For the 6th consecutive year, the International Association of Puppet Friendly Cities launched its mobility grant scheme.

The Jury of the AVIAMA – Puppets and Mobility Grant was chaired by the City of Plzen (Czech Republic), represented by Mr. Jakub Hora, and composed of representatives of the City of Minami Awaji (Japan), the Borough of Outremont (Montreal – Canada), the City of Tournefeuille (France) and the City of Tolosa (Spain), whose involvement we would like to thank.

Selection criteria

This international Jury is the guarantor of the orientations chosen by the member Cities of AVIAMA: to support the mobility of the artists and the innovative projects which thanks to the puppet bring answers in terms of valorisation of the cultural heritage, of educational projects or of social integration. The members of the jury have thus put forward certain selection criteria:

• The desire to help young companies or artists in their artistic process and their professionalization.
• Projects directly linked to the network of AVIAMA cities, thus allowing artists to develop their contacts.
• Projects that reflect the diversity of the puppetry arts, and that highlight solidarity, the sharing of know-how, ecology, education and the place given to women in our society.

Selected projects

AVIAMA received some high-quality applications for the Puppets and Mobility Grant, representing a diversity of countries, an aspect that is very important to us. The winners will each receive a grant of €2,000, a significant amount that allows us to help ambitious and professional projects, also serving as a lever to obtain other grants:

• Pro-Vocation : Roots and Wings led by Janni Younge (South Africa) / Support for the organisation of three weeks of international meetings (including training, conferences and masterclasses) and a festival in Cape Town (South Africa) focusing on the development of the puppetry arts and international cooperation.

• Puppets for reconciliation supported by Eraste Mandera (Burundi) / Mobility support for a research project on puppetry and the preservation of Burundian culture, with a focus on transmitting it to a European audience, notably in Charleville-Mézières (France) via small-format shows.

• Kids and Puppets supported by Blanka Josephova (Czech Republic/Burundi) / Mobility support for the creation of a reproducible puppet show for nursery school children and their parents in Bubanza (Burundi), in line with their needs and to support collective creation.

• Toolbox training course run by the Odradek company (France) / Mobility support for an exchange project and study trip to the Spanish Basque Country (Topic centre in Tolosa and the Dantzerti drama school in Bilbao), with the aim of professionalising young puppeteers and promoting international cooperation.

Among these, encouragement is given to two candidates who have begun in-depth work and have been awarded a grant for the second year.

We wish the grant holders every success with their project and, on behalf of the Jury, thank all the candidates who applied this year!

The next Call for AVIAMA 2025 Scholarships will be published in October.

Present at the General Assembly of Puppetry in Rouen on 1 February, the mayor of Dives-sur-Mer, Mr Pierre Mouraret, took part in a round table discussion on “How can a cultural project such as the Sablier contribute to the development of a region?

AVIAMA is pleased to share his testimony here:

« Using the example of RéciDives, one of the oldest puppet festivals in France, I was able to show how the puppet arts have settled in the town of Dives-sur-Mer. Since 1986, the festival has given birth to the CréaM, Regional Centre for Puppetry Arts, then to the Sablier, born of the merger with the Theatre of Ifs, and finally to the Beffroi, a venue for creation and dissemination with a 120-seat auditorium, equipped with offices and a workshop for artists in residence.

The festival’s success is the result of a shared long-term commitment by elected representatives, artists, professionals and public authorities to establish this original and unique art form in Calvados. The experience of the town of Dives with its puppet festival (38th edition this year) has served as a springboard for this development.

Today, Le Sablier has been awarded the National Puppetry Centre label, and the RéciDives festival contributes to the town’s appeal, with four days of cultural excitement and live shows every summer, attracting over 10,000 spectators this year, an exceptional facility serving the puppetry arts and artists in residence who enliven the town all year round.

With its media library, its arthouse cinema, the Belfry, home to Le Sablier and the inter-municipal music school, its rich heritage linked to the history of William the Conqueror, and its Nelson Mandela multi-activity centre, the town of Dives is now a cultural centre for the whole region. »

The creation of our international network in 2012 by the Mayor of Charleville-Mézières and the Mayor of Tolosa was based, among other things, on the premise of development to showcase our cities and regions.

The year 2024 should see the integration of new member cities, which are now knocking at the door. Through the existence here of a Festival, or a Museum, or a major company, activities around the puppet arts are now a reality that they wish to highlight and share with others…

By creating, in 2021, an International Prize for Initiative in the field of puppetry, the Member Cities of the AVIAMA wanted to reward on an international scale those who, through innovative action, contribute to highlighting the puppetry arts, to defending their development and to encouraging their recognition by a wide audience.

International recognition

This Prize rewards all those who encourage the puppetry arts in all their aspects and dimensions. AVIAMA wishes to draw the attention of the public, professionals and local governments to innovative and fruitful initiatives that encourage dialogue, respect and the moral values of humanity, beyond differences and cultures.

The jury for this third edition of the Prize is chaired by the city of Chuncheon, and includes the cities of Saguenay and Plzen, as well as two representatives associated for their expertise, Mr Dadi Pudumjee, Honorary President of UNIMA, and Mr Luk de Bruyker, founder of the company Theater Taptoe.

Calendar

In 2024, the AVIAMA International Prize for Initiative will be awarded to a local government or to a structure that is administratively and financially under the authority of a local government (a museum, for example). Nominations may be submitted up to and including Monday 11 March 2024.

The Jury’s choice will be announced on 22 May 2024.

Prize rules

To download the complete rules of the Prize.

Blanka Josephova, a 2023 Puppets and Mobility scholarship holder, flew to equatorial Africa this year, to the town of Bubanza in the Republic of Burundi, for a real theatrical experience.

The texts to be performed on stage were written as part of the Caravan of Ten Words project by students from the University of Burundi: short stories, mixing prose and poetry, inspired by contemporary rural and urban life in Burundi.

Eight future teachers from the Sophia nursery school, with little or no experience of theatre or puppetry, were the performers. The project was based on the desire to offer something of European theatre, but not to force it, on the contrary, to draw inspiration from their traditional concept.

“It was a joy to observe how the atmosphere and attitudes change over the course of the seminar, how new ideas emerge from initial cultural misunderstandings, how the actors quickly tackle a new piece and gradually gain better control over the puppets”, said Blanka Josephova.

Entitled TIK TAK MONDE, the show was performed after a month of rehearsals, in front of the parents of the future pupils of the Sophia school.

After the performance, the audience stayed for a chat. Many questions were asked, including how puppet theatre could have a positive influence on their children’s education.

The performers, who are future teachers, were able to explain the specific positive effects of theatre education on children, which they had no idea about until a month ago.

On 23 September, with the support of the Fondation du Patrimoine, the City of Charleville-Mézières launched a public subscription campaign to restore the puppets and set pieces from the show Un chapeau de paille d’Italie by Massimo Schuster, a puppeteer and teacher at ESNAM.

In 2022, Massimo Schuster donated all his works to the Musée de l’Ardenne: 18 puppets, 13 ink sketches and a large oil on canvas. These works have been damaged by the passage of time and the various performances they have given, which is why the town and the Fondation du Patrimoine have joined forces to help restore them.

As a fervent promoter, developer and supporter of the art of puppetry, your help is invaluable in supporting this restoration. The aim is to build up the collections for the extension of the Musée de l’Ardenne dedicated to the puppet arts: the Maison des Marionnettistes.

Planned to start in the second half of 2024, the restoration operation will ensure that the puppets are better preserved over the long term and can be presented to the public. The aim of the two-year restoration project is to present the puppets at the 2025 World Puppet Theatre Festival.

To donate: https://www.fondation-patrimoine.org/les-projets/marionnettes-a-charleville-mezieres

The International Association of Puppet Friendly Cities (AVIAMA) brings together cities and local governments around the world around the puppet, convinced of the importance of culture in their development. AVIAMA represents a genuine network for cooperation and exchange.

For the 6th consecutive year, AVIAMA is launching a mobility scheme for projects in the field of puppetry arts. The deadline for applications is midnight on Monday 15 January 2024. The results will be announced on Friday 19 April 2024.

Send the complete application by email to contact@aviama.org

Aims of the grants

They are intended for any person or company with a project involving : Training, Creation, Innovation and Research in order to encourage the development of the art of puppetry and object theatre, its innovation in the broadest sense of the term, while protecting heritage through research.

These grants help to cover the costs of mobility required for projects (travel and/or accommodation on site), which are often a barrier to the realisation of projects.

The project must be developed, as a priority, in one of the member cities, although in exceptional cases other cities will be accepted.

There is no age requirement, but the Jury will be particularly sensitive to applications from students or young professionals.

Presentation of the application – documents to be provided

• A detailed, well-argued presentation of the project (3000 characters) in French and English
• A detailed timetable for the project.
• A provisional budget, detailing all costs and expected support (personal contribution, other grants, support in kind, etc….) from the applicant.
• A detailed CV, outlining the applicant’s links, in particular with the world of puppetry.
• A personal letter of motivation, in French and English, explaining in detail why this application is being made, what the applicant hopes to achieve, and how this could be shared or contribute to the sector.
• A letter of support from one of AVIAMA’s member cities.
• Any other letter of support that the candidate deems useful to enclose with his/her application.

No application will be validated without the above documentation.

The AVIAMA reserves the right to request further information and documents as it deems necessary. AVIAMA reserves the right to reject any incomplete application.

If you encounter any problems or have any questions, please write to communication@aviama.org.

AVIAMA Grant Rules

The complete rules for the AVIAMA 2024 – Puppets and Mobility Grants are available here:

The presentation of the Initiative Award was also an opportunity to present the Trophy to the 2022 winner, who was unable to attend due to the war in Ukraine.

This year, AVIAMA was able to welcome the General Director of the Alexander Dozhenko Regional Youth Puppet Theatre of Chernihiv, Mr Vitalii Holtsov, who received the trophy intended for the Chernihiv Oblast for its support for puppet theatre in times of war.

By creating, in 2021, an International Award for Initiative in the field of Puppetry, the Member Cities of the AVIAMA wanted to reward on an international scale those who, through innovative action, contribute to highlighting the puppetry arts, to defending their development and to encouraging their recognition by a wide audience.

This year, it is intended to highlight a person, an artist or an association whose commitment to puppet theatre helps to advance the recognition of this discipline, to share it with as many people as possible or quite simply to put a special spotlight on this art that unites all the members of the AVIAMA…

This announcement was made by Claudine Ledoux, President of AVIAMA, during the 22nd edition of the Festival Mondial du Théâtre de Marionnettes de Charleville-Mézières.

The 2023 Winners : ○ The Chuncheon Puppet Foundation for organising the Cocobau Festival in the City, which has just celebrated its 35th anniversary. This festival has given an exceptional boost to the national and international visibility of this art form, its heritage aspect with a museum to be renovated in 2022 and now a regular professional training activity (South Korea).

○ A citizen puppet, the OTHER: a presence that embodies the raison d’être of our art and its ability to create links in Saguenay and elsewhere – Creation of the Compagnie La Tortue Noire (Quebec – Canada).

International recognition This Prize, in the form of an official Diploma, may be supplemented by financial aid if development is envisaged. Distributed by AVIAMA through its network of 21 cities on 4 continents, this Prize is a lever for the winners, giving them additional visibility with a wider professional network. It is awarded by an International Jury, appointed for three years and then renewed, which examines the applications submitted by the Association’s Member Cities.

Composition of the International Jury The International Jury was chaired by Mr YOOK DONG HAN, Mayor of Chuncheon (South Korea) and comprised Ms Julie DUFOUR, Mayor of Saguenay (Quebec – Canada), Luk de BRUYKER (City of Ghent – Belgium), Stanislas DOUBRAVA (City of Liberec – Czech Republic), Dadi PUDUMJEE (Honorary President of UNIMA – India).

37,000 festival-goers were welcomed from 25 to 30 July 2023: a real performance for this Festival, which this year renewed its international strand.

A total of 175 artists, programmers and journalists from some twenty countries were able to discover new creations for young and old in 141 outdoor and indoor performances, 11 exhibitions, 5 cabaret evenings and 9 professional gatherings, providing an exceptional opportunity to exchange practices and experiences.

A special mention must go to the Marionnettarium, a veritable ‘crossroads of creativity’, which enabled nearly 2,000 people to meet artists in the making, take part in workshops with professionals and get hands-on with creating their own puppets.

The two co-directors, Dany Lefrançois and Benoït Lagrandeur, were delighted with the positive feedback from a wide audience and the artists themselves. They thanked their team and the 80 volunteers for this success, as well as the many public and private partners who have supported the Festival.

For the first time in North America, the City of Saguenay hosted the annual General Assembly of the Association Internationale des Villes Amies de la Marionnette (AVIAMA). For the occasion, some thirty elected officials and representatives from Spain, South Korea, France, the Czech Republic and Canada travelled to Saguenay.

After our Annual General Meeting on 29 July, we were a little late in getting back to you with news of the wonderful welcome we received there. We invite you to catch up with us today with these images…

A word about our official reception at Saguenay City Hall, where all the member cities formed a guard of honour on the stairs… The speeches by Mayor Julie Dufour and our President Claudine Ledoux highlighted our network of cooperation and support for the puppet arts.

Unable to attend, the Oblast of Chernihiv (Ukraine), north of Kiev, officially received the first AVIAMA International Award Trophy for Initiative 2022, created by Saguenay artist Maryse Leboeuf-Gagné, through a moving video presentation by its Vice-President, Nina Lemesh.

L’Autre, Saguenay’s citizen puppet, was present in the front row for the signing of the City’s Golden Book.

Apart from our Annual General Meeting, which most of the absent members were able to follow remotely when they were not on site, the programme enabled the delegation to discover the region led by enthusiastic guides and to attend a number of shows at FIAMS, which itself was a great success and we’ll be coming back to that in pictures too…

Many thanks to all our friends in Saguenay!

See you in 2024 (29 and 30 June) in Ghent – Belgium for our next General Meeting.

All summer long, Casteliers offers several shows that will delight the whole family and brighten up sunny days.

From 8 to 14 July, ¡Burros! is a wandering show that celebrates life and death, suffering and joy. A work that invites both rejoicing and contemplation. A new version of the old Donkey Festival that proposes embracing paradoxes as a way of reconciling ourselves with our human-animal selves.

Find out more about ¡Burros! and its performance dates: https://casteliers.ca/spectacle/burros-cam-en-tournee-2023/

Photo credits : Andrea Calderón

Throughout the year, the Segovia Tourist Office offers a series of storytelling events on the walls of Segovia, at the Puerta de Santiago, home to Francisco Peralta’s collection of puppets.

Launched during Temps d’M in September 2022, the Barionnettes are an opportunity to rediscover puppetry throughout the year in Charleville-Mézières. A regular event in which puppeteers perform in bars across the city.

For the 5th consecutive year, the International Association of Puppet Friendly Cities launched its mobility grant scheme.

This year, the Jury of the AVIAMA – Puppets and Mobility Grant was chaired by the City of Plzen (Czech Republic)), represented by Mr. Jakub Hora, and composed of representatives of the City of Minami Awaji (Japan), the Borough of Outremont (Montreal – Canada), the City of Tournefeuille (France) and the city of Tolosa (Spain).

Selection criteria

This international Jury is the guarantor of the orientations chosen by the member Cities of AVIAMA: to support the mobility of the artists and the innovative projects which thanks to the puppet bring answers in terms of valorisation of the cultural heritage, of educational projects or of social integration. The members of the jury have thus put forward certain selection criteria:

• The will to help young companies or artists in their artistic approach and their professionalization.
• Projects directly linked to the network of AVIAMA cities, thus allowing artists to develop their contacts.
• Projects that reflect the diversity of the puppetry arts, and that highlight solidarity, the sharing of know-how, ecology, education and the place given to women in our society.

Selected projects

AVIAMA received this year 15 high level applications (19 in 2022) to the Puppets and Mobility Grant. The diversity of origins is quite new and is a sign of great vitality. The winners will each receive a grant of €2,000, a significant amount that allows us to help ambitious and professional projects, also serving as a lever to obtain other grants:

We wish the grant holders every success with their project and, on behalf of the Jury, thank all the candidates who applied this year!

The next Call for AVIAMA 2024 Scholarships will be published in October.

Within the framework of the prefiguration of the TPI-Taiwan Potehi Institution in Yunlin (Taiwan), which should gather a school, a museum, performance halls and propose regular activities (festival of solos, etc.), about ten officials of the county of Yunlin, accompanied by the puppeteer in charge of the project, Mrs. Hsu Chiafi, are expected to come to Charleville-Mézières, on Friday, April 14th.

The delegation is led by the head of the county executive, Mrs. Chang Li-shan and will be received by Mr. Géraud Spire, President of the International Puppet Institute, Mr. Pierre-Yves Charlois, Director of the International Institute of Puppetry and the World Festival of Puppet Theatres, and Ms. Sarah Andrieu, Pedagogical Manager of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette (ESNAM): the objective is to sign a principle of agreement and collaboration between the County of Yunlin/TPI and the International Institute of Puppetry – ESNAM. The Director of the Tourism and Cultural Office, Ms. Stacie Chen, will also be present.

For Yunlin County and the city of Charleville-Mézières, both members of AVIAMA, this meeting will be an opportunity to create closer links and to look together towards the future!

A member of AVIAMA for several years, Yunlin County is located on the west coast of the island of Taiwan. It is the birthplace of Taiwanese Putaishi, an ancient folk theatrical art that came from the mainland and has developed as a specific art form in Taiwan. For more information: https://www.aviama.org/en/member-cities/yunlin-county/

By creating, in 2021, an International Award for Initiative in the field of puppetry, the Member Cities of the AVIAMA wanted to reward on an international scale those who, by an innovative action, contribute to highlight the puppetry arts, to defend their development and to encourage their recognition by a large public.

An international recognition

This Prize comes to reward those who encourage the puppet arts under all its aspects and in all its dimensions. AVIAMA wishes to draw the attention of the public, professionals and local governments to innovative and fruitful initiatives, which encourage dialogue, respect and the moral values of humanity, beyond differences and cultures.

The jury of the Prize for this second edition will be chaired by the city of Chuncheon, and composed of the cities of Saguenay and Plzen, as well as two representatives associated for their expertise, Mr Dadi Pudumjee, Honorary President of UNIMA and Mr Luk de Bruycker, founder of the company Theater Taptoe.

Calendar

The AVIAMA International Award for the 2023 initiative will be awarded this year to an association (a company, a structure…) or an individual (artist, researcher, author, puppet lover…). Applications may be submitted up to and including Thursday 13 April 2023.

The Jury’s choice will be announced on June 28, 2023.

The rules of the Prize

To download the complete rules of the Prize.

In 2022, the Polish company Teatr Lalek Guliwer received one of the AVIAMA Puppets and Mobility grants, to finance the mobility costs necessary for the development of their show “City of Lights” in Tolosa (Spain).

The genesis of an international project

“The City of Lights” is an international project that started in Poland. Created by the Chilean-Spanish puppeteer David Zuazola, its characteristic is that it can be developed in very different places around the world. The first show in the project was a co-production between Teatr Lalek Guliwer and Unia Teatr Niemozliwy, whose scenario was inspired by the life of the inhabitants of Warsaw, the Polish capital.

The first stage of creation took place in workshops open to the inhabitants: their ideas helped shape the performance.

“City of Lights” in Warsaw inspired Teatr Lalek Guliwer to create a similar project in Spain, in Tolosa.

A creative and participatory performance

In 2022, the NAMA Company (Mali) received one of the AVIAMA Puppetry and Mobility Grants: it supported the travel and meals of 16 young women from Mali and West Africa (including the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry and Togo) having completed an initial training cycle and an insertion tour.

A commitment to professionalization

The NAMA Company and its director, Yacouba Magassouba have decided to take up the challenge of feminizing puppetry by organizing a professional training course over two years, intended for young women, with a networking of the final production by a tour in different countries of ‘West Africa.

In 2021 and 2022, the trainees explored the whole process of creating a show through different workshops: construction, acting, manipulation, writing, designing a show to present in front of an audience (explorations of acting, manipulation, scenography, staging and dramaturgy…).

At the same time, they intervened with an audience of young people and children by training them in construction and manipulation. Nothing like transmitting to learn better!

A successful networking

This project has received the support of STICHTING DOEN, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the International Organization of La Francophonie, the French Institute, Founoufounou, and the KYA Cultural Networks and the African Network of Art Festivals in Space audience.

The International Association of Puppet Friendly Cities (AVIAMA) brings together cities and local governments around the world around puppetry, convinced of the importance of culture in their development. AVIAMA represents a real network of cooperation and exchanges.

For the 5th consecutive year, AVIAMA is launching a mobility aid scheme for projects in the field of puppetry. The deadline for sending applications is Tuesday, January 31, 2023 midnight. The results will be communicated from Friday, April 14, 2023.

Sending the complete file by email to contact@aviama.org

Objectives of the scholarships

They are intended for any person or company having a project involving: Training, Creation, Innovation and Research in order to promote the development of the art of puppetry and the theater of objects, its innovation in the broadest sense of the term, while by protecting heritage through research.

They make it possible to contribute to the mobility necessary for the projects (travel and/or accommodation on site), the costs of which are often an obstacle to the realization of the projects.

The project must be developed, in priority, in one of the member cities, however in exceptional cases, other cities will be accepted.

No age condition is required, but the Jury will be particularly sensitive to requests from students or young professionals.

Presentation of the application – documents to be provided

• A detailed and reasoned presentation of the project (3000 characters) in French and in English
• A detailed timetable for the progress of the project.
• A provisional budget, detailing all the costs and the assistance expected (personal contribution, other scholarships, support in kind, etc.) by the candidate.
• A detailed CV, recalling the links of the candidate, in particular, with the world of puppetry.
• A personal letter of motivation, in French and in English, explaining, in detail, why this request is made, what are the expected achievements, and how these could be shared or contribute to the sector.
• A letter of support from one of the AVIAMA Member Cities.
• Any other letter of support that the candidate deems useful to attach to his application.

No application will be validated without the documentation indicated above.

AVIAMA reserves the right to request other information and additional documents that it deems useful. AVIAMA reserves the right to reject any incomplete application.

If you encounter any problems or have any questions, you can write to communication@aviama.org

Rules of the AVIAMA Stock Exchange

The complete rules of the AVIAMA 2022 Grants – Puppets and Mobilities are available here: