By Education Intern?Samantha Braga
Jump start your creativity while celebrating your inner child. On Sunday, December 4th, Contemporary Craft is offering a workshop where you can construct your?very own puppet theater with Pittsburgh?s Puppet Master Tom Sarver,?the founder of the Tom Museum?(now closed).?The Tom Museum, in association with the Mattress Factory, was part performance?piece, part installation. It?broke down and displayed the processes?of art making, turning the process into an art form itself.?Sarver’s work is fun and unaffected, drawing on the aspects of the?Art Brut movement?and?Folk Art.?
In this day of enchantment, students will animate everyday?and found objects to create miraculous puppets and miniature worlds of wonder.?Tom Sarver’s class will not only teach the basics of puppetry, but will bring the energy and spirit of the Tom Museum back to life.?Bring a box or any other recycled container to transform?into an extraordinary puppet theater. Whether it is just you, or you?bring the whole family, this class will be great entertainment for all?ages!?
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| Puppetry Archive Room at the Tom Museum |
“Combining humor, social commentary and a low-tech aesthetic, Tom Sarver explores relationships between the art world and the everyday.?From 1999 through 2008, Sarver was a core organizer of The Black Sheep Puppet Festival, a national festival of activist and experimental puppetry.?In 2008, Tom created an installation piece at the Society for Contemporary Craft called?Cooking with Sticks.?He holds a B.F.A. from Tyler School of Art and an M.F.A. from Purchase College. ?Sarver is currently working on a new puppetry initiative in Pittsburgh called?Puppet Happening."?
Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear
based on a story by Ken Kesey
Tom Sarver Puppet Express at the American Shorts Reading Series
July 27th, 2006 at the Brewhouse
This class?will bring Sarver’s innovative world into your own and teach you how to?look at the world as your own puppet?theater!
Tom Sarver’s Family Toy Puppet Theater
Sunday, December 4
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.?
$60 (per adult or for an adult with up to two children, additional
children $15 each)
$5 materials fee
For more information or to register
Phone: 412.261.7003 x25
