As part of the 2017 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with puppeteers Clare Dolan and Dave Buchen titled Banners and Cranks on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.
In conjunction with the concurrent Banners and Cranks exhibition at the Ballard Institute, curator Clare Dolan, puppeteer and director of Vermont’s Museum of Everyday Life; and Puerto-Rico based puppeteer, author, and visual artist Dave Buchen talk about the old-and-new international painting and performance medium they have nurtured since the first Banners and Cranks festival in 2010. In addition, Dolan and Buchen will perform in the Ballard Institute’s first-ever Banners and Cranks Mini-Festival on April 14 at 7 p.m. and April 15 at 2 p.m. Tickets for the festival are available at bimp.ticketleap.com.
Clare Dolan is a painter, director, and performer of cantastoria, toy theater, outdoor puppetry, and stilt dancing, while simultaneously living a secret double life as a nurse in her small Vermont town. She’s a veteran of the Bread and Puppet Theater, co-curator of Banners and Cranks (along with Dave Buchen), and Founder/Chief Operating Philosopher of The Museum of Everyday Life, a five-year-old museum experiment in Glover, Vermont, whose goal is to explore, analyze and celebrate everyday life objects.
Dave Buchen is an illustrator, performer, and musician who has lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico since the last century. He is the co-founder of Banners and Cranks. With Theater Oobleck, he has been the visual artist for the Baudelaire in a Box project, which is creating cantastorias from all of the poems of Les Fleurs du mal. With El Teatro Bárbaro, he creates cantastoria with his two children. His book projects include The Enciclopedia Deiknumena a multi-year project producing bilingual toy theater books. He also plays with La Banda Municipal de Makula Barun.
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. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. Parking in the Storrs Center Garage is free for the first two hours and $1 per hour thereafter, with a daily maximum charge of $8. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live.
For more information, contact: Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at (860)486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu