The Damned Story: The University of Connecticut in Storrs is home to one of the most unique places in the world, a school and museum solely dedicated to art of puppetry—the Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry. In addition to being one of the only institutions where aspiring puppeteers can formally pursue an advanced degree, the facility also has over 2,700 classic puppets.
The study of puppetry at UConn was initiated by Frank W. Ballard, who joined the school’s faculty in 1956 and began what would become a world-renowned fine arts puppetry program in 1965. Together with a group of the program’s alumni, Ballard founded the National Institute of Puppetry in 1987, which soon after took his name.
In 1996, the museum’s fist facility officially opened, originally displaying dozens of puppets created by Ballard and others. The collection has since grown to include puppets from around the world as well as historically important creations, some of which are centuries old. Essentially every kind of puppet imaginable is on display, including marionettes, shadow figures and hand, rod and finger puppets. In addition to changing exhibitions, the museum regularly offers workshops, tours, lectures, forums and other programs.
Sadly, Frank Ballard died in June 2010 due to complications of Parkinson’s Disease. The museum continues on under the direction of Dr. John Bell, an accomplished puppeteer and theater historian.
In Spring 2014, the museum moved from its old location on the Depot Campus (shown above) to shiny new exhibition space in the heart of Storrs Center, and expanded its hours and offerings.
Our Damned Experience [updated spring 2014]: We visited the Ballard Museum of Puppetry in its new home in Storrs Center.

Ray Bendici
With plenty of natural light streaming in, the new facility features polished wood floors, bright white walls, high ceilings and 4,332 square feet of museum, performance and support space, including three galleries, which will be changing exhibitions every three months or so. It also shares glass doors and display-case walls with the UConn co-op, so parts of BIMP’s collection can easily be viewed by book buyers. The performance space can be configured so it can be used either for puppetry works or co-op author events, or even be open simultaneously to both. In addition, BIMP hosts numerous workshops for students and the general public throughout the year.

Ray Bendici
A large-screen TV continually shows past puppetry performances and there’s by-appointment access to the Kay Janney Library and Archives, a research collection of more than 2,500 books, scripts, manuscripts, posters and other puppet history items—including 700 films and videos. Certain performances are available for general viewing.
For the record, this is not a place full of warm and fuzzy Muppet-like creations or characters that a child might currently see on TV. On view are one-of-kind, older wooden puppets important to the evolution of puppetry; however, many of these characters that entertained children decades ago now look like things that escaped some sort of Tim Burton retro creepfest. (Just sayin’.) Seriously, it’s fine to visit the place during the light of day with other people in the building, but if you have an overactive imagination (like we do), you would not want to have to spend the night there, that’s all.
Anyway, the museum is a loving tribute to Frank Ballard, his legacy and the art of puppetry. Much of the permanent collection features puppets designed and built by him.
If You Go (updated): The Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry is now located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center at UConn. It is now open Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., except for holidays. Admission is free.
The new museum is not a big place, so don’t plan on making a day of it. Still, a quirky little odd place (bordering on creepy because of the sheer number of antique puppets and marionettes) and well worth a visit.
4 comments
I went to Uconn as a Theatre Studies major (Puppetry is a branch of the Theatre Dept). I often worked in the prop shop, which was then on campus in a Quonset hut near the Student Union. Our larger props and furniture pieces were stored in the basement of the Knight Hospital, also in the Depot Campus. Several times during one summer I had to return pieces to the basement storage in the middle of the night after shows were struck. It was spooky going there on a bright sunny day, but being there in the middle of the night was scary.
I know that the Dept lost much of what was stored in the basement due to some nasty mold and even while I was still at Uconn we weren’t allowed to return to the basement. The Quonset hut was a pretty spooky place in and of itself too… and so were a few spots in Jorgensen Theatre, and the Studio/Mobius Theatres in the DRMU building. Theatres are usually creepy anyways.
Oddly enough, I never visited the Ballard Museum. Maybe next time I’m up that way I’ll pop in.
Packers and Movers Pune
Packers and Movers Pune
http://www.top8pm.in/packers-and-movers-pune.html
When to consider a
When to consider a backloading removals service
packers and movers bangalore @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-bangalore.html
packers and movers ghaziabad @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-ghaziabad.html
packers and movers pune @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-pune.html
packers and movers mumbai @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-mumbai.html
packers and movers hyderabad @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-hyderabad.html
packers and movers gurgaon @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-gurgaon.html
packers and movers delhi @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-delhi.html
packers and movers noida @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-noida.html
packers and movers faridabad @ http://www.buy5th.in/movers-and-packers-faridabad.html
Do You Really Need a Property Management Company?
can help you the best. They are qualified and well trained for maintaining your rental property in such a way that you can earn maximum income from it and chances of hiring high quality tenants get increased. They really worth the cost as they do all your hard works on behalf of you they maintain the property, handles the tenant’s complaints, make repairs and you simply enjoys the earning and maintenance of your You have made an investment as buying a rental property for you. A person buys a property after a deep thinking and research work and finally pays the big amount of money in exchange of the property. It’s not end of your task that you buy a property and your responsibility ends up with this, infact the real responsibility is started now. You must have to manage your property then only you could make profit from it or else what’s the benefit of buying the property if you could not keep it maintained. Managing property is not an easy task as you need to look after your business or job, family, friends, meetings etc. still if you are confusing with what to do then the simplest answer is hiring Property Management Company. You might have got this idea from your colleagues and friends but was not sure about it whether to hire or not. It’s not only in your case infact many gets confused for hiring a apartment management companies are they trustworthy, how much they will charge, are they really worth the cost or do I really need a professional property management company?
If you could answer the questions listed below then you will automatically come to know the answer whether to hire a property management company or not.
• How much properties do you owned? If you have two or more than that then you might face problems to manage each of them at a same time.
• How far do you live from your rental property? It’s the another situation for you to manage your rental property as every time you need to visit the place and this requires your time and money too.
• If there is an emergency with your rental property and in your personal life too at the same time how would you manage both?
• Do you have the time for finding a tenant for your rental property?
• What if the tenant will not give the rents on time or you will hire a Bad tenant?
• Do you want to have a call at midnight or early morning with full of complaints?
After going through these questions you probably saying a big NO in every answer of the questions, you cannot manage your property infact all your property alone. If you own a property in Maryland or residing any other place in USA then Maryland Home Rentals are the one who house without even visiting there by spending a small amount of your rental income.
Apartment Management Baltimore
Property Management Companies Baltimore
Baltimore Apartment Management
http://www.renturhome.com
Comments are closed.