Category | Arts & Living

The Butterfly Project

Published on November 13, 2007 by The Sentinel

    KSU students are taking an active role in The Butterfly Project, an
effort to memorialize the 1.5 million children who perished in the
Holocaust. The project was inspired by the poem, “I Never Saw Another
Butterfly.”

    Numerous art classes have participated in the creation of handmade butterflies, some of which are displayed at the KSU Center.

    “I decided to participate in this memorial because I wanted to exhibit my understanding of the Holocaust,” said Ashley Bryan. “Some of my friends and I went to see the exhibit at the KSU Center and became inspired to join in this effort to teach others about the 1.5 million children who were killed.”

    The project originated in the Holocaust Museum in Houston. On the website, www.hmh.org, it is predicted, “The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition for all to remember.”

    The main goal of the exhibit is for students to learn that the Holocaust is much more than statistics – it is all of the following: tolerance, acceptance, courage, heroism, family, promise, integrity, persistence and hope.

    This project began in the education department of the museum, which is the fourth-largest Holocaust museum in the U.S. Charlotte Collins, assistant professor of art in the Department of Visual Arts and Natasha Lovelace, assistant professor of art in the Department of University Studies brought this project to KSU.

    KSU has contributed a significant number of handmade butterflies [100,000 as of Summer 2005]. During the Fall 2005 semester, the arts department at KSU began an initiative to promote student participation in this memorial.

    The largest contributions from students come from the KSU First-Year Seminar and the Arts in Society classes.

    Rachel Dejulio, one Arts in Society student describes the effort, “At first I was not too interested in this endeavor, but as I began to unravel the causes and meanings of the butterflies themselves, I felt proud to hand my own handmade butterfly to my art teacher.”

    Additionally, contributions have been made by nearby middle schools and elementary schools.

    “At the close of the temporary installation at the KSU Center, the butterflies will be sent to their final destination at the HMH where eventually they will be on public display,[sic]” said Ms. Collins. “The butterflies here truly display the diversity of life, for they were made by grade school children, college students, and all ages in between. Each one of the butterflies displayed is a unique, one of a kind creations, like the 1.5 million children that perished in the Holocaust.”