from their institutions and refuse future Sackler donations. Goldin and twelve other members of P.A.I.N. were arrested during a 2019 protest against New York State Governor

Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( , ; born December 6, 1957) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 until his resignation in 2021. A member of the Democratic Party and son of former governor Mario Cuomo, ...

's lack of action on the opioid epidemic, which drew a crowd of approximately two hundred protestors.

Activism

Arthur M. Sackler Museum

P.A.I.N. joined with activists and medical professionals for a July 2018 protest at Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum in Cambridge (Massachusetts) to highlight the Sackler Family's position as a funder of art institutions, and to call on the Sackler Family to instead use their money to fund opioid addiction treatment programs. Protesters marched from

Harvard Square Harvard Square is a triangular plaza at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue (Boston), Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Brattle Street and John F. Kennedy Street near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, C ...

to the Harvard Art Museums, threw empty prescription bottles on the floor, and took part in a " die-in". On April 20, 2023, at least 50 protesters associated with P.A.I.N. staged another die-in in the atrium of the Harvard Art Museum, promoting continuing efforts to dename Sackler facilities at Harvard. A Harvard spokesman confirmed that Harvard has been "considering" a proposal to remove the Sackler name since October 2022.

Guggenheim Museum

In February 2019, P.A.I.N. organized a surprise demonstration at the Guggenheim Museum in response to the Sackler Family's support of the museum and its Sackler Center for Arts Education. Drawing inspiration from reports that Richard Sackler had stated, upon the launch of the drug Oxycontin into the market, that "The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white", protesters dropped fake Oxycontin prescriptions into the museum rotunda before unfurling banners and staging a die-in. Banners including tests such as "400,000 dead" and "Take Down Their Name". Fake Oxycontin prescriptions included excerpts from communication between top Purdue Pharma executives, including members of the Sackler Family, about how to increase sales of the drug despite the likelihood that it would be abused.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

was the location of P.A.I.N. protests in 2018 because its largest gallery space is named after the Sacklers. This demonstration included scattering empty prescription bottles around the

Temple of Dendur The Temple of Dendur (Dendoor in the 19th century) is a Roman Egyptian religious structure originally located in Tuzis (later Dendur), Nubia about south of modern Aswan. Around 23 BCE, Emperor Augustus commissioned the Egyptian temple, temple d ...

in the Sackler Wing of the museum and staging a die-in. In February 2019, Nan Goldin led protesters from the Guggenheim Museum to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum to continue to put pressure on the museum. Goldin has committed to returning annually to the museum in protest until the institution divests from the Sackler Family, including removing the Sackler name from any museum spaces and declining future donations. In 2021, the Met and the Sackler family jointly announced that the Sackler name would be removed from seven exhibition spaces, but would remain on two others: the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in the Asian wing and the Marietta Lutze Sackler Gallery in the modern and contemporary wing.

National Portrait Gallery

London's

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

declined a $1.8 million donation from the Sackler Trust towards its $65 million renovations after pressure from the art community and the public, including statements by Nan Goldin that she would not show her work there if they continued to accept support from the Sacklers.

Freer-Sackler Gallery

Nan Goldin led a group of P.A.I.N. protesters with "Shame on Sackler" banners into the Smithsonian's Freer-Sackler Galleries in April 2018 to draw attention to the support that the Smithsonian institution has received from the Sackler Family.

Louvre

On July 1, 2019, a protest led by Nan Goldin and P.A.I.N. at the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

resulted in the removal of the Sackler family name from wall placards in the Oriental Antiquities gallery, formerly the Sackler Wing of Oriental Antiquities.

Victoria and Albert Museum

In November 2019, Goldin and a group of 30 demonstrators placed "bottles of pills and red-stained "Oxy dollar" bills" on the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

(V&A) courtyard's tiled floor. The group then staged a die-in. In 2022, responding to pressure, the museum dropped ties with the Sackler family. In September it removed the most prominent signs to key areas of its Kensington site, the Sackler Centre for Arts Education, and the £2m tiled "Sackler Courtyard". It intends to choose new names for both.

Impact

Purdue Pharma has responded to P.A.I.N.'s efforts with reports of an initiative on Corporate Social Responsibility, launched in March 2018. The corporation also spearheaded a PR campaign against activist Nan Goldin to discredit her criticism, before shifting their marketing focus from the United States to the developing countries. Daniel Weiss, president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has revealed that the museum is reviewing policies which guide the acceptance of gifts to the museum.

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

have also announced that they will review the philanthropic support they receive from the Sackler Family. In March 2019, major museums and galleries began to reject support from the Sackler Trust UK, including the

and

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

. Tate had previously accepted approximately £4 million from Sackler Family philanthropies. Sackler Trust UK responded by halting new donations. The Louvre was the first museum, in July 2019, to remove the Sackler name from galleries as a result of protests two weeks earlier, although museum leadership refused to comment on the timing of the removal and instead cited museum policy on the duration of naming rights for funders.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.sacklerpain.org/ Civil disobedience 21st-century social movements Opioid epidemic 2019 protests Sackler family