The Ballard Institute is pleased to host Annals of Object Performance: A Conference Celebrating the Contributions of Dr. John Bell on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1  Royce Circle, Storrs, CT, and online via Zoom.

This hybrid international conference celebrates Dr. John Bell’s remarkable contributions to puppetry. Throughout his career, Bell has shaped the field through museum curation, academic scholarship, and community-based performance. Conference presentations by North American and European artists and scholars will highlight Bell’s influential research and productions, culminating in a keynote where he reflects on his decades of performance, curatorship, and scholarship. Together, we’ll honor his legacy and envision a flourishing future for puppetry.  

This conference is free to attend in-person or virtually, but registration is required. Events with an asterisk can only be attended in person. The listing below denotes which panels will be in-person or hybrid.

9:00–9:15 AM: Arrival & Registration 

9:15–9:30 AM: Opening Remarks (in-person speakers)

9:30–10:45 AM: Session 1: Puppetry Research and Practice (hybrid speakers)

11:00 AM–12:15 PM: Session 2: Exhibiting Puppets (hybrid speakers) 

1:15–2:15 PM: Session 3: Puppet Modernism (hybrid speakers)

2:45–3:30 PM: Making Meaning in Puppetry Book Launch (in-person speakers)

3:45–4 PM: Toy Theatre Performance by Felicia Cooper (in-person performer)

4:15–5 PM: Annals of John Bell (in-person speakers)

5–5:30 PM: John Bell Keynote (in-person speaker)

5:30–6 PM: Great Small Works Performance

6:00–8:00 PM: Celebration! *

To learn more about the speakers and schedule and to register to attend in person or virtually, visit https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/bimp-0/john-bell.

This event is co-sponsored by the UConn Humanities Institute. 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.

[Caption: The 2025 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on 10/24 will feature UConn Puppet Arts alumni (left to right), Mark Blashford, Sarah Frechette (photo by Briana Jones), and Anatar M. Gagné, in addition to works by current Puppet Arts students.]

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2025 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025 at 8 p.m. in UConn’s Nafe Katter Theatre, located at 820 Bolton Rd, Storrs, Conn. 06269. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature experimental short works by professional puppeteers and performers, including UConn Puppet Arts alumni Mark Blashford, Sarah Frechette, and Anatar M. Gagné, as well as new works by UConn Puppet Arts students. Mansfield’s Waldron’s Studios 88 will return once more as the Puppet Slam house band.

In celebration of the 60^th anniversary of the UConn Puppet Arts Program, the 2025 UConn Fall Puppet Slam will welcome back three alumni: Mark Blashford, Sarah Frechette, and Anatar Marmol Gagné. Mark Blashford will perform Home, where a string puppet paints, from his heart, the place he longs to be. In Out of the Darnkess, Sarah Frechette embeds deep emotion into every curve of her hand-carved figure and sorrowful silhouettes. Enhanced with heartfelt, hand-cut shadow projections, this piece becomes a moving portrait of sensitivity, grief and grace. Anatar M. Gagné’s (Pinned & Sewtured) Widow Bunny started as a photography documentation of her grieving process after she lost her husband unexpectedly last year. She is now transforming it into a puppet theatre production and will premiere an excerpt at the slam. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam also features new works by graduate and undergraduate students from the UConn Puppet Arts Program. Funding for the slam is made possible, in part, by the Puppet Slam Network. These performances are recommended for mature audiences.

The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is free and open to the public; donations are greatly appreciated. Seating is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The event will take place in UConn’s Nafe Katter Theatre, located at 820 Bolton Rd, Storrs, Conn. 06269 (directions here). For more information about these performances or if you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.