Brush With the Law

Community art for healing, visibility, and social change

Brush With the Law is a community arts initiative founded by Maria Maneos. Through collaborative art projects, workshops, murals, and public engagement, the organization uses art as a tool for connection, healing, and social awareness.

Brush With the Law works with schools, libraries, community organizations, and individuals affected by incarceration, addiction, mental health challenges, homelessness, and other forms of social marginalization. The goal is to create meaningful opportunities for expression, dignity, connection, and public visibility through art.

Baggie Project arts initiative led by Maria Maneos for Brush With the Law about writings on vellum paper about feelings about addiction and overdose. — Baggie Project a community arts initiative about feelings on addiction.

What Brush With the Law Does

Brush With the Law develops projects that bring artists, community members, advocates, and participants together. Programs may include:

Collaborative art workshops
Community murals and mosaic projects
Exhibitions and public art installations
Creative spaces for storytelling, reflection, and healing

Community art workshop led through Brush With the Law

Why Brush With the Law Was Founded

Founded in 2013, Brush With the Law creates collaborative art projects that foster connection, expression, and public visibility. The organization centers voices that are often overlooked, using art to open space for healing, dialogue, and social change.

Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard mural in Ambler, Pennsylvania — *Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard mural in Ambler, PA*

A Community Extension of Maria Maneos’s Art Practice

Brush With the Law grew out of Maria Maneos’s larger commitment to art as a way of making lived experience visible. Like her studio work, the initiative is rooted in memory, resilience, storytelling, and the human need to be seen. The projects create space for people to participate in the making of public art, whether through workshops, murals, exhibitions, or collaborative installations.

This community-based work connects closely to Maria’s broader practice as a visual artist. Visitors can learn more about her background on the About page, view related themes in her Paintings and Sculptures, or get in touch through the Contact page to ask about projects, collaborations, or community arts programming.

Follow Brush With the Law

Instagram @brushwiththelaw

YouTube @brushwiththelaw

Follow Maria Maneos

Instagram @mmaneos