Past Exhibitions

Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium, 10/25-10/26

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is excited to host a “Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium” on Friday and Saturday, October 25-26, in conjunction with our Wonderland Puppet Theater: Visions of the Beloved Community exhibition curated by Dr. Paulette Richards. 

The “Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium” is inspired by and explores in more details the work of Alice Swann and Nancy Schmale, housewives from the interracial Concord Park subdivision near Philadelphia, who, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of a more equitable “beloved community,” worked together to create a popular hand-puppet theater. Founded in 1961, their company, reflecting contemporary developments in the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, and innovations in children’s media, created entertaining and educational puppet productions performed throughout the Northeast. The symposium will bring together University of Connecticut faculty from the departments of Economics, History, English, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with scholars, puppeteers, and activists from the U.S. and abroad. 

The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register to attend in person, visit: bimp.ticketleap.com.  

The symposium will be live streamed via Zoom. To register to attend virtually, please visit: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rQdSZJe8TOmmETxtwng3Xw.

The “Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium” is supported by a UConn School of Fine Arts Anti-Racism Grant and University of Connecticut Humanities Institute Speaker, Conference, and Workshop funding; and is co-sponsored by UConn’s African American Cultural Center, Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, and the Robert T. Leo, Jr. Fund for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts.

The schedule will include:  

Friday, October 25 

4-5 p.m.: Wonderland Puppet Theater exhibition tour with curator Dr. Paulette Richards  

5-6:30 p.m.: Dinner break  (not provided)

6:30-7 p.m.: Keynote Address: Dr. Paulette Richards  

7-8 p.m.: Film Screening: In Black, a documentary on African American puppeteers directed by Jacqueline Wade, with post-screening discussion with the director.  

Saturday, October 26 

9:30-11 a.m.: “’The Marriage Agreement’: Women Artists Navigate Gendered Divisions of Labor” with Dr. Nancy Naples (UConn Departments of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), Dr. Alissa Mello (University of Exeter), and Jacqueline Wade (filmmaker and puppeteer). 

Early press for Wonderland Puppet Theater identified the artists as Mrs. James Swann and Mrs. Raymond Schmale. Yet 1963, the year they attended the Puppeteers of America national festival was also the year that Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique. Wonderland Puppet Theater addressed the discontent around the “traditional” role of women, especially in their portrayals of traditional puppets Punch and Judy. How much progress have women made in re-negotiating “the marriage agreement” and extricating themselves from “the second shift” of housework and childcare that women carried as they moved into occupations, including artistic careers, that took them out of the home?  

11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.: “Children’s Media: Literature, Television, Theater” with Dr. Vibiana Bowman (Rutgers University emerita), Dr. Katharine Capshaw (UConn Department of English), and Khalilah Brooks (Puppeteer, Aunty B’s House).

In 1966 Alice Swann and Nancy Schmale began to perform their puppetry on live television. Each week alternated between the two women puppeteering on a show hosted by Willadine Bain, a former high school English teacher. Swann, a certified kindergarten teacher, collaborated with Bain on scripts that presented age-appropriate literacy lessons and information about African American history. How much power do women and people of color have in creating children’s media today?  Is children’s media bringing us closer to or taking is further from embracing the vision of “Beloved Community” as a core value?  

12:45-2 p.m.: Lunch break  (not provided)

2-3:30 p.m.: “Residential Segregation” with Dr. Stephen L. Ross (UConn Department of Economics), and Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar (UConn Departments of History and American Studies).  

Morris Milgram was the son of impoverished immigrants in New York City. Expelled from college for leading an anti-fascist protest, he joined the real estate development industry and was a pioneer in desegregated living communities. In 1954 he established Concord Park, an interracial subdivision of single-family homes for middle-class buyers just outside of Philadelphia. This symposium aims to answer the following questions: What is the status of residential desegregation today vs. 1956 when Milgram broke ground on Concord Park?  What do developers, lenders, elected officials, and community organizers need to do to make further progress towards realizing Milgram’s dream?  

 3:30-4: Final Thoughts, moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards, with all symposium participants. 

Opening of “Taking Care: Puppets and Their Collectors” on 2/15

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of its new exhibition Taking Care: Puppets and Their Collectors on Thursday, February 15, with refreshments served at 4:30 p.m. and an in-person exhibition tour at 5 p.m. by curator Dr. Jungmin Song and Ballard Institute director Dr. John Bell, which will also be streamed on Ballard Institute’s Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute/). This exhibition opening also kicks off celebrations for the tenth anniversary of the Ballard Institute’s Downtown Storrs location.  All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

Since its founding in 1989, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry’s collections have grown thanks to the generous contributions from many puppet collectors. Taking Care: Puppets and Their Collectors, curated by Dr. Jungmin Song, will showcase some of the highlights of the collections including 1930s marionettes, Sicilian pupi, Chinese shadow figures, African rod puppets, overhead projector innovations, and Frank Ballard musicals, along with backstories explaining how this global array of puppets came to the Ballard Institute. Taking Care will explore puppet collecting as a vital cultural activity, delving into the various reasons donors dedicate themselves to the preservation of puppetry’s heritage. The exhibition will be on display through June 16, 2024. 

The museum will be closed through February 15 while the new exhibition is installed. The Ballard Institute will be open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. There is no set admission, but visitors are encouraged to pay as they wish. 

Grand Opening of “Swing into Action: Maurice Sendak and the World of Puppetry” on July 7 at 4:30PM

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of its new exhibition Swing into Action: Maurice Sendak and the World of Puppetry, curated by Ballard Institute director Dr. John Bell on Thursday, July 7, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. The opening will include in-person performances and an exhibition tour; the exhibition tour will be streamed on Ballard Institute’s Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute/). All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. The exhibition will be on display through Friday, December 16, 2022. 

Although Maurice Sendak was not a puppeteer, he understood the nature of puppetry’s never-ending fascination with objects, images, movement, music, and text, and how the creation of those combinations with a collaborative team of artists can make puppets come alive. This exhibition, created in partnership with The Maurice Sendak Foundation, will look at the various ways Sendak designed, collected, and collaborated with puppets and puppet productions, from his childhood days making mechanical toys with his brother, to his collections of Mickey Mouse memorabilia, his inventive collaborations with puppeteer Amy Luckenbach, his puppet designs for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Mozart Opera Goose of Cairo, and the way Sendak’s book inspired Sonny Gerasimowicz’s creatures for Spike Jonze’s film Where the Wild Things Are. 

The grand opening of Swing Into Action will include live performances of a new toy theater spectacle by UConn Puppet Arts graduate students Abigail Baird and Jaron Hollander based on Sendak’s 1993 book We Are All in the Dumps With Jack and Guy.

The Ballard Institute will be open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Face masks are strongly recommended but not required.

Grand Opening of “Puppetry’s Racial Reckoning on 5/28 at 5 p.m.!

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of its new exhibition Puppetry’s Racial Reckoning, curated by Dr. Jungmin Song, along with the re-opening of a redesigned World of Puppetry: From the Collections of the Ballard Institute exhibition, on Friday, May 28, 2021, by reservation only at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. A virtual tour will air on Ballard Institute Facebook Live on Friday, May 28, 2021 at 5 p.m. ET. The exhibition will be on display through Oct. 17, 2021.

Puppetry’s Racial Reckoning aims to foster conversation and understanding about the complexities of race, prejudice, stereotypes, and systemic racism by presenting puppets from around the world. The exhibition examines fantasies of the East and misrepresentations of African Americans used in puppetry in relation to social and cultural constructions of race, and asks how fabricated differences affect the actual lives of people. Historical puppets from the Ballard Institute’s collections are juxtaposed with work by contemporary artists such as Kara Walker, Alva Rogers, Michael Richardson, Kimi Maeda, Akbar Imhotep, and Garland Farwell. Puppets from Asia representing different races and ethnicities offer viewers an understanding of race and racism in wider global contexts. Exhibiting puppets from the past in the here-and-now of Puppetry’s Racial Reckoning provides an opportunity to learn from past misrepresentations, consider the extent to which such negative images remain in circulation, contribute to the fight against systemic racism, and discuss possibilities for a more inclusive future. This exhibition is supported in part by a UConn School of Fine Arts Anti-Racism Grant.

Dr. Jungmin Song completed a practice-as-research PhD titled Animating Everyday Objects in Performance at the University of Roehampton in 2014. Her writings have appeared in Performance Research, Artpress 2, Asian Theatre Journal, and Contemporary Theatre Review. In 2017 she edited a special issue of Puppet Notebook on Shakespeare and puppets and was a researcher in residence at the Institut International de la Marionnette (IIM) in Charleville-Mézières, France to lay the ground for a book on Shakespeare and puppetry. As a puppet maker she has participated in numerous projects, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Little Angel Theatre’s co-production of Venus and Adonis (2004).  She has taught in the fields of theater and fine arts at the University of Roehampton, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Kent. 

Due to restrictions and safety precautions related to COVID-19, the museum will reopen on May 28 on Fridays and Saturdays only from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., by reservation. Only one group of up to 6 visitors from a family or quarantine unit will be allowed in the museum at a time during each time slot. Face masks are required at all times when visiting the museum for ages two and up. Hand sanitizer is available throughout the museum and staff clean high-touch surfaces once per hour. Please note that restrooms and water fountains are closed to the public. To learn more about the Ballard Institute’s COVID-19 protocols and to reserve a time slot, visit: bimp.uconn.edu/about/covid-policies/. Visitors may also reserve a time slot by calling 860.486.8580 on Fridays and Saturdays.

ON EXHIBIT: “Paul Vincent Davis and the Art of Puppet Theater” and “Shakespeare and Puppetry”

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A vibrant, colorful, and thought-provoking exhibition of work by one of the United States’s most dynamic 20th-century puppeteers, Paul Vincent Davis and the Art of Puppet Theater celebrates the career of the long-time Artist in Residence at Boston’s Puppet Showplace Theater, in celebration of and in homage to Davis’s 85th year. Paul Vincent Davis’s award-winning productions have ranged from the joyous fun of fairy tales, folklore, and clown circus to works by Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett. Focused primarily on the design, construction, and performance of hand puppets, Paul Vincent Davis has always sought to expand America’s sometimes “limited vision of this amazing art form,” as he put it in his book Exploring the Art of Puppet Theater. In every aspect of his work, from his early years with Carol Fijan’s National Theatre of Puppet Arts in New York City, to his creation of the Repertory Puppet Theatre at the Puppet Showplace, Davis has consistently explored what it means to approach puppetry in the same manner that we approach dance, music, or visual art. Paul Vincent Davis and the Art of Puppet Theater will present puppets, props, and stages from such spectacles as Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, Rumpelstiltskin, Here Come the Clowns, and Bingo the Circus Dog, as well as Richard III, and Shakes versus Shav. View an online version of Paul Vincent Davis and the Art of Puppet Theater here. 

Curated by performance artist, and writer Dr. Jungmin Song, Shakespeare and Puppetry presents exciting and thought-provoking examples of the many ways puppets and objects have been used to interpret the works of the greatest playwright of the English language. Ranging from the giant cardboard cutouts of Bread and Puppet Theater’s Out of Joint Hamlet, to Forced Entertainment’s everyday-object performance of Macbeth, the exhibition introduces new perspectives about how dramatic characters are fashioned, and how “things” can be cast in dramas. Shakespeare and Puppetry also includes work by Tiny Ninja Theatre, Jon Ludwig, Hogarth Puppets, Little Angel Theatre, Fred Curchack, Great Small Works, and Larry Reed. Through its juxtaposition of modern and contemporary puppet and object interpretations of Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the exhibition invites viewers to contemplate the materiality of character and the physical embodiment of roles, to question our preconceptions of character, and ask what it means for an object to perform onstage. View an online version of Shakespeare and Puppetry here. 

Dr. Jungmin Song completed a practice-as-research PhD titled Animating Everyday Objects in Performance at the University of Roehampton in 2014. Her writings have appeared in Performance Research, Artpress 2, Asian Theatre Journal, and Contemporary Theatre Review. In 2017 she edited a special issue of Puppet Notebook on Shakespeare and puppets and was a researcher in residence at the Institut International de la Marionnette (IIM) in Charleville-Mézières, France to lay the ground for a book on Shakespeare and puppetry. As a puppet maker she has participated in numerous projects, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Little Angel Theatre’s co-production of Venus and Adonis (2004).  She has taught in the fields of theatre and fine arts at the University of Roehampton, University of Connecticut, and the University of Kent. 

“Army Ants and their Guests: Works Inspired by the Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer Collection” and “Immaterial Remains: Can You Preserve a Shadow?”, October 17, 2019-February 9, 2020

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In collaboration with the AntU project through UConn’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, the Ballard Institute presents Army Ants and their Guests: Works Inspired by the Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer Collection to celebrate the Rettenmeyer army ant collection. AntU is a UConn endeavor designed to involve a variety of academic disciplines to engage a broad audience in the wonders of the complex biological systems of army ants and their hundreds of associated “guests”. The idea was borne out of an award from the National Science Foundation to preserve and curate the Carl W. and Marian E. Rettenmeyer Army Ant Guest Collection. Army Ants and their Guests will feature ant and insect puppets from Rufus and Margo Rose’s Ant and the Grasshopper, and toy theaters created during a two-day community workshop inspired by the AntU project, as well as an array of specially commissioned new works by puppeteers from around the world, including Sirikarn Bunjongtad, Sarah Frechette, Honey Goodenough, Dirk Joseph, Stephen Kaplin, Monica Leo, Tarish Pipkins, Poncili Creacion, and Miss Pussycat. This project was made possible through an award from the National Science Foundation.

The Ballard Institute will also present Immaterial Remains: Can You Preserve a Shadow?, curated by researcher, theater artist, and practitioner of Chinese shadow puppetry Dr. Annie Rollins. As the practice of Chinese shadow puppetry navigates survival in situ, the traditional shadow puppets are dying by the thousands: neglected to ruin, strung up, misunderstood or framed in permanent silence in the name of “preservation”. Soon, these static shadow bodies will be the only traces of the living form that remain. Immaterial Remains captures the vision of a ghostly Chinese shadow puppet future with ethnographic documentation, artifact exhibition, video projection, and creative explorations of shadow preservation. The exhibit opening will feature a live performance/lecture by Annie Rollins.

Annie Rollins is a researcher, theatre artist, and practitioner of Chinese shadow puppetry, studying as a traditional apprentice since 2008. Rollins has received a Fulbright Fellowship, the Confucius Institute Joint PhD Research Fellowship and a Canadian SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship for her research. She completed her dissertation in Concordia University’s Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD program on the transmission of traditional Chinese shadow puppet-making methods. Recent venues for exhibitions, lectures and performances include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Montreal Botanical Gardens, the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, the Virginia Fine Arts Museum, the Linden Center in Yunnan, China, and the Rietveld Academie in the Netherlands. Annie has published articles in Puppetry International, Asian Theatre Journal and Anthropology Now. Rollins recently launched the first English language comprehensive Chinese shadow puppetry site at www.chineseshadowpuppetry.com. Annie Rollins will also present her talk Chasing Ghosts: Ten Years with the Shadow Puppeteers of China as part of the 2019 Fall Puppet Forum Series on Dec. 5, 2019 at 7 p.m.

Both exhibits are on display through February 9, 2020.

Grand Opening of “It’s Always Pandemonium: The Puppets of Bart Roccoberton” on 4/27

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of its new exhibition It’s Always Pandemonium: The Puppets of Bart Roccoberton,on Saturday, April 27, 2019, with refreshments at noon followed by a free tour of the new exhibition at 12:30 p.m. All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. The exhibition will be on display through Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019.

It’s Always Pandemonium celebrates the ongoing puppetry career of Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr., from his touring days performing with his troupe thePandemonium Puppet Company; to his founding of theEugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts; and now, to his work building puppets and puppeteers as Director of the UConn Puppet Arts Program. It’s Always Pandemonium, curated by UConn Puppet Arts MFA candidate Matt Sorensen,features over 60 puppets, masterfully designed and crafted by Bart Roccoberton, his Pandemonium collaborators, and countless UConn Puppet Arts students under his guidance.

Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr. is Director of the University of Connecticut’s unique Puppet Arts Program—the only one of its kind in the U.S.—which offers BFA, MA, and MFA degrees in puppetry. His professional projects include work in film, television and the stage, including Broadway. He serves the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center as Director of Production, and is recognized internationally as an advocate for the Puppet Arts in the United States.

In addition to the exhibition opening, and as part of our Spring Puppet Performances Series,Stevens Puppets will perform Goldilocks and the Three Bearsat the Ballard Institute Theater at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. For more information about this performance and to buy tickets, visit bimp.ticketleap.com.

If you require an accommodation to attend an event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu at least five days in advance.

“Living Objects: African American Puppetry”, October 25, 2018-April 7, 2019

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The Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibition at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is an event of national significance focused on an important but often overlooked aspect of American culture: the work of African American puppeteers. Bringing together puppets, performing objects, masks, and media work by over twenty different puppeteers from the late 19th century to the early 2000s, Living Objects: African American Puppetry will redefine our sense of American puppet history. Exhibition co-curator Dr. Paulette Richards writes: “since their arrival in the Americas, African people have animated objects in a rich variety of forms and contexts. Despite the prohibition by slaveholders on the creation of figurative objects reflecting an African-derived worldview, African Americans nevertheless animated objects to represent their experiences and identity.” Living Objects: African American Puppetry, Richards adds, will “highlight the work of contemporary African American artists while contextualizing the evolution of African American object performance.”

Living Objects: African American Puppetry is co-curated by Dr. Paulette Richards and Dr. John Bell. Dr. Paulette Richards is an Atlanta-based teaching artist. She holds a Ph.D. in French Civilization from the University of Virginia and currently serves as a docent at the Center for Puppetry Arts’ Worlds of Puppetry Museum. Dr. John Bell is a theater historian, puppeteer, and Director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. He is also an Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut.

The Living Objects: African American Puppetry project also includes workshops, forums, performances from Oct. 2018 through April 2019, including a Living Objects Symposium and Festival at the Ballard Institute Feb. 7-10, 2019, which will bring together scholars, performers, students, and the general public to discuss, watch, contemplate, and enjoy the many different aspects of African American puppetry. This project is presented as part of the African Diaspora, an initiative organized by the UConn School of Fine Arts, which celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the UConn African American Cultural Center. Additional exhibits and events are ongoing throughout the 2018-2019 academic year. For more information, visit sfa.uconn.edu/african-diaspora.

For more information about the Living Objects exhibit and related events, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

Grand Opening of “Spiffy Pictures: Adventures in Television Animation” and “Frank Ballard into the 80s” on 7/14

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of its new exhibitions Spiffy Pictures: Adventures in Television Animation and Frank Ballard into the 80s: Babes in Toyland, The Blue Bird, and The Fantasticks, on Saturday, July 14, 2018, with refreshments at noon followed by a free tour of the new exhibitions at 12:30 p.m. All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. The exhibition will be on display through Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018.

Spiffy Pictures: Adventures in Television Animation celebrates the work of UConn School of Fine Arts alumnus David Rudman, his brother Adam Rudman, and Todd Hannert, whose Spiffy Pictures company has created award-winning productions for PBS Kids, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, Disney, Comedy Central, and other media channels. The exhibition features Nick Jr.’s Jack’s Big Music Show, and Disney’s Emmy-nominated Bunnytown. Including over 50 exquisitely crafted Spiffy puppets and fascinating backstage footage, Spiffy Pictures offers exciting insights into the magic of contemporary puppet production for television.

Frank Ballard into the 80s: Babes in Toyland, The Blue Bird, and The Fantasticks features three productions by the UConn Puppet Arts Program’s founding Director Frank Ballard: the 1903 Victor Herbert operetta Babes in Toyland; Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1908 symbolist classic The Blue Bird; and the 1960s Off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks. Marking a departure from Ballard’s early focus on string marionettes, these late-career shows combine actors with puppets of all sizes and forms, constructed from such novel materials as polyurethane foam.

In addition to the exhibition opening, and as part of our Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series, Tuckers’ Tales Puppet Theatre will perform Peter Rabbit Tales at the Ballard Institute Theater at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. For more information about this performance and to buy tickets, visit bimp.ticketleap.com.

If you require an accommodation to attend an event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu at least five days in advance.

“American Puppet Modernism: The Early 20th Century,” February 22 – July 1, 2018

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American Puppet Modernism: The Early 20th Century celebrates the puppet revival that developed across the United States in 1920s and 30s. Inspired by the European avant-garde; Asian, African, and Latin American performance; the vibrant culture of American cities; and the possibilities of such new technologies as film; puppeteers, artists, and writers decided that puppetry was an ideal medium for representing modern life. From cross-country touring shows to giant inflatable street puppets, avant-garde operas, and other ground-breaking innovations, Americans rediscovered and redefined puppetry in ways that still guide the form today. American Puppet Modernism: The Early 20th Century, curated by Ballard Institute Director John Bell, includes works by Tony Sarg, Margo and Rufus Rose, Ralph Chessé, Marjorie Batchelder, Martin and Olga Stevens, Bil Baird, Frank and Elizabeth Haines, Alexander Calder, the Yale Puppeteers, the Federal Theater Project, and Hazelle Rollins.