The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is committed to anti-racist values in our work, both publicly and within the puppetry community. We acknowledge that the history of U.S. puppetry has been complicit in racial stereotyping and racist tropes, and that we have a long way to go in the fight for equity. As we reflect on the heavy history of racism, we support the work of our Black puppetry community and all puppeteers working to undo the myth of white supremacy.
In her keynote address at the opening of our 2019 Living Objects: African American Puppetry symposium, Dr. Paulette Richards pointed out that “African figurative sculpture and object performance were suppressed in the United States precisely because they challenged the objectification of African Americans as chattel slaves.” Struggling against minstrel and racist stereotypes, African American puppeteers have long used the art of puppets, masks, and performing objects to combat the beast of racism. As Tarish Pipkins said at the same symposium: “I have a weapon of mass destruction to fight the beast with: my Puppetry.” We support this ongoing struggle on the streets and in all other places where puppets do their work.
Dalang (shadow master) I Gusti Putu Sudarta Ph.D., was born into a family of artists in Bedulu (Bali, Indonesia), and has been performing music, dance, and shadow theater since he was six years old. He is a permanent faculty member in the puppetry department at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Denpasar (Bali) and holds a master’s and Ph.D. in theater from the National Institute of Arts in Solo, Java. He regularly performs various forms of traditional Balinese music, mask dance, and wayang kulit (shadow puppet theater) in ceremonial contexts and has taken part in several international tours and inter-cultural experimental music and theater productions.