We had a blast at the TEDx Adams Morgan Women conference this weekend. From functioning as the volunteer hangout table, to luring in adults with questions like “Green nose or pink nose?” to getting OVERRUN with children asking to help, it was amazing. Adams Morgan now has three puppet inhabitants living at the Sitar Arts Center, who you will meet at the end of the post. Here are some photos of our day and the process of creating them. Enjoy!

Heads waiting for features.

Conference participants helping create puppets.

When the adults went to listen to speakers, the kids at the Sitar Center took over.

Our finished Adams Morgan Puppets! From the left, that’s Granny Smith, Professor Columbia and Juliet.

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!

If you were around the National Mall in DC last Saturday, you might have spotted a few curious figures like these: 

It was the Million Puppet March! Created in response to Mitt Romney’s goal of cutting funding for PBS (and therefore Big Bird, from Sesame Street), the event consisted of performers, puppeteers and community members taking to the streets of DC to voice their displeasure. Although both Genna and I were out of town, we were fortunate that Wit’s End Puppets still had a presence at the march: 

The sign is being held by my father, Phil Cackley and the puppet in his hand is a hand puppet that I’ve had since I was a few years old. His name is Grey Bunny and although I’m pretty sure I used him more as a stuffed animal than a puppet, he has held up remarkably well for being over 25 years old! I am very fortunate to have supportive parents who are willing to join in with off-beat activities like this. Here are some other pictures of the scene down on the Mall, all taken by Phil and Alicia Cackley.

It looks like it was a wonderful, joyful event for everyone. More information about the march can be found in this article from The Washington Post.