The HAND FINALE of the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival is the Puppet Slam! Participants in SHOW OF HANDS workshops will be performing short-form puppet shows in the Puppet Slam, a high-energy, supportive, celebratory puppetry showcase. We will feature V+V artists, first time performers, and professional puppeteers showing a variety of experimental forms of puppetry. Hosted by Cincinnati art celebrity, Pam Kravetz, grab some handmade instruments or noise makers to cheer on the show!

Featuring the creations from the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival workshop GO BIG and the Camp Washington Heavy Metal Marching Band, this LARGER-THAN-LIFE Puppet Parade is for anyone to join along the way. Our parade theme is Garden but we welcome any positive art form that you want to express. Follow the fun from Wave Pool, through Camp Washington, down to The Well for our final performance, the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Slam!

Puppet artist Tom Lee leads a workshop in Japanese puppetry techniques inspired by his teacher, Master Koryū Nishikawa V.  Participants will learn some basic history about the form and then dive in for some hands-on practice with a 3-person Bunraku-style training puppet. The Bunraku-style is hugely influential in contemporary puppetry and is one of the world's most sophisticated puppet and literary traditions.

Tom Lee is a puppet artist, designer and director based in Chicago. He began his career at La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York. His work explores the synthesis of manipulated objects, miniatures and figures with the language of film and animation. Mr. Lee grew up in Hawai’i and studied traditional puppetry in Japan. He is a student of Japanese master puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V with whom he created Shank’s Mare (2015) and Akutagawa (2023). His original work has toured the U.S., Japan, France, Bulgaria and Indonesia. Mr. Lee's  puppetry performances include War Horse (Broadway), Madama Butterfly (Metropolitan Opera) and The Queen of Spades (Lyric Opera Chicago).  He is the recipient of multiple Jim Henson Foundation grant awards for his original puppetry work and is co-director of the Chicago Puppet Studio and Chicago Puppet Lab.  Tom teaches puppetry design and performance nationally and internationally. www.tomleeprojects.com

TOMTE is a Swedish gnome who takes care of a family and their farm, though they never see him. On a cold winter night, Tomte teaches us about the importance of kindness and looking after all living things.

designed and performed by Tom Lee

storyteller Lisa Gonzales

adapted from "The Tomten" by Astrid Lindgren

from a poem by Victor Rydberg

The only thing scary about Friday the 13th is the thought of missing out on the Puppet Cabaret! Join us for frighteningly good puppet shows at the Northside Lounge, a 1970's styled cocktail lounge and music venue located on the first floor of the Liberty Exhibition Hall. This late night, adults only cabaret is packed with contemporary short-form puppet and object based theater. Hosted by Suzie Homewrecker, music and interactive puppetry by Marc Governnati.

Visionaries + Voices is pleased to announce an upcoming exhibition, Show of Hands, in conjunction with the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival. The exhibition will feature puppets, objects, film and ephemera from V+V and community artists, spanning the spectrum of traditions and highlighting experimental forms of puppetry.

6PM Enjoy a live shadow puppet performance of "UAP, The Unflappable Aunt Pat" by Emily Schubert, a documentary style shadow play about Emily's Great Aunt Pat and her fascination with UFO's and life beyond Earth.

There is no cost to attend and it is open to all ages and abilities. Light bites and refreshments will be provided.

Belong follows the path of a family forced to flee their home and their struggles to navigate the system while rebuilding their identity.  This is a work-in-progress.

This performance will be followed by OVERHEAD PROJECTOR PUPPETS: Mixing Shadow Puppets and Sand Drawings. This multilevel workshop will guide you in how to create Shadow Puppets and explore Sand Drawings, as well as how this two elements can interact with each other. You can use your creations for Live Performance, Stop Motion Animation or Filmmaking!

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL

Sofía Padilla is a theatre artist from Mexico City who works internationally as a director, puppeteer and actor. She graduated from the acting conservatory Centro Universitario de Teatro UNAM, Mexico City, in 2007.  In 2016 Sofía joined Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont USA as a puppeteer, and has performed on seven tours across North America. On Television, Sofía worked as the Assistant Director of the 2016 season of Sesame Street in Mexico City: “Listos a Jugar”. Currently she is the Artistic Co-Director of Paradox Teatro which she founded in  2017 with Davey T Steinman and continues to work with Bread and Puppet Theater.

Cincinnati’s Table is a series of dinners held at neighborhood community centers around the city. The series aims to bridge relationships within neighborhoods including but not limited to helping immigrants connect with each other and their neighbors through shared meals. Each of these meals revolves around a theme, which are introduced by a local artist through an interactive artwork or installation and are strengthened by food cooked by an immigrant or refugee in order to best start conversations across many groups and bridge divides within our city. Read more about Cincinnati's Table here.

Roll up your sleeves and join us to make larger than life parade props in this fun-filled workshop! Cincinnati illustrators and paper mâche experts Julia Lipovsky and Karen Boyhen team up to present Go BIG, an garden themed cardboard experience where you can take a morsel of an idea and super size it! Be a part of the creative spark from these 3 friends and collaborators who will walk you step-by-step through this unique and accessible art-making process. It is FREE and supplies are provided, just bring your ideas to this all ages workshop! Why just watch the parade when you can be in the parade!

Karen Boyhen believes in drawing as an essential daily practice. Her sketchbook contains drawings that generally fit into two categories: observation and imagination. The observational drawings are of spaces she inhabits and people she sees while waiting or traveling, and things of importance such as drawings of pasta shapes, varieties of birds, and ALL of the yoga poses. The drawings from imagination stem from childhood memories and her attempts to anthropomorphize creatures. Notes are often kept of the next “big” idea. Other drawing interests include editorial illustration, surface pattern design, diary comics, and making “likes and dislikes portraits” of willing subjects. She is also inspired by wild life.
A seasoned creative with over 30 years in the visual communication field, Karen is proud to have recently wrapped up 14 years as creative director at arts non-profit Visionaries + Voices in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is now focused on building new creative partnerships.
www.karenboyhen.com

Julia Lipovsky is a contemporary artist and illustrator based in Cincinnati, Ohio. After studying fine art and creative writing at the Maryland Institute College of Art, she returned home to Cincinnati, where she has been involved with many of the city’s arts and cultural organizations. She is currently the 2023 Rosenthal Education Center Artist in Residence at the Cincinnati Art Museum and her installation, Mural of Cincinnati, is on view through October of this year. Her work can also be seen in the Contemporary Arts Center’s newly renovated Creativity Center. And the more masking tape the better!
www.julialipovsky.com

Curtis Davis dismisses unnecessary embellishments, abstracting subjects to the simplest of shapes. The resulting composition locks shapes into the architecture of form, glued together with layer upon layer of paint. His impulse to make art results in an abundance of new paintings and drawings produced daily in the studio. Many times a new daily batch of paintings requires that Curtis paint over the previous day’s finished work. This process results in stunning pieces that are immediate and visceral: thick layers of paint conceal the history of painting underneath. By reworking each painting, Curtis builds up an impasto whose edges reveal the collective history of the piece. Remarkable, candy-like layered edges embody immense amounts of visual tension that is then released across the expansive surface of broad opaque shapes.

www.visionariesandvoices.com/curtis-davis

In 1869, Pyotr Tchaikovsky composed sketches for an opera called Undina, about a community that disrespects the sea and experiences catastrophic flooding. When he died in 1893, he left the sketches incomplete. Tchaikovsky recycled some of the music intended for Undina into some of his most famous works, including Swan Lake.

Queen City Opera Artistic Director Dr. Isaac M. Selya has spent the last three years reconstructing the opera using other works by Tchaikovsky to devise a world premiere pastiche completion, producing an 85-minute opera focusing on ocean conservancy and sustainable energy production.

The opera depicts a fantastical story about respectfully co-existing with the environment through puppetry.

New Libretto by Rebecca Whitehurst, edited by Simon Barrad
Dramaturgy by Rebecca Whitehurst and Rebecca Herman
Stage Direction by Rebecca Herman
Set design and construction by Kenneth Shaw and Bob Doak. Puppets by Lizzy DuQuette
With full orchestral accompaniment, conducted by Isaac Selya

Tickets at https://undina.brownpapertickets.com/

In 1869, Pyotr Tchaikovsky composed sketches for an opera called Undina, about a community that disrespects the sea and experiences catastrophic flooding. When he died in 1893, he left the sketches incomplete. Tchaikovsky recycled some of the music intended for Undina into some of his most famous works, including Swan Lake.

Queen City Opera Artistic Director Dr. Isaac M. Selya has spent the last three years reconstructing the opera using other works by Tchaikovsky to devise a world premiere pastiche completion, producing an 85-minute opera focusing on ocean conservancy and sustainable energy production.

The opera depicts a fantastical story about respectfully co-existing with the environment through puppetry.

New Libretto by Rebecca Whitehurst, edited by Simon Barrad
Dramaturgy by Rebecca Whitehurst and Rebecca Herman
Stage Direction by Rebecca Herman
Set design and construction by Kenneth Shaw and Bob Doak. Puppets by Lizzy DuQuette
With full orchestral accompaniment, conducted by Isaac Selya

Tickets at https://undina.brownpapertickets.com/

Show your support for the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival at the Garden Party October 5th, 5-7:30PM! Help us keep all workshops and performances free by donating. For a suggested $5 donation, enjoy desserts, libations, and fresh coffee provided by Sidewinder in our studio courtyard.

Interested in having a one-of-a-kind GIANT Black Eyed Susan? We will be selling them at this event to raise money to go towards the performances happening October 11th-14th!

This beginner-level workshop on shadow theater introduces participants to basic construction and puppeteering techniques for making their own shadow puppets.  It will also discuss the process of storyboarding for short scenes, and how the story informs design.

Contact us for the Zoom link.

MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED

• pencil and paper

• bamboo grill skewers or chopsticks or real branches for puppet rods

• sturdy but easily cuttable material for your puppet body like manila folders or a few cereal boxes.  Tagboard is something you can find in bulk in an art supply shop.

• scissors

• blue masking tape

• brads (I’m actually not convinced you need a hole puncher to go with the brads, though, I feel like it’s always better to make your own hole with scissors or a pencil)

• any fun miscellaneous material that casts an interesting shadow (reflective things, translucent plastic bags, loosely knit fabrics)

Maisie O’Brien is a Philadelphia based shadow puppeteer simmering together everything from cut paper to overhead projector, crankie theater, animation, printmaking, and cello.  She has performed and workshopped her shadows nationally at puppet slams, festivals, and classrooms from Camden to Chicago.  They have also developped shadows, puppets, sets, and costumes for local and international collaborations with filmmakers, dancers, musicians, playwrights, and educators. www.maisieobrien.com

Milo Gleich is a multimedia artist who finds inspiration in the eerie and macabre. In their high school art classes they learned they had an affinity for charcoal drawings and ceramics in particular. Since coming to Visionaries + Voices Milo has continued to experiment with different mediums: sculpture, woodworking, jewelry, taxidermy and more. 

Roll up your sleeves and join us to make larger than life parade props in this fun-filled workshop! Cincinnati illustrators and paper mâche experts Julia Lipovsky and Karen Boyhen team up to present Make it Big, an immersive cardboard experience where you can take a morsel of an idea and super size it! Be a part of the creative spark from these 3 friends and collaborators who will walk you step-by-step through this unique and accessible art-making process. It is FREE and supplies are provided, just bring your ideas to this all ages workshop! Why just watch the parade when you can be in the parade!

Karen Boyhen believes in drawing as an essential daily practice. Her sketchbook contains drawings that generally fit into two categories: observation and imagination. The observational drawings are of spaces she inhabits and people she sees while waiting or traveling, and things of importance such as drawings of pasta shapes, varieties of birds, and ALL of the yoga poses. The drawings from imagination stem from childhood memories and her attempts to anthropomorphize creatures. Notes are often kept of the next “big” idea. Other drawing interests include editorial illustration, surface pattern design, diary comics, and making “likes and dislikes portraits” of willing subjects. She is also inspired by wild life.
A seasoned creative with over 30 years in the visual communication field, Karen is proud to have recently wrapped up 14 years as creative director at arts non-profit Visionaries + Voices in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is now focused on building new creative partnerships.
www.karenboyhen.com

Julia Lipovsky is a contemporary artist and illustrator based in Cincinnati, Ohio. After studying fine art and creative writing at the Maryland Institute College of Art, she returned home to Cincinnati, where she has been involved with many of the city’s arts and cultural organizations. She is currently the 2023 Rosenthal Education Center Artist in Residence at the Cincinnati Art Museum and her installation, Mural of Cincinnati, is on view through October of this year. Her work can also be seen in the Contemporary Arts Center’s newly renovated Creativity Center. And the more masking tape the better!
www.julialipovsky.com

Curtis Davis dismisses unnecessary embellishments, abstracting subjects to the simplest of shapes. The resulting composition locks shapes into the architecture of form, glued together with layer upon layer of paint. His impulse to make art results in an abundance of new paintings and drawings produced daily in the studio. Many times a new daily batch of paintings requires that Curtis paint over the previous day’s finished work. This process results in stunning pieces that are immediate and visceral: thick layers of paint conceal the history of painting underneath. By reworking each painting, Curtis builds up an impasto whose edges reveal the collective history of the piece. Remarkable, candy-like layered edges embody immense amounts of visual tension that is then released across the expansive surface of broad opaque shapes.

www.visionariesandvoices.com/curtis-davis

Click here to fill out application.

V+V invites you to play alongside other artists, collaborate, and get feedback on your puppet show during OPEN STUDIO hours.

Every Thursday 5:00 - 7:30 pm

September 7 - October 5

Create your own toy theater out of CARDBOARD and YOUR Imagination!!

This 19th century- inspired model of a stage can become your own personal playhouse! Learn easy construction techniques with V + V artist and staff, Savannah Martin and Seana Higgins, trade ideas, and prepare some miniature stage magic!! All ages and abilities welcome (children under 8 need to be accompanied by an adult for the workshop)!

Inspired and informed by life’s mundanity, Seana Higgins (she/her) uses humor and self reflection as a means to express vulnerabilities through narrative. Her drawings, sculptures, clay, performances, installations, puppetry, and collaborative projects expose the rawness of pivotal moments lived, revealing processes and inviting viewers to cull meaning through insight into the making. seanahiggins.com

Savannah Martin (she/her) is a talented artist, singer, and all around human. Born and raised in Cincinnati, OH, Savannah enjoys spending time with her friends, learning new art skills, and using her beautiful singing voice to charm others. Savannah is a Jill of all trades when it comes to her art practice. Skilled in sculpture, drawing, painting, and performance, there is no limit to what Savannah can do.

Discover new tools and techniques for making 3-dimensional puppets with a versatile, abundant and free material – cardboard! Participants will learn how to craft head-shapes of creatures and people that can be turned into large puppets, masks, or Halloween costumes. Or you can choose something smaller to make a hand-held/rod puppet. Patterns will be provided for some puppets, and tips will be shared for free-sculpting anything imaginable. Led by professional puppetry artist Jesse Mooney-Bullock, director of MoonBull Studio, puppet designer and creator of award-winning theatrical puppets.

Age recommendation: 14 or older, or an adult to help for anyone younger (tools used require some strength and safety awareness)

Tools and materials will be provided.

As an artist of puppetry, Jesse Mooney-Bullock creates work that spans many disciplines. Sculpture, live performance, painting and design, engineering, writing and storytelling converge in this art-form. He revels in the entire process – from conceptualizing on paper to final performance before a live audience. His hand-held puppets operate in ways unique to their role and purpose in a production, recognizing that a puppet must move as well as it looks. Mooney-Bullock has developed his skills in inventive engineering along side his abilities in fine sculpture and wood-carving. It is this synthesis of form and function that continually captivates him in his artwork. moonbullstudio.com

Rosalind Bush’s art making is steeped in classical antiquity. Finding inspirational imagery in various art books, she reappropriates well-established iconography across the fine art landscape. Rosalind is primarily concerned with studying the figure, often referencing the works of the Great Masters or photo portraits from National Geographic. Experienced with paper mache, markers, and other various media, the artist most recently works in acrylic or watercolor as she focuses on refining her new body of figurative paintings. Rosalind chooses to define areas of her subject with dark outlines, bringing attention to the foreground.  The eyes of her subject are sharp and often pupilless.  This exclusive style enhances the artist’s distinctive aesthetic in a way that is energetic and blunt. 

visionariesandvoices.com/rosalind-bush

PAR-Projects is taking over Hoffner Street from Apple to Cherry and hosting a neighborhood extravaganza featuring an art market, live music and beer garden in the Studeō courtyard. Join us at the BLOCK PARTY to make your own sustainable puppet craft and try your hand at puppeteering. More information here.

Little Amal is a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl who has traveled

across 13 countries meeting more than a million people and watched by tens of millions

more online. This fall, she will journey 6,000 miles across the United States in one of the

largest free public festivals ever created. 35 towns and cities from Boston to San Diego

and 1,000+ artists and arts organizations will create 100+ events to welcome her.

Amal’s journeys of art and hope celebrate the rich stories of refugees, immigrants, and

displaced people, and the communities that welcome them. Everyone is welcome to

walk with Amal. Amal Walks Across America is produced by The Walk Productions

in association with Handspring Puppet Company. www.walkwithamal.org

V+V invites you to play alongside other artists, collaborate, and get feedback on your puppet show work-in-progress during OPEN STUDIO hours.

Every Thursday 5:00 - 7:30 pm

September 7 - October 5

Crankie Toy Theater is a traditional storytelling device that integrates hand-painted or drawn paper scrolls, a hand-crank mechanism, and the power of imagination to animate miniature scenes. Join our workshop and craft your own crankie theater, design a short scroll, and bring a story to life through animation!

Abby Palen (they/them/theirs) is an award-winning creative storyteller, puppeteer, and multi-media artist with a diverse artistic background. Raised in Kentucky and having traveled extensively, Abby's experiences and exploration of various art forms serve as the foundation for their work. From acting to puppet design, their artistic portfolio encompasses a wide range of projects, including touring shows and collaborations with renowned puppetry organizations. Abby also shares their expertise through teaching, offering free classes in upcycled art, and fostering accessibility in the arts. Learn more about Abby and their work at abbypalen.com.

Carlos Perez (he/him) is a skilled ceramicist, painter, and illustrator. Drawing inspiration from comics, anime, mythology, and Latin culture, Carlos creates figurative statues, highly detailed drawings, and ceramic masks inspired by the traditional vejigante masks of Puerto Rico, where he spent his formative years. Before creating any work of art, Carlos begins his process with meticulous research on the appearance and story of his subject. In the course of creating the work, he adds significant symbolic details to the drawing or sculpture that allude to the narrative of the character depicted. Carlos is a graduate of the Teaching Artist Program at Visionaries + Voices, and teaches his style of ceramics and drawing to students in the greater Cincinnati area.

Join us as we turn some socks into friends—by bringing them to life as sock puppets! In this workshop, we will design and create sock puppets, and experiment with ways to perform them!

(Socks provided but feel free to also bring some socks of your own to revive, as long as they don’t smell!)

sophie shiff is an artist and educator based in covington, ky. sophie fell in love with puppetry in 2019 and has been making puppets and writing shows ever since! outside of art, you can often find sophie riding bikes, doing advocacy work, or spending time with their backyard chickens. sophie-shiff.com

Mike Ginn is an explorative artist who works with a wide range of materials. Inspired by pop culture and worldly questions Mike creates detailed collages, comedic marker illustrations and stars in live drag performances. Mike utilizes saturated colors and strong linework to create dynamic artworks that encourage the viewer to study the scenes in front of them and find the cleverly hidden details within the piece. Since arriving at V+V in 2021 Mike has shown his work at DSGN CLLCTV, V+V Northside gallery, has participated in three drag performances and has become a V+V Teaching Artists. “I let the art guide me, I don’t guide the art.” - Mike describing his process

V+V invites you to play alongside other artists, collaborate, and get feedback on your puppet show work-in-progress during OPEN STUDIO hours.

Every Thursday 5:00 - 7:30 pm

September 7 - October 5

Discover the magical qualities of opaque, translucent, and transparent media to create shadow puppets and masks. Make great theater with household items while having fun. Interact with your own puppets--projected life-size + mime + everyday materials.

Christine Langford is an artist, instructor, designer, and Shadow Puppeteer. She has taught workshops and performed at various national festivals and school programs in the greater Cincinnati area. She has earned a B.S. in Fashion Design from the University of Cincinnati, DAAP and an M.A. in Art Education from Mount St. Joseph University. Christine recently retired as an elementary art teacher and adjunct professor at Northern Kentucky University.

Christine is dedicated to exploring the psychological, physical, and spiritual aspects of storytelling with shadow and light. Her emphasis is on providing innovative ways to voice personal stories.  Current endeavors include writing, filming, and editing shadow puppet films

Amy Hayden (she/her) is a mixed media artist at Visionaries + Voices that translates her personal experiences within the world using various mediums. Her use of abstraction through geometric patterns, repetition, and especially color are utilized as an outward expression of her inner self: her emotions and thoughts within the moment. Her artwork is able to convey a sense of lively optimism and hope through her active line work and compositions, which captivates the viewer upon engagement.  Every mark has a deliberate place within Amy’s work and each mark speaks loudly and cohesively.  Though the world around us is often changing, Amy is able to capture her feelings on paper so that they remain present, bold, and attentive through her artistic practice and execution.  Amy has begun to take on a very active role in the Cincinnati community and is always working towards bringing art and happiness to those around her. She is an advocate for disability rights and domestic violence survivors, a volunteer at the Cincinnati Art Museum, a TAP teacher, and a photographer for My Life Magazine.  In 2023, Amy exhibited a piece in Creating Connections: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection at the Cincinnati Art Museum and was featured with V+V artists on the cover of My Life magazine for her achievement.

SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival teamed up with our favorite creative reuse shop, Indigo Hippo, to make festival workshops as sustainable as possible. Indigo Hippo generously donated art supplies to build puppets and keep supplies out of the waste stream. Join us at Second Sunday on Main to make your own sustainable puppet craft and try your hand at puppeteering. More information about Second Sunday here.

V+V invites you to play alongside other artists, collaborate, and get feedback on your puppet show work-in-progress during OPEN STUDIO hours.

Every Thursday 5:00 - 7:30 pm

September 7 - October 5

Visualize the concept of your incredible tale, from beginning through the middle to the end. You decide what, when, how, and why! Using post-it notes because of their ability to be rearranged, create storyboards for puppet shows, plays, cinema, and beyond! 

Courtney Combs-Mock is a multimodal artist from Cincinnati; she is a painter, playwright, musician, graphic designer, teacher, and marketing specialist at Visionaries + Voices. With her background in film production and children's theater, Courtney has developed many storyboards for different forms of production. 

Linda Kunick is an artist, writer, an advocate, and an activist. Linda has 3 volumes of short stories published with her artwork. Linda will be giving an artist talk about her storyboard inspired art piece. She works primarily on paper, creating bright, colorful images with crayon and colored pencil. Butterflies are Kunick’s personal motif, symbolizing change, growth, and freedom.

Led by artists at The Welcome Project, participants will create an oversized drawing for Amal (3 options) 1. Draw some object or memory from your past that you still carry with you today that you love. 2. Draw a picture for Amal. She is a young child, traveling the world alone searching for her family. What do you think would make her feel safe or at home? 3. Write Amal a message of hope, welcome, love and or friendship!

Participants will make giant cardboard flowers of Ohio, Kentucky, and Syrian varieties to accompany Amal on her walk September 22, 3:00-4:15. Learn more about this event here.