Where: Children’s Creativity Museum, 221 4th St., S.F.
When: April 18th 10 am-4 pm
Folkmanis Puppets, an iconic Bay Area puppet company, has long supported Puppeteers of America, UNIMA-USA, and the San Francisco Bay Area Puppet Guild. Now the Guild is excited to celebrate this beloved local business with a special event at the innovative Children’s Creativity Museum (CCM) in San Francisco.
April 18—World Creativity Day—is a fitting moment to gather at CCM, whose mission is “Imagine, Create, Share,” for the opening of the Folkmanis Puppet exhibit. Folkmanis’ Art Director, Allison Sieber will be welcoming the Guild. She explains, “For our 50th anniversary, the Folkmanis family is offering an unprecedented backstage pass into the history and artistry of industry legend Folkmanis Puppets with an interactive installation stretching the entire length of the Children’s Creativity Museum’s elegant Spiral Gallery!”
For those new to Folkmanis https://www.folkmanis.com the company began when Judy Folkmanis started sewing charming, remarkably realistic animal puppets for her two young sons, later selling them near the UC Berkeley campus. In 1976, her husband, Atis, left his biochemistry career to join her in building Folkmanis Puppets into a family enterprise. Judy’s imagination, artistry, and love of nature—along with a growing design and sewing team—led to an ever-expanding menagerie of distinctive animal and character puppets released year after year.
(Judy Folkmanis selling puppets on Telegraph Ave., Berkeley)
Folkmanis carved out a unique niche in the toy world: as detailed and lifelike as the finest plush animals, yet fully functional as soft performance puppets. Equally at home on stage, in a librarian’s hands at story time, in a therapist’s office, or cuddled during bedtime, these puppets quickly found audiences across the country and around the world.
Today, Folkmanis remains a family-run business headquartered in Emeryville, California, led by Judy and Atis’s adult sons. Operating from a historic building filled with working designers and five decades of archived puppets, patterns, catalogs, photos, and keepsakes, the company continues to be the premier manufacturer of realistic plush animal puppets worldwide. You will see much of this at the April meeting. As Allison shares, “Explore the innovative design and intricate craftsmanship of Folkmanis Puppets with rarely-shared historical items and images reaching as far back as 1976, when Judy Folkmanis first began making puppets to sell at a Telegraph Avenue sidewalk stand near UC Berkeley.”
CCM has generously offered Guild members free museum admission and use of a meeting room for an afternoon Guild gathering, where Folkmanis will share more of their work, and we can celebrate their 50th Anniversary. In return, we’re seeking Guild volunteers from 10:00 am–2:00 pm to help with “Make a Puppet” tables and serve as walkaround greeters using Folkmanis puppets—similar to our activities at Oakland’s Fairyland. A signup link will be posted soon, with additional program details in the April newsletter.Join us on Apr. 18th in commemorating a treasured Bay Area institution and the creativity that continues to inspire generations.
Wed., Nov 12 at 6 pm
301 VAN NESS AVENUE, SF
SFOPERA.COM
The SF Opera has offered our Guild 8 free tickets to the dress rehearsal for The Monkey King. Show starts at 6 pm and will be about 2 1/2 hours. They will welcome guests in the main lobby from 5:00-5:45; but ask that all guests to do their best to arrive by 5:30. If you haven’t arrived by 5:45, your seat will be given to someone on their standby list. Guild members will be escorted to seating, and we presume the Guild will sit as a group.
To make this fair for all, 8 lucky people will be randomly selected from all who sign up no later than Thurs 11/6 at 5 pm. To enter the drawing, you must be a current Guild member.
To make this fair for all, 8 lucky people will be randomly selected from all who sign up no later than Thurs 11/6 at 5 pm. To enter the drawing, you must be a current Guild member.Enter your name & email address. Phone is optional
# of tickets: You can request up to 2 tickets, but you must enter both names and email addresses.
The random selection will happen on Thurs after 5 pm, and you will receive a Guild confirmation email on Thurs nite or Fri am.