Puppet Centre - *promoting and celebrating the work of puppetry and object animation practitioners*
Established in 1974 as a trust and registered charity, Puppet Centre is the national development agency for puppetry and object animation and focuses on contemporary performance practice, encouraging innovation, whilst also respecting and preserving the heritage of the art form.
Puppet Centre’s strategic role incorporates the use of puppetry in outdoor arts, carnival, dance, opera, screen animation, and theatre sectors. Anticipating and responding to artistic developments and changes in audience engagement, the organisation’s long-term role has taken a range of strategic routes over its 49 year history.
The Wrong Crowd’s HAG, 2013. Photography: Richard Davenport.
Puppet Centre work has included:
Co-ordinating the “Working Together to Strengthen Puppetry” period of consultation and successful bid to Arts Council England to continue the programme as co-ordinators of the Puppetry Development Consortium (2014)
Residency programmes to support emerging artists Grist to the Mill and No Nonsense Theatre at Z-arts in Manchester and The Nuffield, Southampton (2013);
Puppetry in Opera symposium in collaboration with Trinity Laban Conservatoire, The Barbican and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (2012);
Big Ideas Puppetry/Street Arts symposium delivered with ISAN and University of Winchester (2010);
Facilitation of R&D at the V&A Museum for The Puppet Story, and artsdepot for Rachel Warr and Alison Alexander, with ‘Beegu’ (2013);
Bursaries for travel and training. Previous bursary holders include Mervyn Millar whose trip to Handspring in South Africa was instrumental in creating War Horse. Recent recipients including Hannah Mulder, The Wrong Crowd (2012);
A comprehensive programme of skills training workshops;
Animations Online - Puppet Centre’s e-magazine offering discussion, debate, reviews and news, and Puppet Centre’s monthly e-newsletter;
Mentoring for puppetry artists and advice to non-puppeteers.
The Animals and Children took to the Streets by 1927, photograph: Nick Flintoff
We are in active pursuit of a new physical space to bring puppet and object animation practitioners together:
Puppet Centre was an Associate Company resident at the Battersea Arts Centre. Following the fire in April 2015 and the on-going renovations to the building, we have been offered shared desk space whilst offices are being found for all the residents. In the meantime, if you can’t find what you’re looking for on the website feel free to contact us via Facebook(https://www.facebook.com/PuppetCentre)). We will get back to you as soon as we possibly can.
At Puppet Centre, we are determined to continue our work in developing, connecting and advocating for the art form of puppetry in England.
War Horse at the New London Theatre, photograph: Simon Annand