NEW YORK, NY.- This August, the newly renovated Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center will become one of the country's most dynamic destinations for contemporary puppetry and visual theater as it hosts an expansive exhibition program presented as part of the 4th International Puppet Fringe Festival (IPFF). Spanning multiple galleries, public spaces, and installations throughout the historic Lower East Side cultural center, the exhibitions invite visitors to experience puppetry as sculpture, installation, photography, cultural artifact, and contemporary art. The exhibitions open August 12.

Anchored by Theodora Skipitares: Performing Objects–Four Decades of Abundant Ingenuity, a landmark retrospective celebrating one of America's most influential visual theater artists, the Festival’s exhibition offerings will also feature a rare photographic archive by legendary puppetry advocate Nancy Staub, along with two exhibitions drawn from Teatro SEA's internationally significant collections, and an immersive sculptural installation by American artist Jo Cunningham.

Together, the exhibitions reveal puppetry as a dynamic intersection of visual art, theater, storytelling, history, anthropology, and design.

"Puppetry is one of humanity's oldest and most universal art forms, yet it continues to evolve in extraordinary ways," said Dr. Manuel Moran, Artistic Director of Teatro SEA and Founder of the International Puppet Fringe Festival. "This year's exhibition program reflects the breadth of that evolution—from internationally celebrated contemporary artists like Theodora Skipitares to historical collections, documentary photography, and immersive installations that reveal puppetry's power as both visual art and cultural expression. We are proud to transform the Clemente into a place where audiences can experience puppetry far beyond the stage."





Theodora Skipitares: Performing Objects—Four Decades of Abundant Ingenuity

Occupying the Abrazo Interno galleries at The Clemente, Theodora Skipitares:
Performing Objects—Four Decades of Abundant Ingenuity is the first major retrospective to survey more than forty years of the artist's groundbreaking interdisciplinary practice.

Curated by Nina Felshin with exhibition design by Matt Sorensen, the exhibition presents highlights from productions spanning Micropolis (1981) through Footnotes (2026), offering audiences an unprecedented opportunity to encounter the sculptural worlds behind Skipitares' internationally acclaimed performances.

With figures inspired by Marie Curie, Pinocchio, Benjamin Banneker, Helen of Troy, and dozens of other historical, literary, and fictional characters appear alongside fantastical creatures and richly imagined environments that demonstrate Skipitares' distinctive fusion of sculpture, theater, documentary storytelling, music, and performance.

Rather than presenting the puppets as isolated objects, the exhibition recreates the relationships between figures that existed within the original productions, allowing visitors to appreciate both their sculptural beauty and their performative purpose. Visitors encounter works ranging from miniature compositions to towering figures that blur the boundaries between sculpture, theater, and installation.

For more than four decades, Skipitares has expanded the possibilities of visual theater through performances that combine documentary texts, original music, film, movement, and hundreds of handcrafted performing objects. Her productions explore history, science, mythology, medicine, politics, and social justice with equal measures of intellectual rigor, humor, and emotional resonance.

Originally trained as a sculptor and designer, Skipitares began creating autobiographical performance works before discovering the expressive potential of puppets and performing objects.

"Objects possess an innocence that allows audiences to project meaning onto them," Skipitares has often observed. That unique capacity has enabled her to illuminate subjects ranging from medical ethics and environmental concerns to ancient mythology and contemporary political life through works that are both visually arresting and deeply human.

A resident artist at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Skipitares has created more than thirty original productions throughout her career. Her work has been presented across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, while her visual artwork has been exhibited internationally, including recent presentations at the Whitney Museum and 15 Orient Gallery.

She has received numerous honors including Guggenheim, Rockefeller, National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright and McKnight Fellowships, as well as residencies at MacDowell, Sundance, Bellagio, the Edward Albee Foundation, Bogliasco, and the BAU Institute. She currently serves as Professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn
Scattered Happy Memories of Puppet Friends by a 93-Year-Old

Also on view: Scattered Happy Memories of Puppet Friends by a 93-Year-Old, featuring photographs by Nancy Staub. Part memoir, part documentary archive, and part love letter to the international puppetry community offers visitors a deeply personal look at the people who have shaped modern puppetry over the past half-century. Drawn from Straub’s extraordinary and extensive archive, the exhibition captures decades of friendships, collaborations, festivals, performances, and behind-the-scenes moments that collectively document the evolution of puppetry as an international art form.

Curated and designed by Matt Sorensen, the exhibition reflects Staub’s singular perspective as one of the field’s most respected advocates and organizers. More than a collection of photographs, the exhibition serves as an informal visual history of a global artistic community whose members have influenced generations of performers, makers, educators, and audiences. Her photographs reveal not only celebrated artists but also the warmth, humor, and lifelong friendships that have defined the puppetry world across continents and generations.

Staub’s career has helped shape nearly every corner of contemporary puppetry. She directed the Puppet Playhouse in New Orleans, organized the landmark 1980 World Puppetry Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, co-founded the Center for Puppetry Arts Museum in Atlanta alongside Vincent Anthony, helped establish the Jim Henson Foundation, and served as a leader within both Puppeteers of America and UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette), where she is recognized as a Membre d’Honneur.

Teatro SEA’s World Puppet Collection

Puppets have long served as vessels for storytelling, ritual, education, satire, and cultural identity. Teatro SEA’s World Puppet Collection celebrates this rich global legacy through a carefully curated exhibition of puppets representing diverse artistic traditions, geographical regions, historical periods, and methods of construction.

Presented in the Tamayo Gallery, the exhibition is drawn from Teatro SEA’s extensive collection and highlights the remarkable breadth of puppetry as a universal artistic language. Visitors will encounter works that reflect centuries-old traditions alongside contemporary interpretations, revealing how cultures around the world have continually reinvented the puppet as both artistic expression and social commentary.

The collection showcases a wide range of materials, fabrication techniques, and performance styles, demonstrating how local customs, folklore, religion, politics, and craftsmanship have shaped puppetry across continents. Whether carved from wood, constructed from papier-mâché, assembled from textiles, or created using contemporary mixed media, each figure offers insight into the artistic traditions from which it emerged.

Rather than presenting puppets simply as theatrical props, the exhibition emphasizes their significance as cultural artifacts that preserve stories, traditions, and histories while continuing to inspire contemporary artists and audiences alike.

Together, these works underscore puppetry’s enduring role as one of humanity’s oldest—and continually evolving—forms of artistic expression.

Teatro SEA’s Pinocchios Around the World

Few fictional characters have traveled as widely—or been reimagined as creatively—as Pinocchio. Teatro SEA's Pinocchios Around the World explores the extraordinary global legacy of Carlo Collodi's beloved wooden puppet through an eclectic collection of interpretations created by artists and craftspeople from around the world.

Representing numerous countries, artistic traditions, and historical periods, the exhibition reveals how Pinocchio has evolved into a transcultural icon whose story continues to resonate across languages, generations, and cultures.

Visitors will discover Pinocchios crafted from an astonishing variety of materials and techniques, each reflecting distinct regional aesthetics and artistic traditions while remaining connected to the enduring themes of imagination, transformation, honesty, and self-discovery that have made the character universally beloved.

Together, these works reveal how one literary figure has become an enduring symbol not only of childhood, but also of the creative possibilities inherent in puppetry itself.

The Freak Family Roadshow

Part carnival attraction, part immersive sculpture, and part theatrical environment, The Freak Family Roadshow –installed on La Plaza at The Clemente -- invites visitors into an unforgettable world where the bizarre and the familiar coexist.

Created by American artist Jo Cunningham, the installation centers on a meticulously restored 1950s canned-ham travel trailer inhabited by an unconventional family: a gorilla mother, an alien father, and their mysterious hybrid child.

Outside, visitors are greeted by a hand-painted carnival banner and an animatronic papier-mâché barker promising an encounter with a family so strange it will make audiences "grateful for your normal life." Inside, however, expectations are quietly overturned.

Rather than presenting a grotesque spectacle, Cunningham reveals an unexpectedly intimate domestic environment filled with tenderness, humor, and recognizable family rituals. The installation invites viewers to reconsider assumptions about difference, belonging, and what constitutes "normal," transforming the language of the traditional sideshow into a meditation on empathy and acceptance.

Inspired by underground comics created by the artist's father during the 1980s, The Freak Family Roadshow is constructed from papier-mâché, tire inner tubes, encaustic wax, found objects, and hand-built animatronics, showcasing Cunningham's inventive sculptural practice while expanding the possibilities of immersive storytelling.

The installation exemplifies the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of contemporary puppetry, where sculpture, installation art, performance, animation, and theatrical design intersect.

While each exhibition stands on its own, collectively they demonstrate the extraordinary range of puppetry as an art form—one capable of preserving cultural traditions, challenging political ideas, illuminating history, inspiring imagination, and fostering human connection. The exhibitions are presented as part of the 4th International Puppet Fringe Festival, which also features performances, workshops, film screenings, panel discussions, and community events throughout the festival. Together, the visual arts and performance programs reflect the festival's mission to celebrate puppetry as one of the world's most innovative and interdisciplinary artistic practices.