The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry presents its 2021 Fall Puppet forum Series

Thursday, Oct. 14

Exhibiting Racism in Museums Puppet Forum with William F. Condee and Schroeder Cherry

For its second installment of the 2021 Fall Puppet Forum Series, and in conjunction with the Puppetry’s Racial Reckoning exhibition, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will host “Exhibiting Racism in Museums” with professor William F. Condee and puppeteer and museum educator Schroeder Cherry on Thursday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. ET. This forum will take place on Zoom (registration required; register here) and Facebook Live and will be available afterwards on Facebook and the Ballard Institute YouTube Channel.

The exhibition Puppetry’s Racial Reckoning at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry (closing October 30) raises important questions about displaying objects that are explicitly or implicitly racist. Is it right to give such objects a place in a museum? How to contextualize and introduce the objects and generate productive and meaningful conversations based on the exhibition?

Addressing these questions are Dr. William F. Condee, who is writing about puppets representing minorities and foreigners at five major collections in Germany, and Dr. Schroeder Cherry, a puppeteer and a curator at James E. Lewis Museum of Arts who has extensive experience discussing racism in museum contexts with exhibition visitors.

This forum will be an opportunity to think through ethics and methods of curating racist objects and how to broaden perspectives on the roles of museums in relation to anti-racism. This forum is co-sponsored by the UConn Human Rights Institute.

For more information, please contact the Ballard Institute by email or call 860.486.8580