The Butterfly Project

September 17-December 31

About the Butterfly Project

The Butterfly Project was co-founded in 2006 at San Diego Jewish Academy by educator Jan Landau and artist Cheryl Rattner Price as a new approach to teaching the Holocaust that is engaging, accessible, hopeful, and profound. The project was inspired by the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a collection of art and poetry created by children imprisoned in the the Terezin/Theresienstadt concentration camp, the butterfly an everlasting symbol of hope and transformation.

The Butterfly Project began as an initiative to create and display a total of 1.5 million butterflies in cities around the world, one for every child murdered in the Holocaust and to honor the survivors. Through education and hands on artistic programming, students are empowered to remember the past, act responsibly in the present, and create a more peaceful future.

Proudly collaborating with many Jewish and Non-Jewish organizations, we are a grassroots-gone-global project with installations totaling nearly 180,000 butterflies in communities across the United States and in countries including Israel, Poland, Czech Republic, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, and Uruguay.

The Butterfly Project in Pittsburgh

Working with Cheryl Rattner Price in San Diego, with generous support from the Lipsman Family, the Holocaust Center began to paint butterflies, starting with a program for Holocaust survivors in June 2016. We quickly saw the potential of the project for groups of all ages and backgrounds. Twenty schools and organizations painted 875 butterflies to be added to the count in San Diego. One hundred of the butterflies are on display at Community Day School, a partner on the project, and the remainder are included in two exhibits at the Holocaust Center. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to build meaningful relationships throughout the region while remembering the children lost in the Holocaust in such a beautiful way.

Butterflies Painted By

Franklin Regional High School
Franklin Regional Middle School Gifted Program Friendship Circle
Councilman Dan Gilman
Holocaust Center Community
Latino Family Center
Mayor Bill Peduto
South Hills Jewish Community Center
The Ellis School
Yeshiva Girls Middle School
Wesley Spectrum School
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Hazelwood Branch
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Squirrel Hill Branch
Community Day School Third Graders and Siblings
Hazelwood Chess Club
Holocaust Center Staff and Friends
Jewish Association on Aging – Charles Morris Manchester Charter School
Pittsburgh-area Holocaust Survivors
Jewish Association on Aging – Weinberg Village Yeshiva Boys Middle and High School
Yeshiva Girls High School

Exhibition was made possible by funding from:

The Lipsman Family Endowment Fund in memory of Charles and Hilda Lipsman
The Charles E. Kaufman and Virginia Kaufman Fund #3 of The Pittsburgh Foundation
Pauline Frankel Memorial Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation
Beatrice N. Baum and Harry H. Baum Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation
The Jack and Sara Gordon Holocaust Cultural Endowment Fund
Leora Rogal Memorial Endowment Fund
Holocaust Center Exhibits Endowment Fund
Jewish Healthcare Foundation