LOCAL Houston | The City Guide APRIL 2016

ART TAKING FLIGHT: THE BUTTERFLY PROJECT In 1995, children from every continent except Antarctica started making handmade butterflies to send to the Holocaust Museum of Houston as part of The Butterfly Project. The project’s goal was to collect 1.5 million handmade butterflies commemorating each child who perished in the Holocaust. Local artist and photographer Syd Moen was selected to curate Taking Flight: The Butterfly Project, after an extensive search and review process conducted in cooperation with the Houston Arts Alliance. As the museum marks its 20th year of teaching the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy, the timeliness of The Butterfly Project is no mistake. The exhibit was imagined by three Houston-area teachers and based on the poem The Butterfly by Pavel Friedmann, written in 1942 when he was a prisoner in the Terezin Concentration Camp in former Czechoslovakia. The curriculum was meant to help children understand the Holocaust through the poem’s focus on the bond between the past and the future with art as a connection – but to the teachers’ surprise, that curriculum metamorphosed into a “Project” – a movement – that has traveled the globe spreading messages of hope and humanity. The butterfly, with its story of rebirth and transformation has become a symbol of freedom from oppression, intolerance and hatred. Today, The Butterfly Project is a global call-to-action that ignites thought and conversation, stirring emotions and inspiring people to come together to make an impact. Now, more than ever, we need hope. The Butterfly Project embodies that hope, with each butterfly representing positivity and possibility in a world where hate has increasingly taken center stage. To learn more about The Butterfly Project and to get involved with the movement, visit http://hmh.org/butterflies. The site provides up-to-date location and venue information on the traveling butterfly exhibits, a virtual wishing wall for visitors to leave messages about their hopes for the world and a page for people to draw their own butterfly for humanity. Follow @ButterflyPJCT on social media and help us spread the message with #HOPEtag, a tool for fighting bullying, intolerance, racism, inequality and negativity online. By Carla Valencia de Martinez Photography Courtesy of the Holocaust Museum Houston 32 L O C A L | april 16

LOCAL Houston | The City Guide APRIL 2016 | Page 32