SAN DIEGO (Press Release) —In recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27) San Diego History Center in historic Balboa Park will host a powerful call to action through the arts on Sunday, January 28, from 1:30-4 p.m. The program will utilize the lessons of the Holocaust, to discuss the dangers of hatred and bigotry.
This timely and family-oriented event will include:
- Film screening of: “NOT the Last Butterfly” (film is suitable for 5th grade & older)
- Painting ceramic butterflies
- Painted butterfly installation and scavenger hunt
- 3:15-3:45: Special presentation: “Our Families: Stories of Survival” from The Butterfly Project Education Team
Cost of the event is $5 for all participants. Those interested in seeing the film should register to ensure seating. Registration available: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/event/butterfly-project/.
“With this partnership project, we seek to bring programming and education about the Holocaust in a framework that students and families can relate to and is relevant to issues of race, identity, and inclusion in today’s challenging and often divisive world,” said Dr. Tina Zarpour, Director of Education and Programs for the History Center.
Among its several exhibits, the San Diego History Center currently features one on the history and contributions of San Diego’s Jewish community.
Butterfly Project’s Co-founder, Cheryl Rattner Price, said: “We are thrilled to bring The Butterfly Project to the San Diego History Center and invite visitors to learn age appropriate lessons as they become a part of our global art memorial. We focus on the power that each of us has to make the world a more peaceful place and are very proud of our San Diego roots and increasing our impact in our community.”
The Butterfly Project was co-founded in 2006 at San Diego Jewish Academy by educator Jan Landau and artist Cheryl Rattner Price as an initiative to take Holocaust education out of the textbook and bring it to life in a new way that would be non-threatening, engaging and profound. The goal is to help students learn and apply the lessons of this history and recognize their responsibility to treat others of different backgrounds and ethnicities with respect. As the core of a meaningful lesson in history, students paint handmade ceramic butterflies and they are counted collectively to reach a goal of 1.5 million butterflies, one for every child killed in the Holocaust; symbolizing renewed life and displayed all over the world, a global, unifying memorial made by people of all faiths.
Since its founding in a school basement at San Diego Jewish Academy in 2006 almost 180,000 butterflies have been painted in 20 states and 16 countries; each butterfly representing a participant in an educational and hand-on artistic experience, in many cases directly engaging with a survivor.
The San Diego History Center, a Smithsonian Affiliate, has been preserving the San Diego region’s history and making it available to the public since 1928. It operates its flagship museum in the heart of Balboa Park as well as the Junípero Serra Museum in historic Presidio Park and tells the diverse stories from our region’s past. The History Center is the steward of our heritage and the principal resource for San Diego history. No other institution is solely devoted to preserving San Diego’s collective history and enhancing community identity.
Give Forward is the History Center’s admission program. Visitors are invited into the museum free of charge; and on their way out, are asked to value their experience in donation form to support an the museum’s open-access ideology that no one should feel restricted from accessing their own history. A voluntary donation helps keep that going.
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Preceding provided by the San Diego History Center.