As part of the 2017 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with puppet scholar and historian Matthew Cohen entitled Puppet Riches: The Angst Collection at Yale University on November 30, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.
Dr. Cohen, equally acclaimed as a puppet scholar and rod-puppet master, will discuss the rich and exciting details of the new Dr. Walter Angst and Sir Henry Angest collection of over 20,000 Javanese rod puppets and shadow figures at the Yale University Art Gallery—the world’s largest collection of Indonesian puppets.
Matthew Isaac Cohen is Professor of International Theatre and Director of the Centre for Asian Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is a historian and anthropologist of Southeast Asian theater and world puppetry, and performs wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre) under the nom-de-stage of Ki Kanda Buwana, a royal title and name given by the royal court of Kacirebonan of West Java, Indonesia. He has held visiting appointments and fellowships at Sanata Dharma University in Indonesia, the University of Malaya in Malaysia, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. In the fall of 2017, he is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Yale University Art Gallery, researching and helping to curate the Angst collection. Dr. Cohen’s most recent book is Inventing the Performing Arts: Modernity and Tradition in Colonial Indonesia (University of Hawaii Press, 2016).
Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Come early, and experience our puppet exhibitions, as well as the video resources in our library nook. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. Parking in the Storrs Center Garage is free for the first two hours and $1 per hour thereafter, with a daily maximum charge of $8. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. Call 860-486-8580 for more information or visit bimp.uconn.edu.