On Thursday Oct. 25, Ithaca College Futures Club hosted “Butterflies for Justice,” an arts and crafts event to support immigrants, migrants and refugees.

From 6 to 8 p.m., about 20 students and other community members gathered in a Job Hall classroom at Ithaca College to color paper butterflies. IC Futures will hang all the butterflies around campus.

IC Futures, a social advocacy group, acts as a platform for students who want to get involved in social justice and the community. The event was a continuation of the group’s previous discussion on immigration and how to counter xenophobia.

​Isabel Goldberger, an executive board member of IC Futures, spent hours drawing out and printing the paper butterflies. As an artist and a community organizer, Goldberger said she was happy to find a way to merge her two passions together on this night.

​Isabel Goldberger, an executive board member of IC Futures, spent hours drawing out and printing the paper butterflies. As an artist and a community organizer, Goldberger said she was happy to find a way to merge her two passions together on this night.

“I think that when people think about social justice, community organizing, they think about petitions, protests, policy change, and it seems kind of tedious. But social justice can be fun and colorful through public art and just our projects in general,” Goldberger said.

Goldberger noted how art can bring awareness to social justice issues.

“I think art is an incredibly powerful tool for social justice, just in spreading representation and messages and kind of catching the eye. No matter who you are, you can look piece of art and have some kind of reaction to it.”

Goldberger planned the event along with Ithaca Murals artist, Caleb Thomas, who has coordinated murals in Ithaca for nearly a decade. IC Futures and Ithaca Murals have been collaborating for two years. Goldberger is an intern with Ithaca Murals.

Thomas explained how the arts have historically been used as a vehicle for expression. Art and singing, he noted, were “the soul” of the civil rights movement.

“I think politics is as boring as we make it. And so for me, I like to organize murals because it’s a fun way of organizing. People get to paint together and do art together.”

Mary Hutchens, board chair of Ithaca Welcomes Refugees (IWR), also attended the event. Goldberger reached out to Hutchens to invite her to talk about IWR and connect with students.

Hutchens explained that part of IWR’s mission is to make the community more aware of the needs of immigrants and refugees. IWR began in December 2015 when the seriousness of the migration became more public.

“I loved meeting the young people that are part of this group ,” Hutchens said. “It sounds like some exciting awareness for people to understand that there’s challenging issues in the world, and if we begin talking about them and educating ourselves, chances are we will have more of an impact.”