The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will celebrate the rich world of African American puppetry in the United States with a four-day series of performances, presentations, discussions, film screenings, and workshops on Feb. 7 to 10, 2019 in Hartford and Storrs.

Activities for the Living Objects: African American Puppetry Festival and Symposium will take place in various venues on UConn’s Storrs campus Feb. 8 to 10, with related festival events with UConn Hartford at the Hartford Public Library on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019, and at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019.

Attendees have two options to participate in Living Objects Festival and Symposium events:

1. Living Objects performances in Storrs and Hartford are open to the public. Individual tickets can be purchased at bimp.ticketleap.com.
2. To attend all Living Objects Festival and Symposium events, including performances, panel discussions, film screenings, and more, registration is required. Registration can be completed at www.cvent.com/d/bbqbh7.

These events are part of the current Ballard Institute exhibition Living Objects: African American Puppetry, on display through April 7, 2019, which for the first time brings together historical and contemporary puppets, masks, and performing objects by African American artists and puppeteers. Many of the exhibition’s contributors, as well as scholars from around the United States, will come together at the festival and symposium to celebrate the past, present, and future of African American puppetry.

Exhibition co-curator Paulette Richards, a teaching artist and Fulbright Scholar, writes that “since their arrival in the Americas, African people have animated objects in a rich variety of forms and contexts, animating objects to represent their experiences and identity.” The Living Objects: African American Puppetry Festival and Symposium will highlight such work by contemporary African American artists, while also contextualizing the evolution of African American object performance.

Artists and puppeteers performing in the festival and symposium include Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, Megan Piphus, Nehprii Amenii, Schroeder Cherry, David Liebe Hart, Dirk Joseph, Pandora Gastelum, Brad Brewer, Gabrielle Civil, Bruce Cannon, Nate Puppets, Yolanda Sampson, Edna Bland, and Paulette Richards.

PERFORMANCES

Public performances at UConn, to which individual tickets can be purchased, include:

Friday, Feb. 8

Throwing Voice: African American Ventriloquism
8-9:30 p.m. at UConn’s Doris & Simon Konover Auditorium
Performances by ventriloquists Megan Piphus, David Liebe Hart, and Nate Puppets. Recommended for ages 13 and above. Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors: $10; Students: $8.

Saturday, Feb. 9

Harlem River Drive by Bruce Cannon
4-5 p.m. at UConn’s von der Mehden Recital Hall
Marionette performance for family audiences celebrating the history and diversity of the world’s most famous black community. Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors: $10; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under).

Double Selves: African American Puppets and Puppeteers
8:30-10 p.m. at UConn’s von der Mehden Recital Hall
Featuring A Conversation with Frederick Douglass by Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, The City that Care Forgot by Pandora Gastelum of The Mudlark Puppeteers, Curled by Isaac Bloodworth, Lovely Day by Brad Brewer, and For the Love of Cats and Dogs by Dirk Joseph and String Theory Theater. Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors: $10; Students: $8.

Sunday, Feb. 10

Gospel Puppetry
9:30-10:30 a.m. at UConn’s von der Mehden Recital Hall
Featuring The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Edna Bland, and The Agape Love Train by Rev. Yolanda Sampson. Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors: $10; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under).

The following Living Objects events in Hartford are free and open to the public. These events are not included in festival registration and transportation is not provided.

Thursday, Feb. 7

Puppetry and African American History: Tarish Pipkins and Pandora Gastelum
4-5:30 p.m. at the Center for Contemporary Culture, Hartford Public Library
Featuring A Conversation with Frederick Douglass by Tarish “Jeghetto”  Pipkins and The City that Care Forgot by Pandora Gastelum of The Mudlark Puppeteers. This free event is sponsored by UConn Hartford, Hartford Public Library, and Judith M. Zachs and the Zachs Family Foundation.

Saturday, Feb. 9

Wadsworth Atheneum Second Saturdays for Families              
10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Amistad Center for Art and Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Performances of How the Sun Came to the Sky by Schroeder Cherry; and Paulette Richards’ “STEAM through Puppetry” workshop, led by UConn Puppet Arts students. This event is sponsored by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and Amistad Center for Art and Culture.

Tickets for individual performances 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 on the day of performance at the venues listed starting an hour before showtime. There will be open seating and no reservations. For address and parking information for von der Mehden Recital Hall, visit vdm.uconn.edu/plan-your-visit/directions-parking/.  For address and parking information for the Doris & Simon Konover Auditorium, visit thedoddcenter.uconn.edu/contact/.

SYMPOSIUM REGISTRATION

Living Objects Festival and Symposium registrants may purchase one-day, three-day, or student passes to attend all festival and symposium events. Registration will include breakfast and lunch. Symposium events open to registrants only include the following sessions, which will be held at UConn’s Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs:

Friday, Feb. 8

1:30-2 p.m. Keynote Address with Living Objects co-curator Paulette Richards, introduced by John Bell (Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry)

2:15-3:45 p.m. Minstrel Performance and the History of the African American Puppet
Moderator: Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr. (UConn Puppet Arts Program)
Amber West (UCLA): “Blackface Minstrelsy in American Puppetry”
Benjamin Fisler (Harford College): “Black and Blackface in the Performing Puppet: The Jubilee Singers, Ralph Chessé, and the Burdens of… Everything”
Paulette Richards: “It’s Not Easy Being Green”

3:45-4:15 p.m. Miss Lily’s Living Objects Tour, with Schroeder Cherry

4:15-5:45 p.m. Puppetry and Community
Moderator: Michael Bradford (UConn Department of Dramatic Arts)
Yolanda Sampson (GO Y.O. Worldwide): “Power Puppets in Portable Pulpits: A Personal Account of Puppet Ministry in the African American Community”
Schroeder Cherry (Schroeder Cherry and His Puppets): “Playing with Puppets from Childhood to Adulthood”
Jonathan Walz (Columbus Museum): “The Marionette Show as a Correlating Activity in the Public Schools”
Lisa Sánchez González (UConn Department of English): “Pura Belpré’s Puppetry at the NYPL Children’s Rooms: 1921-1944”

Saturday, Feb. 9

9-10:30 a.m. Afro-Diasporic Storytelling and Culture
Moderator: Katherine Capshaw (UConn Department of English)
Izabela Brochado (Universidade de Brasília): “African Puppetry and Brazilian Mamulengo: Possible Links between Symbolic and Material Representations”
Nehprii Amenii (Khunum Productions): “African Spirituality, Puppetry, and Cultural Erasure”
Susan Fulcher (Matteson Area Public Library District): “Storytelling and Puppetry”

10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. The Means of Production (film screening and discussion)
Featuring films by Tau Bennett, Pierre Bennu, Raymond Carr, Jayden Libran,
Paulette Richards, and more

2-3:30 p.m. Representations and Appropriations of Blackness
Moderator: Michael Bradford (UConn Department of Drama)
Brad Brewer (The Brewery Troupe): “Creating a Puppet Production for the Smithsonian Institution”
Tarish Pipkins (Jeghetto’s Entertainment)
Valeska Populoh (Maryland Institute College of Art)
Nehprii Amenii (Khunum Productions)

5:30-6:30 p.m. Black::Body::Gesture: From Puppetry to Performance & Design
Dialogue with Gabrielle Civil (CalArts) and Kelly Walters (Parsons School of Design)

Sunday, Feb. 10

11-12:30 p.m. Closing Session: Next Steps Moderator: Paulette Richards (Living Objects co-curator)
Panelist: Ra Malika Imhotep (UCLA): “Tar Baby: The Performance of Object”
Discussant: Valeska Populoh (MICA)

To register for a one-day or three-day pass to the festival and symposium, visit www.cvent.com/d/bbqbh7. To read more about the Living Objects exhibition and festival, visit bimp-exhibitions.org/livingobjects.

Living Objects: African American Puppetry Festival and Symposium sponsors include: Judith M. Zachs and the Zachs Family Foundation, UConn School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, UConn Africana Studies Institute, the H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center of the University of Connecticut, UConn Hartford, Hartford Public Library, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the Amistad Center for Art and Culture, and Maryland Institute College of Art.

For more information or if you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will be closed from Saturday, December 22 to Friday, January 4.

Happy Holidays!

The 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. performances of “The Gingerbread Man” by WonderSpark Puppets are sold out!

For its final installment of the 2018 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host Nehprii Amenii and Brad Brewer for African American Puppetry in New York City on Thursday Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. This forum is co-sponsored by UConn’s Africana Studies Institute.

In conjunction with the Ballard Institute’s Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibition, this forum will bring together two noted New York-based puppeteers to talk about the past, present, and future of African American puppetry, and the dynamics of aesthetic and artistic choices in this field.

Nehprii Amenii is a Brooklyn-based artist, writer, puppeteer, director and educator, and the founder and Artistic Director of Khunum Productions. Her 2013 play Food for the Gods was honored with the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for playwriting, and this year she received the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Creative Engagement Award. In addition to writing and producing theatre, she uses multimedia-arts and storytelling to teach English and provide catharsis to young immigrants through the New York City Department of Education.

Brad Brewer is the founder of New York City’s Brewery Puppet Troupe. As a child in the Soundview projects in the Bronx, Brad was obsessed with the art of puppetry, which he learned from puppeteers Kermit Love, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz. Through the creation of his puppet singing group the Crowtations, Brad and company have worked with Melvin Van Peebles, Chaka Khan, Spike Lee, Harold Nicholas, David Brenner, the Four Tops, Mr. Rogers, Ron Carter, Oscar Brown, Jr., and Ron Howard, to name a few. His troupe is the only African American puppet company to appear on Broadway, in a major motion picture, and on network television. Several of his puppets are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

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.

Due to inclement weather, this forum has been rescheduled for November 29 at 7 p.m.

For its second installment of the 2018 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host Anne Cubberly for Night Fall: Community Puppetry in Hartford on Thursday November 29 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. This forum will discuss the origins, aims, techniques, and aesthetics of this dynamic community performance event that has redefined the cultural life of Connecticut’s capital.

Over the past seven years as the Artistic Director of Night Fall, Anne Cubberly has created annual performances in Hartford parks celebrating seasonal change with spectacles combining art, music, dance, and her trademark giant puppets. Cubberly is a visual artist with more than 30 years of experience creating kinetic sculpture, giant puppets, installations, and performances. She has exhibited steadily in solo and group exhibitions, and created performances for the Cleveland Museum of Art and The Wadsworth Atheneum. She has also led school and community groups with a focus on creativity, process, and community, all while utilizing repurposed materials.

The final Fall Puppet Forum of the semester is:  

December 6: “African American Puppetry in New York City,” with Nehprii Amenii and Brad Brewer
In conjunction with the Ballard Institute’s Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibition, this forum will bring together two noted New York-based puppeteers to talk about the past, present, and future of African American puppetry, and the dynamics of aesthetic and artistic choices in this field.

Admission to these events 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.

The Ballard Institute will be closed November 19-22. The museum will open for regular business hours on November 23. Happy Thanksgiving!

As part of its 2018 Fall Puppet Performance Series and Mansfield Downtown Partnership’s sixth annual Winter Welcome, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is pleased to present The Gingerbread Man by WonderSpark Puppets on Dec. 1, 2018 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

“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. This show is 40 minutes long and is recommended for ages 3+.

WonderSpark Puppets performs highly interactive puppet shows throughout the NYC area and beyond! Since 2009 they have been entertaining family audiences at NYC landmarks like Central Park, the New York Public Library, Mt Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, Bryant Park, and more. Fusing puppetry and storytelling with memorable characters and silly songs, WonderSpark performs at public and private venues.

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.

As part of its 2018 Fall Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to present The Fairy Tailor by Puppet Showplace Theater’s Resident Artist and UConn Puppet Arts Program alumna Sarah Nolen on Nov. 10, 2018 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

Meet the Fairy Tailor, hard at work in her enchanted shop, where dressing racks and laundry baskets are known to have minds 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. This colorful, interactive production is guaranteed to inspire audiences of all ages. This show is 50 minutes long and is recommended for ages 4+.

Sarah Nolen is a puppeteer and filmmaker originally from Austin, Texas. As Puppet Showplace Theater’s resident artist, she performs regularly for youth and family audiences and teaches puppetry in camps, workshops, residencies, and evening adult classes. Sarah earned her BFA in film from Southern Methodist University, and an MFA in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut. Known nationally for her versatile, witty, and innovative work across multiple puppetry styles, she has appeared in the National Puppet Slam, at the Puppets in Paradise Festival, and the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival. Sarah has toured internationally as part of the ensemble for Reverse Cascade, and has performed as principal puppeteer for the immersive multi-media show Pip’s Island in NYC. In Boston, she has worked closely with the Boston Pops Orchestra, performing as a puppeteer/narrator in A Visit From St. Nicholas, and again as a designer/builder of the Arthur Fiedler puppet for Puppets Take the Pops. In addition to her work in puppetry, Sarah is an experienced filmmaker with credits that range from reality shows and commercial television to Indie features and web ads. In 2015, she received the Mister Rogers Memorial Scholarship in support of her television pilot Treeples, a show geared towards empowering girls, which screened at film festivals across the United States.

Upcoming Fall Puppet Performance Series shows include:

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 hand puppet 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.