Butterfly Glade Project
The “Butterfly Glade” project includes:
1. butterfly exhibitions presenting artistic watercolors by Ewa Kotus, faithfully reflecting the beauty of butterflies from all over the world;
2. international conferences of the International Tourfilm Academy on the latest knowledge about butterflies, saving butterflies, and international cooperation in this field;
3. films about butterflies and world problems related to their lives;
4. the series of 10 educational attractive books for children aged 5-12, as well as their parents.
5. Creation and promoting the international children’s Club Butterfly Glade.
The project received the international patronage of the International Tourfilm Academy, the honorary patronage of the Marshal of the Masovian Voivodeship, the partners are the Masovian Voivodeship Government and LOT Polish Airlines, because a series of children’s books will be distributed on the board planes on Christmas Day. On March 14 – Butterfly Day – we and LOT Polish Airlines are planning a large promotion of the first and second volumes of the book.
The official opening of the program took place at the beginning of September 2023 at the exhibition in Royal Wilanów at the Wilanów Cultural Center, which was co-organized. We are preparing an exhibition at the Museum of the Mazovian Countryside in Sierpc, and we are in talks with the Earth Museum in Warsaw about presenting the butterfly family tree.
We have been presenting butterflies for two years at the FilmAT Festival www.filmat-festival.com, because their image is on the awards. The International Tourfilm Academy Conferences at the Festival, which always have an international scope, will be attended by scientists and naturalist filmmakers who undertake to convey the beauty of nature and the great contemporary problems related to saving it in their films. There are very few films about butterflies, so we will initiate their creation by ourselves; we have been organizing the festival for 18 years, we operate well in this environment (we know who is the best).
We have already prepared the first book “Ola and Tomek and the secrets of the great butterfly land”, Professor Piotr Bębas from the Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw took care of its substantive content. So along with the light content of the book, serious knowledge and the latest discoveries of scientists regarding butterflies were gradually introduced. The aim of the program is to provide children with knowledge about butterflies in various climatic zones, to infect them with their beauty and to prove how much they are needed by nature.
Already at the end of the first book, seven-year-old Ola and eleven-year-old Tom establish an international club for children “Butterfly Glade” which will plant flowers and other plants that butterflies need to survive. The book is not only wise, but also very attractive for children, because in front of each butterfly there is a tracing paper on which a map of the occurrence of a given butterfly in the world is presented. We also included little Ola’s thoughts on tracing paper, in bubbles, addressed directly to children. In the book, as an attachment, children will find a membership card of the “Motylowa Polana” club with a magnifying glass for viewing maps and reading notes.
As the creators of the project, we are very proud that Mr. Adam Struzik – Marshal of the Masovian Voivodeship has become a member of the Butterfly Glade Club.
We are already very advanced in preparing the second book.
The program is important because it concerns ecology and saving the nature needed for the life of butterflies and all of us living on Earth, which is our common home.