Puppets Bring History, Art, and Community Together
The Â鶹ÊÓƵ College Museum of Art welcomed Iowa's only professional puppet company for a week of performances and workshops that blended history, art, music, and community engagement.
As part of June summer programming, the Â鶹ÊÓƵ College Museum of Art (GCMoA), in partnership with Drake Community Library and local organizations, hosted Iowa's only professional puppet company, Eulenspiegel Puppets, alongside Dr. Buffy Quintero, Assistant Professor of Instruction of Art Education at the University of Iowa, for five free puppet performances and workshops from June 18-25.
The series included The Big Election (June 18), Â鶹ÊÓƵ Area Summer Camp (GASC) rehearsal for Remembering Buxton (June 22), Remembering Buxton (June 23), Puppet Engineering: Shadow Puppets with Buffy Quintero (June 24), and the Underwater Parade Puppet Workshop (June 25). Remembering Buxton featured GASC third- and fourth-grade students and included a full rehearsal the day before the performance. Programs also featured music by Des Moines jazz artist Dartanyan Brown and were attended by community members of all ages.
For Curator of Academic and Community Outreach Tilly Woodard, inviting Eulenspiegel Puppets to Â鶹ÊÓƵ was a natural fit. Woodard has known Monica Leo, director of Eulenspiegel Puppets, for more than 50 years and said the company's interdisciplinary approach aligned closely with the goals of Storytime Art in the Park.
"[Leo's] shows teach history and civics, performance skills, and storytelling through words, art, and music, as well as cooperation, focus, determination, and a quest for quality," Woodard said.
The workshops also complemented GCMoA's weekly Storytime Art in the Park program, a free summer series that offers arts and literacy activities, along with fresh produce, at no cost to families.
Woodard said, "Buffy captivated the LINK students with a shadow puppet performance and workshop, then brought that same creativity to Storytime Art in the Park, where she led a puppet-making activity and community parade."
For Â鶹ÊÓƵ College student Keely Ballenger-Hudson '28, working with the Eulenspiegel Puppets and Brown became an unexpected highlight of her summer.
An AmeriCorps student serving with the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Area Summer Camp (GASC), Ballenger-Hudson expected her summer to include working with students, exploring a future teaching career, and collaborating with community partners. She did not expect to work alongside Eulenspiegel Puppets, discover an important piece of Iowa history, or watch her students stage a full production in just two days.
On June 22, Ballenger-Hudson brought her students to rehearse Remembering Buxton, where GASC third- and fourth-grade students explored production roles, learned technical theater skills, and prepared the show in a single day. They returned on June 23 to perform for the community alongside Eulenspiegel Puppets.
Remembering Buxton, tells the story of Buxton, a fully integrated coal mining town in southern Iowa that existed from 1900-1925. Ballenger-Hudson said she had never heard the story before.
"As someone who grew up in Iowa, I was surprised that this was the first time I had heard the story of Buxton."
The production featured music by Des Moines jazz artist Dartanyan Brown, a member of the Iowa Rock and Roll, Jazz, and Blues Halls of Fame. Brown's grandmother lived in Buxton as a young girl and worked there as a schoolteacher.
Ballenger-Hudson and Brown also discovered they shared the same hometown and high school.
"Music was a huge part of my life growing up, especially in high school, and it was special to hear him reflect on how the program has changed and grown since his time there," Ballenger-Hudson said. "It made the experience feel even more personal."
Throughout the week, students and community members experienced puppetry through performances, hands-on workshops, storytelling, history, music, and visual art. For the last week of June, the series brought together students, performers, and community members singing, learning, and listening.