For its third installment of the 2019 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host Holy Puppets: Performing Objects in the Middle Ages on Wednesday, April 10 at 7 p.m.at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

From puppets of Christ to fire-breathing dragons, the medieval world was full of performing objects. In this talk, Yale University art historian Michelle Oing explores the way in which puppets were used in late medieval European culture to understand humanity’s place in the cosmos.

Michelle Oing is a Ph.D. candidate in the History of Art at Yale University, specializing in medieval art and architecture. Her dissertation on performing objects in late-medieval Germany combines her personal interest in puppetry, as a former member of the Brooklyn-based collective Piehole, with her academic explorations of figural medieval sculpture.

The final Spring Puppet Forum will be:

May 1: Wayang Puppet Theatre of Indonesia: Collective Creativity and Individual Agency with Matthew Cohen

This talk, illustrated by puppets from the unmatched Dr. Walter Angst and Sir Henry Angest Collection of Indonesian Puppets at Yale University Art Gallery, explores the dynamics of collective and individual agency in wayang during the colonial and postcolonial periods as a reflex of the changing world.

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. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. For more information, or if you require an accommodation to attend a forum, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

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