PUPPETS

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Puppets in Education

October - January  2025

Our relationship with puppets goes back both through our earliest memories and our human history. From the earliest dolls to the most complex marionettes, from the classroom curriculum to television programming, from animating an object to the digital armatures of virtual reality, we find our gestures and expression channeled through puppets. 

But what is it, exactly, that we are doing when we pick up, move, and talk through an object that is not us? And what is it about this that so captivates our attention? This exhibit asks us—by taking up and playing with the gestures of puppeting—to reflect on what is educative about puppets, and what puppets themselves might teach us about education.

Interactive Image with Hover Effects and Logos
Interactive Image

Exhibit

Explore, build, and move puppets
in DFI’s Puppets in education exhibit.

October 3 - November 28
Open Monday-Thursday 9-5pm
& Friday by appointment

DFI Gallery, Russell Hall 5th floor
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Reception and Artist Talk

Artist Polina Porras,
creator of El Museo del Barrio’s
Three Kings puppets, explores
puppetry in community storytelling
and cultural education. This talk
interrogates the official opening
of the Puppets in education exhibit.

October 14, Monday 5-7pm

DFI Gallery, Russell Hall 5th floor

Register: Reception & Artist Talk on Eventbrite
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Puppet Movement Lab

Hands-on workshop exploring the
movements of puppets in education
led by Dr. Chris Moffett.

October 23, Wednesday 12-2pm

DFI Gallery, Russell Hall 5th floor

Register: Puppet Movement Lab on Eventbrite
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Puppet Symposium and Book Writing Experiment

November 1 & 2
Friday and Saturday 1-6pm

Smith Learning Theater,
Russell Hall 4th floor

Contact: dfidesign@tc.columbia.edu
if interested in attending.
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