Puppets at Play!

Mischievous marionettes from the Museum’s historic Betty Huestis collection emerge from the pages of a storybook to frolic, play games and have other after-hours adventures at the library in a spirited scene recently created by AmeriCorps members Leigh Holmes and Hayley Munn.

Hayley shared some details about their inspiration and process:

“The idea for the new marionettes case display came from the Inkheart Trilogy, where characters can be read out of the story into real life. Leigh and I liked the idea of a library scene with mischievous animals escaping from a book. We choose the puppets based on their appearance and how they might engage in playful, unlibrary-like behavior. The monkey was a given, the camel worked well with the open desert scene, the spotted pony added fun color and pattern, and so on and so forth.

As for the bookshelf background, Leigh wanted to do a painting and we thought it would be fun to integrate real books. She also added in a sleeping kitty because she loves cats. The additional toys strewn about the books help set up the scene where the animals climb up the shelves, play Chinese Checkers and just make a mess.

The process of hanging the marionettes was very intricate and time-consuming. The puppets have very long strings that get easily tangled and must be handled carefully with gloves. It took a good deal of communication between who was hanging the string and who was holding the puppet in place to make the necessary adjustments.” 

Take a peek at these playful puppets on your next stroll through Strings Attached!

Puppets on Parade!

New this fall, see a festive puppet procession past storefronts and spectators, created by Exhibit Developer Jessica Neuwirth, Exhibits Director Robin Meisner and Experience Coordinator Mandy Roach and featuring the Museum’s collection of historic Betty Huestis marionettes.

Jessica shared her inspiration for the display: “I look after our collections – I’ve gone through all of the boxes and documentation and checked the condition of all of the puppets – so I know the range of puppets we have, but the same ones are so often used.  I wanted everyone else to come out so I thought, what story could we tell?”

To showcase the lesser-seen marionettes, Jessica conceptualized and sketched a spirited parade of puppets, which Mandy interpreted to create a lively and colorful backdrop.  During the installation process, they played off the backdrop to determine what other props were needed.

“I’m really happy with it,” said Jessica.  “I’ve seen kids and families taking great pleasure in seeing something new.”

The display will be on view through the spring so see it for yourself and join the parade!

Mother Goose in ThinkSpace

The “geometry gallery” in ThinkSpace features changing displays of natural and handcrafted objects that provide strong visual representations of spatial thinking, highlighting shapes in everyday life and the designed environment. Discover the newest installation: scenes from favorite Mother Goose rhymes hand-carved from blocks of wood, complemented by colorful images from picture book illustrations.

The pieces are selections from Hey Diddle Diddle!, a larger display created by Dan Elkins and George Alexandre and previously exhibited in the Museum’s atrium walkway and lobby. Elkins and Alexandre were members of The Splinter Group, a local association of retired craftspeople who were active woodcarvers; Dan Elkins also created the circus carvings in the Museum’s stairwell.

“These wood carvings are a great example of spatial thinking because they involve working from 2-D images or illustrations of nursery rhymes and creating 3-D representations,” said Exhibits Director Robin Meisner. “And carving itself involves taking a simple block of wood, envisioning the final product and using a variety of tools to transform that block into a sculpted piece.”

The carvings will be on display for the next few months – take a peek to see Jack jump over a candlestick, a cow jump over the moon, and more!

Cultivating Collections

This article, by Museum Exhibits Director Robin Meisner, was also posted on Kidoinfo. 

Most visitors know Providence Children’s Museums as a collection of experiences in which children and families learn through play and active exploration. One of the defining features of our exhibits is that they are rich in discoveries and stimulating for the senses. We incorporate unusual and ordinary objects to make learning tangible, and are deeply committed to surrounding children with beautiful learning environments.

One way we do this is by sharing the Museum’s collection of childlife objects, which includes tin toys, penguin figurines and a wonderful grouping of marionettes created by Betty Heustis  (1901-1983). We also love sharing other people’s collections. This spring, children and families investigated intricate metal miniatures handcrafted by Cambridge, MA artist Abraham Megerdichian (1923-1983) and shared by his family, and colorful Chinese and Indonesian shadow puppets from the collection of Hilary Salmons, executive director of Providence After School Alliance.

Collections are fascinating – they tell stories about the objects themselves and the individuals and institutions that collect them. At the Museum, they provide tangible, powerful ways for children and families to engage in quiet moments of observation and reflection. And for individuals, collecting offers opportunities to build and share pieces of themselves.

From a very young age, children form attachments to things – favorite blankets or stuffed animals – and as they develop, they begin collecting objects that they enjoy in other ways, like rocks, stickers or postcards. Collecting is empowering. It allows kids to make their own choices about what to collect and how to display it. Their collections are their creations, which say something special about their identity and their world at a particular moment in time.

Museum staff shared some of their favorite childhood (and grown-up) collections:

“When I was maybe 10 to 12, I used to collect business cards from stores. Maybe I was inspired by the Laura Ingalls Wilder books – in one of them having a “calling card” was a very big deal.”

– Cathy, Education Director

“My dad traveled a lot for work when I was growing up and he would always bring me a snow globe from wherever he was visiting. I didn’t really have any special attachment to the globes themselves, but I loved he was thinking of me while he was away.”

– Turenne, Volunteer & AmeriCorps Coordinator

“As a child I was completely entranced by “The Wizard of Oz” and collected everything related to the movie. I had a set of miniature dolls, posters, books, costumes and even a marionette puppet of Dorothy.”

– Corrie, Membership & Marketing Coordinator

“In high school, I collected psychedelic polyester shirts from the 1970s. I think I had over 40 all together, and yes, I did wear them regularly.”

– Suzy, Research & Evaluation Specialist

“My 7-year old daughter and I collect chickens in a variety of forms (ceramic, wire, cloth). This started with a friend who made some artful chickens and gave them to us, and from there we have started buying chickens whenever we see them. They now roost in our home.”

– Jessica, Exhibit Developer

What do you and your kids like to collect? There’s almost no limit to what’s possible!

Let It Snow!

Peer into the whimsical winter wonderland of Let It Snow!, the newest display featuring the Museum’s collection of historic Betty Huestis marionettes.  Creator Sam Polon, school-age learning programs developer, shared her process and inspiration behind her playful puppet display:

"I was inspired by nature and the natural world that surrounds us all.  Remembering the joy and delight of outdoor sports and children playing, I wanted to bring the outside in.  I started my selection with the boy and girl puppets and the idea of two people being lost in their own fantastical world.

I love knitting and crocheting so I knew right from the beginning that I wanted to add textile arts to this display.  Each snowflake was hand-crocheted and the trees, snow, ice and background were all made out of recycled materials.  Even the small banks of snow were created from painted bundles of bird litter. 

This display allows you to step out of your everyday life and enter a world of fantasy and pretend.  I wanted to show people that the outdoors is a great space to play and you don't even need any tools or modern technology to do it.  Just have fun!"

Let it Snow! is on display for the next several months, so join in this wintery adventure upon your next visit.  No hats or mittens required!

At the Circus

There’s a whole lot of clowning around in a charming new display created by AmeriCorps Museum Educators Amanda Howard and Jack Read.  See clowns juggling, balancing and swinging in a silly circus scene showcasing the Museum’s collection of historic Betty Huestis marionettes.

Amanda and Jack shared some thoughts about their inspiration and process:

Amanda: We saw that there was an abundance of clowns and that no one had used them in a while.  So we thought, what about a circus?

Jack: I have some background in stage clowning, so I thought it was such a neat theme. 

Amanda: We wanted it to be more about the marionettes than our own designs.  Once we chose the clowns we were going to use, we came up with ideas of what they could be doing.  We wanted someone getting a pie in the face and thought that having the clown on skates juggling would be funny.  And Uncle Sam is the ringmaster.

Jack: As first, we were going to have so much stuff – we thought we should spend more time in ThinkSpace to develop our spatial thinking muscles!  We learned to scale it back and be okay with simplicity.

Amanda: I really think the case captures both of our personalities.

This circus is in town through the end of the year, so be sure to check out the clowns’ playful antics!

Floating Fantasies

Discover Floating Fantasies, the newest display featuring the Museum’s collection of historic Betty Huestis marionettes.  Creator Ashley Moore, an AmeriCorps Museum Educator, described her scene as “a lilypad wonderland… fun, fanciful and kind of dreamlike.”

“When I was a kid, I really liked fairy tales and anything fanciful, so I wanted to bring that to life,” said Ashley.  See a ballerina dance for an audience of bullfrogs, a leprechaun with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, a father and daughter fishing from a raft and more, plus scan the pond for long lost treasures.

 Floating Fantasies is on view until August – take a peek on your next visit!

Upstairs/Downstairs

This week we welcomed Upstairs/Downstairs, a playful new puppet display created by AmeriCorps Museum Educators Mandy Roach and Bridget Sullivan. Mandy described their inspiration and process as they worked with the Museum’s collection of Betty Huestis marionettes.

We threw around a lot of different ideas before Bridget came up with having a large kitchen on top and a smaller kitchen underneath the floorboards so it’s kind of a play on scale. If you look at the top, it mirrors the characters and objects below. You can imagine it goes from big to small to smallest and that if you could look under the mouse house, maybe there’s a flea or cockroach kitchen!

We went through the collections and decided what puppets and characters and other collections items we were going to use. I really loved the old toys and wanted to incorporate them in the display, either as toys or by transforming them into something else. That’s where my inspiration came – for the things we didn’t have, what were we going to create and how?

I made the couch from a lot of recycled materials, like old jewelry boxes, fabric, crayons, corks, buttons – materials you can imagine that a mouse might use to make its own couch. The stove is a metal cup with belt buckles for the burners and the whole frame is a potato masher. If you keep looking, you can really see the props and the details and what they’re made of. I hope kids are inspired to think, “I can make that” from materials they have at home!

Bridget added, "I really liked that we were able to incorporate the idea of spatial thinking into the case with different perspectives and the scale of the two kitchens – and that it was an exercise in spatial thinking for me to create the components in the scene!"

Animal Band

We recently welcomed Animal Band, a playful new puppet display created by AmeriCorps Museum Educators Alex Balsen and Francesca Montanile. They described their inspiration and process as they worked with the Museum’s collection of Betty Huestis marionettes.

Francesca: We thought a lot about what would grab a kid’s attention and that influenced the decision to go with the animal puppets. We wanted something that was very bright and playful – those were our main guiding principles.

Alex: Francesca had the idea of it being a band and we thought about music that was relevant in the 1920s and 30s. The first thing we did was draw all of the puppets we wanted to use and thought about how they could fit in a band. Then playing around with words, we made it alliterative by putting the bear on the banjo, the monkey on the mandolin… that’s how we figured out the instruments.

Sketch including bear and monkey plus wolf on washboard and skunk on spoons.

Francesca: Alex made awesome mock-up drawings and from those we picked out what props and scenery we needed to make.

Alex: We got excited about making props and Francesca and [AmeriCorps member] Mandy made beautiful instruments that look like something Betty would have made.

Francesca: We hope everyone enjoys it.  I saw one kid stand in front of it and do a dance, which was probably my favorite moment!

From the Earth to the Moon

We recently welcomed a new display to our marionette case, From the Earth to the Moon, created by AmeriCorps Museum Educators Suzie Doogan and Andy Axel. They described their inspiration as they worked with the Museum’s collection of Betty Huestis marionettes.

“When we looked at the marionette collection, we wondered where these guys could go that they haven’t already gone. What is some place that is mysterious and cool that could bring these characters together? The moon!

We wanted to stay true to the time period [when Betty created the marionettes] and had two different inspirations drawn from the same era that led us to the moon. Andy was inspired by the early silent film “A Voyage to the Moon” by George Méliès. Suzie was inspired by Salvador Dali's surrealist landscapes and also by the film “The Blood of a Poet” by Jean Cocteau. We liked the romance of the moon before people had actually gone to it, the loneliness and mystery associated with it, and its openness to different interpretations as a symbol of many human things.

At first we wanted it all to be on the moon, but then a journey was more exciting. We built a moon, then the Earth. A spotted dog, a butterfly, and a boy on a homemade rocket go to the moon. A painter stays on Earth and paints the moon. A green man, Humpty Dumpty, and a smiling ghost are already there.

We wanted to put in things that weren’t 100% explainable so people would have to admit that they don’t know everything. So we put in a hanging key and also a prehistoric horse that looks like a dinosaur robot. The key can mean different things to different people."

Join the puppets on their journey next time you’re at the Museum.  Click here to learn about our previous marionette displays.

Toy Boxes

This post was contributed by AmeriCorps Museum Educator Cassandra Kane.

Museum visitors – get ready to feel nostalgic!

In the new ramp box display Toy Boxes, co-worker Kirsten Thomsen and I showcase favorite toys children have played with throughout history. From wooden alphabet blocks to Beanie Babies^®, the exhibit features toys we gathered from Museum staff and friends or found in the Museum’s collections. The display works like a timeline, progressing by date from the bottom of the ramp to the top, and labels in each box show the year the toys were created.

To determine which toys to include, we consulted resources like the Strong Museum’s National Toy Hall of Fame and other toy history websites. Our project supervisors, Carly Baumann and Robin Meisner, provided wonderful insight and support as well.
We acquired some vintage toys, like a NERF^® ball with its original box (courtesy of Director of Education Cathy Saunders) and a variety of colorful Silly Putty^® eggs. For ones like Raggedy Ann™ and Mr. Potato Head^®, we used “newer” toys to represent the originals.
We enjoyed unearthing interesting stories about how some of the toys were created. For instance, did you know Silly Putty^® was a wartime invention gone wrong, and LEGO^® derives from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” meaning “play well”?

My favorite part of the project was rooting through the collection of toys the Museum has amassed over the years. Slipping on white gloves to look closely at tin toys with labels reading “Made in Western Germany” and to hold a 200-year-old chalkboard evoked feelings of wonder and appreciation for the role toys have played and continue to play in childhood.
Although we ended up not including those toys among the 17 in our exhibit, the experience reaffirmed our goal in creating the display – that everyone has a special toy in their lives. We hope that as caregivers walk up and down the ramp, they pause to reminisce about the playthings in their own toy boxes growing up and then strike up a conversation with their children about what toys mean to them. We look forward to overhearing those exchanges over the next three months.
An interactive talk-back board allows visitors to share their favorite playthings so during your next visit, be sure to post a memorable toy from your childhood or a toy that your child adores!

Tea Party!

Last week, a delightful new tea party scene arrived in our marionette case, courtesy of AmeriCorps Museum Educators Rachel Schwartz and Lyndsey Ursillo. They described their inspiration as they worked with the Museum’s collection of Huestis marionettes:

“After first looking at all of the marionettes, amazed by their detail and beauty, we decided that our theme needed to be whimsical and fantastical.

We loved the animals, especially the monkey, and we also knew that we wanted to have a very lively and child-friendly scene. That is when we came up with the tea party idea because where else can you have a camel, a monkey, a bear and a giraffe sipping tea while a ballerina dances along a fence?

It was a pleasure playing with this idea and bringing Betty Huestis’s marionettes to life in a magical way!”

Stop by for a sip of tea next time you’re at the Museum! Click here to learn about our previous marionette displays.

The Carousel is BACK!

Longtime friends of the Museum will remember our colorful carousel, which has been out of commission for a while because, like all well-loved Children’s Museum components, sometimes they need a little extra care! Young children especially have always been drawn to the cheerful music as the carousel rotates to reveal some unexpected creatures. So we’re thrilled to have it back and in its new location, right in the lobby, where we know it will once again get a lot of attention.

In honor of the carousel’s reappearance, here’s a blast from the past: an article announcing the carousel’s arrival in the Museum’s January/February 2000 newsletter!

Local Group Carves Out New Exhibit
Gnomes, bears, birds and clowns abound as the Museum hosts a fascinating exhibit of wood carvings done by a local circle of friends who call themselves “The Splinter Group.” The nine men in the group meet every week in a Bristol basement to carve intricate and charming figures from wood. The best examples of these carvings have been brought together and are on display at the Museum.

One of the most whimsical creations in the exhibit is a colorful carousel that six members of the Splinter Group made and donated to the Museum [in summer 1999]. The working carousel is accurate down to the last detail: it has tiny horses that move up and down, a popcorn stand with real popcorn and a brightly striped cloth canopy on top. “Even the music that plays as the carousel rotates is a recording of the Looff Carousel in East Providence,” explained Dan Elkins, Splinter Group secretary and long-standing member...

Hand-carved animals and exotic animals prance around the
Museum’s model carousel, a gift of the Splinter Group.

Check out more of Dan Elkins’s carvings in the circus case in the stairwell. And look for more information about the many artists whose work is featured in the Museum in future posts. What artist or artwork do YOU most want to know about?
Related posts:
The Story of Estrella
Puppet Masters!
(About our marionette collection - look for a new display coming next month!)

Manufacturing Marionettes

There’s a wonderfully intriguing new marionette display in Strings Attached, created by AmeriCorps Museum Educators Annie Blazejack and Zachary Orefice.

Annie and Zack were introduced to the Museum’s collection of antique marionettes when they photographed and created a digital catalogue of nearly 100 puppets, props and memorabilia handcrafted by Providence puppeteer Betty Huestis and donated to the Museum before her death.

Fascinated by the collection, Annie and Zack sought out some of the rarely seen pieces – the unfinished puppet parts! – and challenged themselves to find a way to include them in an exhibit. “Because the pieces are part of the collection, we asked ourselves how we could share them with visitors,” Zack explained.

The result is 9 to 5, a whimsical factory scene that reimagines Betty Huestis’s creative process. A crew of clown employees staffs five marionette-making stations, stuffing and sewing the puppet pieces as they travel down the assembly line before embroidering features and clothing and stringing the marionettes on the factory floor.

Annie and Zack were intrigued by the idea of creating a more contemporary setting, one that wouldn’t have been used for the marionettes in the 1950s but that remains true to their origins. Small details like the wall of time cards enhance the feel of the factory environment. Annie and Zack acknowledged that there are so many parts of the collection we often don’t share because there isn’t the right context – not only these leftover legs and heads but also some characters that might be viewed as offensive today, removed from their historical context.

But, according to Annie, the puppet parts “are objects that you can find context for. They’re not the first things you’d think of to use in a display … It’s unusual but it still reveals something true and interesting about the whole collection.”

Their exhibit is truly an imaginative way to showcase some of these little-seen parts of the Huestis collection. Look for 9 to 5 over the next few months and let us know what you think!

Colors!

The marionettes are not our only vibrant new display - we recently welcomed “Colors!” to the ramp boxes in our atrium walkway.

“Colors!” first debuted in 2006, conceived and developed by former Museum AmeriCorps member Rhiannon Lee. Her vision was to fill each box with an eclectic grouping of different items, all of the same color. The concept was reintroduced with all-new displays created by current AmeriCorps members Erin Murphy and Katie Migliaccio, who work offsite running Museum programs at the Kent County YMCA as well as facilitate play in our exhibits and programs.
Here’s what Erin and Katie had to say about their process and the end result:

Katie: “We selected different items from the Museum’s basement. That was the most fun. We found bubble wrap, beads, animals, tin foil, etc. We spent many hours down there!”

Erin: “We tried to gather items of all different sizes, shapes, and textures. Arranging the items was the best part! Our goal was to make each design look like the pages of an "I Spy" book. We wanted children to be able to stare at each scene and find all of its hidden details.”
Be sure to take a peek at “Colors!” next time you visit.

Arabian Nights

We’re very excited to have a brand new display in our marionette case, thanks to talented and resourceful artist Megan Jeffery of Seekonk - a RISD graduate with a BFA in Illustration. Megan explored the Museum’s collection of over 70 antique marionettes handcrafted by the late Betty Huestis and six of the marionettes prompted a new take on an old legend.

In Megan’s words:

Trying to come up with a new story for one thousand and one nights is a tall order! So who’s to say that Scheherazade didn’t tell these compelling tales?

• The Air-Surfing Sheik & His Magic Carpet Surfboard
• The Camel Who Enjoyed Wearing a Fez
• The Belly Dancing Elephant
• The Most “Charm”-ing of Monkeys (or How Snake Got the Last Word)”
  

Betty Huestis’s attention to detail in her marionettes’ fabrics and trims inspired Megan’s own embellishments to flesh out the tale, including “carpets” from an old fabric sample book and sequins from recycled dance costumes.

Visit Megan’s blog for a series of posts that provide a detailed, fascinating and funny behind-the-scenes look at her process, complete with plenty of photos:

Marionette Props & Costumes, Part 1
Props & Costumes Part 2
Props & Costumes Part 3
Marionettes on Display!

A big thanks to Megan for creating such a magical display, and for documenting and sharing the process with us. Click here to check out the previous marionette exhibit and to learn more about Betty Huestis and her work.

Puppet Masters!

Last week, we were thrilled to debut another vibrant new display, created by Camille Cordeiro and Liz Leahey – more of our talented AmeriCorps Museum Educators.

Over the past several weeks, Camille and Liz donned white gloves and delved into the Museum’s collection of Betty Huestis marionettes to design “At the Opera,” an eclectic gathering of puppets involved with a production of Hansel and Gretel.Providence resident Elizabeth "Betty" Huestis was a renowned puppeteer, teacher, story teller and artist who, from 1929 until her retirement in 1970, shared her love of puppetry with children and adults at programs and events up and down the East Coast – including war relief efforts during World War II. She handcrafted each of her marionettes, designed and created the sets and props for her performances, and wrote or adapted her own scripts. Her artful puppets portray a wide array of colorfully adorned and richly dressed characters, each with their own unique personality.

Huestis donated her collection of nearly 100 marionettes, props and memorabilia to the Children’s Museum shortly before her death in 1984. We display them on a rotating basis in Strings Attached, along with fellow Rhode Island puppeteer Dan Butterworth’s beautifully animated and hand-carved marionettes – which kids can actually manipulate to make them move and dance.

It was fun to see Camille and Liz sort through and select the puppets they wanted to be part of their display, as well as tackle the challenging task of stringing them up and positioning them in just the right way.

Here’s how Camille described the scene:

“It’s a night at the opera, and marionettes are both performing in and watching Hansel and Gretel. In the show, a Dutch boy and girl arrive at a candy cottage, only to be confronted by a scary witch. The sight of her terrifies many audience members; a mouse scurries behind a wooden sign and a monkey covers his eyes as the green man looks on, intrigued. The gypsy woman, who is rudely shaking her tambourine at a crucial point in the play, preoccupies Uncle Sam. In the back row, the Victorian woman peers at the sleeping spotted horse, who is snoring conspicuously. Behind the stage, a curious fairy watches over the entire scene.”
Visitors will certainly notice the expressive and playful finished product. Be sure to take a peek next time you stop by!