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Revolving Museum Declares 2006 -Year of
the Puppet!
More than 100
puppets from around the world will be featured in the exhibit:
“Pulling Strings: Traditional and Contemporary
Puppetry”
Opening
Night - Saturday, March 11, 7- 10 Admission $10
General Museum Hours, Tuesday-Sunday,
11am-4pm, Admission is FREE
(Lowell, MA) –- The Revolving Museum, an
artist-run, non-profit organization dedicated to creating innovative public art
projects and exhibitions, has launched its newest exhibit Pulling Strings:
Traditional and Contemporary Puppetry. Pulling Strings is a yearlong series of workshops,
exhibitions, public art projects and special events that celebrate the theme of
“ethnicity.”
The main exhibit, which
includes more than 100 works of art from students, community artists and
professional puppeteers, will be on
display in the newly renovated Revolving Museum at 22 Shattuck Street in Lowell,
from March 11, 2006 - September 30, 2006. The exhibit is FREE and
open to the public. Museum hours are Tuesday-Sunday 11am-4pm.
Over one hundred students,
community artists, and professional puppeteers were invited to design and
construct the puppets that will be on display in the Revolving Museum’s two
main gallery spaces. Members of the public are invited to activate some of these
puppets from a pulley system attached to the ceiling. In this way, attendees
become puppeteers and are encouraged to create playful and improvisational
situations with family members, friends, museum staff, and other exhibit-goers.
In addition to the main gallery, the Revolving Museum’s ever-changing 16’ high “Big
Head” public artwork in front of the museum will also get a makeover. Students
will collaborate to design a series of wind-activated puppets that will be
attached to the large tree that hovers over the “Big Head” sculpture.
This is the first exhibit in the Revolving Museum’s
newly renovated space, which now includes a museum store and space for
performing arts and special events. In addition, the museum has added a kitchen
facility to host catered events like birthday parties, weddings, and corporate
events. “We are really excited about the changes to the museum, says Revolving
Museum founder, Jerry Beck. “By opening the museum to the general public for
events, we’ve created a new opportunity for funding larger public arts
projects.”
Special Events & Classes
In addition to the exhibit,
the Revolving Museum will host a series of events throughout the year,
including puppet shows, puppet making classes and live performances. The
highlight of the Pulling Strings project will be the coming together of their
talented team of artists to produce a four hour long puppet extravaganza at the
Lowell Folk Festival, Southeast Asian Water Festival and African Festival this
summer.
Participating Artists
It
is no exaggeration to say that the work of Peter
Schumann’s Bread and Puppet Theatre is legendary. The Glover, VT based troupe has performed in numerous countries
and it has spurred innumerable viewers to think of puppets not only as fun, but
also as serious political commentators.
Bread and Puppet Theatre has produces puppets as big a 30 feet tall, you
will be surprised and politically stimulated by the work in this show.
Patrick Pollard’s puppets grow out of his work with
endearingly mis-proportioned little characters.
His small figures draw us in with their cartoonish quality,
but also seems to allude to something slightly darker.
Jennifer Trela uses taxidermy forms in
her work and re-animates them in the creation of pieces that allegorize human
dramas. Her work blends elements of
comic book art and circus sideshow.
Pat Keck is an internationally
known artist who has been making puppets for the last 20 years. Her work engages the viewer with its drama
and incredibly high level of craft.
Keck deals extensively with the puppet not only as form but also as
subject, she has done numerous works about “puppetness” itself. Keck’s work was recently featured in a
retrospective show at the DeCordova Museum.
Stacy Latt-Savage is an accomplished
figurative sculptor in numerous media.
Her work in this show, Dolly, is a small-scale self-portrait
whose proportions and cool white color give the viewer a disquieting
feeling. Dolly’s ambiguity is
perplexing, what kind of story would she be a participant in?
Shane Savage-Rumbaugh’s Puppet Show is
painted on a sideshow like banner. This
striking piece has echoes of the hydra from Greek mythology, or it may allude
to the various and several personalities in a single individual. The painter’s incredible skill with the
medium is also on display here and there are strikingly beautiful passages of
paint. Keep an eye out for the chimpanzees
in the background; their presence in the piece adds a self-portrait aspect
(Savage-Rumbaugh was raised in a household that was home to numerous chimps).
Bonnie Duncan shows one of her
puppet/masks in this show. Duncan is an
accomplished puppet artist and performer.
She has done shows all over the region and her puppets are expertly
crafted to elicit a range of emotions from viewers.
Martha Dana is a puppeteer who has
performed widely and has a dedicated fan base, especially in the Southern NH
and ME. Her puppets show exquisite
artistry and personality. Dana has
years of experience at making puppets and performing with them.
Nancy-Raen Mendez’s puppet is a contemporary take on the ancient image of the Snake
Goddess. Her puppet refers us to a time
when god was a woman, and she allows us to imagine our own narratives that
would place her Snake Goddess in the lead role.
Janet van Fleet is a Vermont artist who
works in many media. Her puppet in this
show is an interesting assemblage that gives a second life to numerous pieces
of discarded wood and metal. The
proportions and gesture of the figure create an elegance that belies the
commonness of the material.
Rob Millard-Mendez is an artist who is interested in
narrative. His puppets use to humor to cloak a deeper set of questions.
Additional to curating and exhibiting in the show, Rob has also involved dozens
of college students who designed and constructed new puppet forms that have
features of many puppetry traditions. These puppets will be on display in the
Revolving Museum’s two main gallery spaces, in which viewers will be able to
pull strings, activating them from a pulley system attached to the ceiling. In
this way, the public is invited to become in essence puppeteers, encouraged to
create playful and improvisational situations with family members, friends,
museum staff, and other public members.
About the Revolving
Museum
The Revolving Museum is an evolving laboratory of creative
expression for people of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities who seek to
experience the transformative power of art. Through public art, exhibitions,
and educational programs we promote artistic exploration and appreciation;
encourage community participation and growth; and provide opportunities for
empowerment and social change. The main gallery is currently closed for
renovations however outdoor public art can be enjoyed at any time, for free.
From Boston, the Museum is only 45 minutes by car or commuter train. The
Revolving Museum is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization.
For more
information, please call (978) YES.ARTS (978.937.2787) or visit www.revolvingmuseum.org
The Revolving Museum’s exhibitions and programs are supported in
part by the City of Lowell, Hunt Alternatives Fund, Lowell National Historical
Park, Lowell Public Schools, The Lowell Cultural Council and The Chelmsford
Cultural Council, local agencies, which are supported by the Massachusetts
Cultural Council, a state agency; and the many Revolving Museum members and
friends.
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AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST AND ONLINE AT WWW.REVOLVINGMUSEUM.ORG *
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