The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will present the grand opening of its new exhibit Living Objects: African American Puppetry on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018 at 6:30 p.m., with refreshments served at 6:30 p.m. and a free tour beginning at 7 p.m. All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. Ballard Institute Director John Bell comments “we are extremely excited that this important element of African American culture and performance will be celebrated and experienced in an exhibition of national importance.” The exhibition will be on display through Sunday, April 7, 2019.

The Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibition at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is an event of national significance focused on an important but often overlooked aspect of American culture: the work of African American puppeteers. Bringing together puppets, performing objects, masks, and media work by over twenty different puppeteers from the late 19th century to the early 2000s, Living Objects: African American Puppetry will redefine our sense of American puppet history. Exhibition co-curator Dr. Paulette Richards writes: “since their arrival in the Americas, African people have animated objects in a rich variety of forms and contexts. Despite the prohibition by slaveholders on the creation of figurative objects reflecting an African-derived worldview, African Americans nevertheless animated objects to represent their experiences and identity.” Living Objects: African American Puppetry, Richards adds, will “highlight the work of contemporary African American artists while contextualizing the evolution of African American object performance.”

Living Objects: African American Puppetry is co-curated by Dr. Paulette Richards and Dr. John Bell. Dr. Paulette Richards is an Atlanta-based teaching artist. She holds a Ph.D. in French Civilization from the University of Virginia and currently serves as a docent at the Center for Puppetry Arts’ Worlds of Puppetry Museum. Dr. John Bell is a theater historian, puppeteer, and Director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. He is also an Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut.

The Living Objects: African American Puppetry project also includes workshops, forums, performances from Oct. 2018 through April 2019, including a Living Objects Symposium and Festival at the Ballard Institute Feb. 7-10, 2019, which will bring together scholars, performers, students, and the general public to discuss, watch, contemplate, and enjoy the many different aspects of African American puppetry. This project is presented as part of the African Diaspora, an initiative organized by the UConn School of Fine Arts, which celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the UConn African American Cultural Center. Additional exhibits and events are ongoing throughout the 2018-2019 academic year. For more information, visit sfa.uconn.edu/african-diaspora.

For more information about the Living Objects exhibit and related events, or if you require an accommodation to attend a program, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host its Fall Puppet Performance Series on four Saturdays from Sept. to Dec. 2018, featuring outstanding works of puppet theater by professional puppeteers from across New England and beyond. Each show will be performed twice, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. All performances will take place at the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

The schedule of the Fall Puppet Performance Series includes the following:

Sept. 29: The Fairy Circus by Tanglewood Marionettes
The Fairy Circus features over twenty beautifully handcrafted marionettes, and is a showcase for turn-of-the-century-style trick puppetry. The puppets will dance, play instruments, juggle, contort, transform, and fly through the air with the greatest of ease, all to the best-loved music of favorite composers! Recommended for ages 4+.
 

Oct. 27: Sir George and the Dragon by Pumpernickel Puppets
Join an adventurous princess as she journeys to Mystery Mountain to visit the Great Green Dragon. Along the way you’ll meet Zelda the babysitter, a silly bat, Sir George and his clumsy dog, and of course the lovable dragon. Will Sir George slay the dragon? Not to worry, everything ends happily in this fun show. Presented with large colorful hand puppets and live voices and sound effects. Recommended for ages 3+.

Nov. 10: The Fairy Tailor by Sarah Nolen
Meet the Fairy Tailor, hard at work in her enchanted shop, where dressing racks and laundry baskets are known to have a mind of their own. Watch as she transforms everyday garments into extraordinary characters, and shares stories of bravery, from “Little Red Riding Hood(ie),” to “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” With the audience’s help, the Fairy Tailor summons the courage to take a stand against a giant, crafting a solution that combines cleverness with creativity. Recommended for ages 4+.

Dec. 1: The Gingerbread Man by WonderSpark Puppets
“Run, run, as fast as you can–you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man!”  The Gingerbread Man is the classic story of a little running cookie–with a Christmas twist. Watch as the Gingerbread Man outwits and outruns various hungry animals–and figures out what he really wants for Christmas. This handpuppet show is performed in a traditional puppet booth. Recommended for ages 3+.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors: $10; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under)

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by calling 860-486-8580, or online at bimp.ticketleap.com. A surcharge will be added to any purchases made online. Tickets may also be purchased at the Ballard Institute on the day of performance starting at 10 a.m. There will be open seating and no reservations. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. Parking is free for the first two hours and $1 per hour thereafter, with a daily maximum charge of $8. For more information about these performances or if you require an accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will once again offer fall community puppet-building workshops with acclaimed Boston puppeteer Sara Peattie, to design and build life-size and over-life-size puppets of community role models for the Celebrate Mansfield Parade in Downtown Storrs. These free workshops will take place Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 8 and 9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. Workshop participants will be invited to parade with the puppets as part of the Celebrate Mansfield Parade on Sunday, Sept. 16 at noon, and then perform in an open-air community pageant. These events are all part of the 15^th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival.

The theme for this year’s Ballard Institute parade and pageant is Sheroes, Heroes, and other Champions of the Mansfield Community, which will bring together groups and individuals from the Mansfield and UConn communities to celebrate the people and ideas we look up to. Working together with puppeteer Sara Peattie of the Boston-based Puppeteers Cooperative, groups and individuals will create over-life-sized masks and puppets representing important role models, objects, or ideas for their particular community. These puppets and masks will then be part of the Celebrate Mansfield Parade on Sunday, Sept. 16 at noon (line-up begins at 10:30 a.m. at Farrell Field near the Post Office), and a Sheroes, Heroes, and Other Champions of the Mansfield Community Pageant performed at Betsy Paterson Square in Downtown Storrs after the parade.

Workshop leader Sara Peattie is known for her dramatic creations that have become a central feature of community parades and pageants across the United States. Long a mainstay of Boston First Night festivities and the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in New York City, Sara Peattie’s work—through her Boston-based Puppeteers Cooperative company and Puppet Free Library—combines community participation; simple, cheap, and practical puppet-building techniques; and a brilliant design sense to allow community members of all ages to take part in the age-old pleasures of participatory puppet performance in public spaces.

No experience is necessary to participate in these free community puppet-building workshops with Sara Peattie, but registration is requested. Participants can come for one or both days and are not required to stay for the entire time. Minors must be accompanied by an adult. To register for the workshop or if you require accommodation to participate, contact the Ballard Institute at bimp@uconn.edu or 860-486-8580.

This community puppet project is sponsored by the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut and the Mansfield Downtown Partnership, Inc. For more information about the 15^th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival, visit downtownstorrsfestival.org.

The Mansfield Downtown Partnership is an independent, non-profit organization comprised of the Town of Mansfield, the University of Connecticut, and individual business members and residents. The Partnership seeks to foster the continued development, management, and promotion of Downtown Storrs. For more information about the Partnership, visit https://www.mansfieldmdp.org/.