Shadows, Strings and Other Things: The Enchanting Theatre of Puppets

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Photographed by Alina Ilyasova

String puppets. By unknown makers (Sinhalese)

MOA Collection: Eh149, Eh147, Eh164, Eh144, Eh142. Photo by Alina Ilyasova, courtesy of Museum of Anthropology at UBC.

This enchanting exhibition illustrates the role puppets have played in the transmission of cultural knowledge, stories, and values from generation to generation. Shadows, Strings and Other Things features a broad array of puppets, old and new, from 15 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Visitors will have the opportunity to view more than 250 handcrafted puppets from MOA’s collection — the largest in Western Canada — plus, new acquisitions from China, Brazil, Italy, Java, the UK, and France revealed to the public for the first time.

Utilizing immersive production elements of light, sound, and moving animation, visitors will have the opportunity to experience five theatrical stages revealing our enduring fascination with storytelling, emphasizing puppetry’s ability to contribute to social commentary in political climates around the world. Through this contemporary lens, various puppet types will offer a glimpse of cultural traditions from Asia, Europe, the America's — Enter into an immersive and theatrical world for all ages!

Curated by Dr. Nicola Levell, an associate professor of museum and visual anthropology at the University of British Columbia.