Sub Header

9th Annual Art-a-Day Challenge, January 2018!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Butterfly project

I came across this today and thought there might be an artist or two here that would like to participate:

"The Holocaust Museum in Houston is doing an amazing thing. They have set up a goal to collect 1.5 million handmade butterflies (in any form, painting, collage, sketch etc.) from around the world by December 31st, 2012. Each butterfly represents one of the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust. In the Spring of 2014 an exhibit will be installed in the museum to serve as a memory of the children. They chose butterflies because of the following poem.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing against a white stone.... 

Such, such a yellow Is carried lightly ’way up high. It went away I’m sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye. 

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here Penned up inside this ghetto. But I have found what I love here. The dandelions call to me And the white chestnut branches in the court. 

Only I never saw another butterfly. That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto. 

Written by Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942

Born in Prague on Jan. 7, 1921.
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942. 
Died in Aushchwitz on Sept. 29, 1944. 

The deadline for butterflies to be received at the museum has now been established asDecember 31st, 2012. The instructions for your butterflies are as follows:
  1. Butterflies should be no larger than 8 inches by 10 inches.
  2. Butterflies may be of any medium the artist chooses, but two-dimensional submissions are preferred. 
  3. Glitter and all glitter-related products should not be used. 
  4. Food products (cereal, macaroni, candy, marshmallows or other perishables) also should not be used. 
Please send your butterflies to:
Holocaust Museum Houston
c/o Butterfly Project
Education Department
5401 Caroline St.
Houston, TX 77004 


Please include the following:
  1. Your name
  2. Your organization or school
  3. Your address
  4. Your e-mail address
  5. The total number of butterflies sent.
The Holocaust museum also requests that, if you can, please email a picture of your butterfly to:  butterflyproject@hmh.org


1 comment:

Laura Gable said...

This is one of the most poignant poems I've ever read, especially when you read the rest of the story. Thank you for sharing this. Have you started creating butterflies. Thank you for sharing.