After participating in FIGMENT DC (see blog post here), I started thinking a lot more about how puppets could encourage people to participate in artistic events. FIGMENT really set up an environment where people felt comfortable with being ‘artistic’–whether that meant contributing to a public mural or joining in a brief square dance. I was curious about what other spaces and events where Wit’s End Puppets could encourage people to contribute ideas about puppets and puppetry.

Through FIGMENT, we were put in touch with the organizers of TEDx Adams Morgan Women, a locally based TED conference that echoes themes explored at the TEDx Women conference, but through the prism of the Adams Morgan neighborhood. If you’re unfamiliar with TED, you can go here for more information–the site is a fantastic treasure trove of ideas and inspiration, well worth your time.

The conference is about exploring the ‘space between us’ and the memories we have of Adams Morgan and the different communities of people who live there. We were asked to come up with a collective art project that could take place at the beginning of the day and we thought it would be fun to encourage some crowd-sourced puppet creating, as well as some fun wordplay. As people coming to the conference arrive to check-in, we’ll have a table set up with all different kinds of materials where they can help create some new puppet inhabitants for Adams Morgan, as well as contribute words to several Mad Lib type monologues. The finished puppets will perform the monologues later in the day.

If you are in the area and interested in participating in the conference, go here to register. We will report back with portraits of the finished puppets after Saturday!