Across Michigan, more than one hundred sixty-five thousand direct care workers show up for others every day. Most of the time, their work goes unnoticed. But right now, at the Hannah Community Center in East Lansing, their stories are being honored with butterflies. And it all started with an idea that was never meant to become what it did.
This is the Caregiver’s Butterfly Garden, a traveling art exhibit featuring thousands of handcrafted paper butterflies, honoring caregivers and the people they care for.
Meranda Putnom is a direct care worker who supports adults at a day center. Some of the people she works with helped create these butterflies.
“Seeing their work live on in this installation means so much. The symbol of the butterfly as transformation, growth, beauty, and freedom really exemplifies the stories that we have with them.”
The Caregiver’s Butterfly Garden was designed by artist Zahrah Resh. But this project, Zahrah says, didn’t begin as a statewide tribute to caregivers. In fact, it started as something very different.
“In 2017, I entered ArtPrize. It is an international art competition in Grand Rapids, and my goal was to win the two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar prize. I was recovering from cancer at that time, and my internist suggested that I get back into art by participating in ArtPrize.”
Zahrah became focused on winning ArtPrize. The problem was she didn’t have the money to fund a large installation. That’s when her internist suggested she speak with her oncologist…