‘Butterfly Project’ art to be unveiled

On Friday, October 1, 2021, Dorseyville Middle School will be unveiling art projects that last year’s eighth grade students created in collaboration with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Three projects will be on display in the lobby for students and staff members to view.

One of the projects to be displayed was funded by a grant through the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, in conjunction with the Butterfly Project. Students also collaborated with a muralist, Amanda Lynn, to create an original piece of art influenced by the famous poem, “The Butterfly,” by Pavel Friedmann. The Butterfly Project is international movement with the goal to paint 1.5 million butterflies to honor the 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust. The project’s website says its purpose is to educate today’s children on the Holocaust and to teach about the importance of embracing difference and to fight against bigotry and intolerance.

Additionally, the director of the LIGHT Education Initiative, Nick Haberman, a Shaler Area High School teacher, will be on hand from 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. to help explain the experience and talk to students about opportunities with the LIGHT initiative at Fox Chapel Area and through the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. According to the organization’s website, LIGHT is an education initiative that connects K-12 students to community members of all ages through themes within human rights and genocide, like being an upstander, making responsible choices, social and environmental justice, kindness and love, and volunteerism, and humility.

Dorseyville Middle School eighth-grade language arts teacher Scott Vensel was instrumental in facilitating the art projects at Dorseyville Middle School.