As part of its 2024 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is pleased to host Kasper’s Theater: Avant-Garde and Propaganda Puppetry in Early 20th-Century Germany, a UConn Puppet Forum with Dr. Rachel Herschman of Yale University’s Beinecke Library, on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute).

Drawing on her dissertation research, Dr. Rachel Herschman, the Exhibitions and Publications Program Director of Yale University’s Beinecke Library, will discuss how and why German artists turned to puppetry during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, and the different ways that puppets could be both icons of rebellious resistance and vehicles for manipulation and control. This event is co-sponsored by UConn’s Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, the UConn Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, and the UConn Department of History.

Rachel Herschman is currently the Exhibitions and Publications Program Director at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Previously, she held curatorial positions at NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World and The Jewish Museum, and prior to that, worked in museum education at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Rachel holds a BA degree from McGill University, and an MA and PhD from the University of Washington. She lives in New York City and New Haven.

 Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. For more information or if you require accommodation to attend a forum, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu. 

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