CENTER FOR PUPPETRY ARTS INC
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Center for Puppetry Arts' mission is to inspire imagination, education, and community through the global art of puppetry. The Center's leadership strongly believes in the transformative power of hands-on arts education toward enriching nearly every aspect of life. Unfortunately, many children, families, and schools lack the resources to engage in cultural experiences. The Center aims to reach as many visitors and learners as possible and places an emphasis on accessibility. Thanks in large part to the Center's Field Trip Fund (which provides deeply discounted tickets), more than 40% of the public schoolchildren who come through our doors are from Title I schools. The Center regularly offers Sensory-Friendly Days for those with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Outreach and Distance Learning programs expand the Center’s reach across the state, country, and even the world.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Puppetry Performances
The Center’s Performance program annually produces and presents more than 500 fully-staged puppetry performances through the Center’s Family Series and New Directions Series for Adults and Teens. Both series include original performances written or adapted by the Center and created in-house by Center staff and/or by talented craftspeople and composers from the metro Atlanta area. These productions are performed by the Center Company, with all singing and speaking parts performed live. The Center also presents noteworthy guest artists from around the nation and the world each year, which not only enriches Atlanta’s artistic landscape with diverse talent and points of view, but it also provides opportunities for local artists to learn from and be inspired by other performers.
Presenting diverse artistic talent and points of view helps to make the Center accessible to audiences of all backgrounds. This accessibility, in combination with the familiarity of puppetry, helps to make the Center one of Atlanta's most approachable arts institutions for children. As such, the Center often serves as the first live theater experience for many children.
Worlds of Puppetry Museum
In 2007, the Center was selected as the destination for the definitive collection of more than 500 puppets, props, and costumes honoring Jim Henson’s legacy—the largest collection of such items in existence. The Center built and opened a Silver-LEED Certified expansion in 2015 to house the collection as one of two permanent installations in the Worlds of Puppetry Museum. The Jim Henson Collection Gallery teaches visitors about Henson’s influence displays his incredible body of work; the Global Collection Gallery shares the history and traditions of puppetry from around the world. Visitors are encouraged to peruse the galleries at their leisure, and the Center offers guided tours several times a day for guests who want to learn even more about either of the permanent exhibits. Since the Museum’s opening, visitors from all fifty states and around the globe have visited. Rotating exhibits in the Dean DuBose Smith Special Exhibits Gallery delve even more deeply into a wide variety of puppetry topics.
The Center’s Museum collection includes nearly 4,000 puppets, costumes, and props from around the world. The Center’s Museum program also maintains the largest puppetry library in the country. Serving scholars and the general public alike, the Nancy Staub Puppetry Research Library houses over 1,100 books, 1,900 videos, 1,300 periodicals, and 1,000 posters and includes a substantial number of Center-related videos, ephemera, photos, articles, and posters from the founding of the Center to present day.
The Museum attracts and educates visitors of all ages and offers events and programs for a wide range of ages in order to expand upon the learning that happens within its exhibitions. Toddler Tuesdays include special puppet-led storytelling, songs, movement, age-appropriate crafts, and a hands-on tour of the Museum. The Center’s Education and Museum departments collaborated to provide additional enriching programs for school groups, homeschooled children, and families. Through storytelling and puppet building exercises, the curriculum-based programs of World Wednesdays, Discovery Days, and Wow Weekends celebrate the rich cultural history of puppetry and highlight the intersection of social studies and the arts. Events such as The Dark Crystal Ball and the Puppet Party Series allow adults to engage more deeply with the Center’s museum collection.
Education
The Center has spent four decades improving enrichment opportunities that support educational standards across the curriculum for students and provide continuing education opportunities for adult audiences. For student audiences, the Center uses the art form of puppetry to provide educational experiences that encourage creativity, support school-day learning, fuel holistic development, and provide accessible, hands-on opportunities to participate in arts activities. The Center’s signature Education initiative for student and family audiences is the Create-A-Puppet Workshop™, which offers more than 1,000 hours of fun, hands-on programming each year.
Since 1997, the Explore Puppetry Series has offered workshops for adult learners on topics including puppet manipulation, costuming, fundraising for artists, sound design for puppetry films, and more. For students ages 9-12 who wish to develop their puppetry skills, the Center offers the Junior Explorer Series, based on the Explore Puppetry Series, which includes age-appropriate workshops taught by Puppeteers and Teaching Artists. The series’ highlight each year is a week-long Puppet Camp that allows students to create their own puppets and experience many facets of production including script development and scenic design. The week culminates with campers producing and performing their very own puppetry performance for family and friends.
The Center’s award-winning Distance Learning Program, which operates in conjunction with the Education Program, was established in 1998. This pioneering Program opened a digital gateway for children all over the country and around the world to experience the Center’s innovative workshops and performances. Over the past twenty years, this program has reached all 50 states and nine countries, sharing puppetry performances and curriculum-supporting programs with school and community groups. Outside the Center’s walls, the Center offers outreach activities to groups of all ages, including senior adults.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of press articles published
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Context Notes
The Center is pleased to continue to garner local, regional, and national recognition for its program quality.
Total number of organization members
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Context Notes
The Worlds of Puppetry Museum opened in Nov 2015; many people joined in 2016 out of excitement about the new Museum as well as a wide-reaching Membership campaign conducted at that time.
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Context Notes
The Center is pleased to have grown its volunteer program over the past three years and has created a new staff position to lead these efforts.
Total number of discounted tickets provided as part of Field Trip Fund
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Context Notes
With the help of generous donors, the Center has been able to increase the number of tickets provided annually at a discount through the Field Trip Fund.
Total number of performances
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Puppetry Performances
Context Notes
We have intentionally decreased its # of performances to maximize efficiency. By offering fewer performances with fuller audiences, we’ve saved money that has been allocated toward other programs.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Center’s vision is to be the premier puppetry center in the world. The Center’s strategic priorities include the following:
-Continuing existing programming and developing new programming
-Presenting outstanding artists, globally and locally
-Continuing to ensure that Center programs are accessible to all
-Connecting with new audiences by leveraging technology and social media
-Continuing to foster strong community relationships
-Enhancing organizational capacity for maximum efficiency and effectiveness
Guiding these goals are the Center’s values:
-We believe puppetry is awe-inspiring and magical.
-We believe in providing awesome artistic experiences.
-We believe in unlocking imagination.
-We believe in inspiring every generation.
-We believe in the people behind the puppets.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
-Annually plan a calendar of activities including more than 500 performances (including guest artists from around the world), a special exhibit, more than 1,000 hours of hands-on workshops, and a variety of special events, lectures, and film screenings.
-Plan activities that serve audiences of all ages, backgrounds, financial circumstances, and ability levels. For visitors with Autism Spectrum Disorder, the Center hosts sensory-friendly days. For audiences with geographic or financial barriers, the Center offers Distance Learning workshops and performances. For audiences with financial needs, The Field Trip Fund provides more than 75,000 deeply discounted tickets to Title I schools, boys and girls clubs, and more.
-Seek out partner organizations that can bring a unique perspective and value to joint programs. Recent partners include Girl Scouts, Atlanta Humane Society, the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Center for Puppetry Arts is proud to have a dedicated team of 75 full-time and part-time staff members and 200 volunteers who are committed to executing our mission. Additionally, the Center’s Board of Directors guides the organization and provides high-level oversight of Center operations and finances. Several key capabilities make the Center particularly unique. Because we are a theater, museum, and educational center under one roof, we have the unique ability to provide a scope and breadth of programming not available in many other arts organizations. Additionally, the Center’s longevity means that many procedures and norms have been in place for years (if not decades), helping the Center to run smoothly on a daily basis. That said, the Center recognizes that there is always opportunity to improve upon existing ideas. For that reason, the Center ensures that staff members stay abreast of trends and news in their industries so that changes can be implemented as needed.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2015, the Center wrapped up a nearly 15 million dollar capital campaign, Believe in Make Believe, and opened the expansive Silver LEED-certified Worlds of Puppetry Museum. The Center is currently in the process of creating a new strategic plan focused on assessing the success of its recent expansion and progress toward the goals of the previous strategic plan. The new plan will outline how the Center can continue to best manage the demands for programming, facility maintenance, and staff resulting from the Center’s recent expansion and increased demand. The plan will be created with long-term sustainability and growth in mind, as well as a “mission-first” approach to serve as many visitors as possible from diverse backgrounds with exceptional artistic programming.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
CENTER FOR PUPPETRY ARTS INC
Board of directorsas of 11/13/2018
Mr. Allen Yee
The Coca-Cola Company
Term: 2016 - 2019