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A Million Puppets to Spare
As any young person brought up in Western Australia will know, ‘spare parts’ is not merely a term used in the car industry, it is the name of a puppet theatre that has been playing to audiences throughout the State for over a quarter of a century. Any young person that may have attended one of Spare Parts Puppet Theatre’s workshops, will also be able to tell you that spare parts are all it takes to create a puppet!
Having inspired a generation of Western Australian’s to think creatively through the art of puppetry, Spare Parts is intent on sharing its achievements with the rest of the world. Calling upon the entire community to help create a million puppets, Spare Parts is hoping to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records. This ploy, aptly titled ‘the Million Puppet Project’ craftily sets the stage for the UNIMA Congress and World Puppetry Festival which Spare Parts successfully won the bid to host in 2004 at the UNIMA Congress in Croatia.
The UNIMA event, described as “the Olympics of puppetry”, is held in a select location conducive to puppets once every four years. The 2008 event in Perth is the 20th UNIMA Congress and Festival and, under the auspice of UNESCO, will aim to promote, through the art of puppetry, mutual understanding between people irrespective of race, religion, culture or political affiliation. The Festival will draw artists, teachers, students and puppetry aficionados from all over the world to a ten day celebration of puppetry performances, exhibitions, films, forums, master classes, workshops and community events. With a million puppets thrown into the mix, Perth is set to become a vibrant hub of creative activity.
For a creative project that stood to benefit the State’s tourism industry, Spare Parts had no difficulty in attracting financial support from the arts and tourism sectors. Project Coordinator, Katherine McLean stresses the importance of collaboration, “You need a lot of help in a project this size. There is no use creating a community project if the community you want to engage isn’t interested.”
In developing the Million Puppet Project, the Fremantle based company not only pulled the strings on a marketing initiative for the UNIMA Festival; it also raised the curtain on a large scale community development initiative. The company’s artistic team and board members, the wider arts fraternity, local government councils, community groups, government agencies, schools, businesses and friends all saw the Million Puppet Project as providing an opportunity to engage the broader community in a common, fun and highly accessible event. With a strategy committed to involving remote communities, young people, Indigenous communities and socially marginalised groups, Spare Parts recognised the synergy between its goals and those of Lotterywest. Katherine acknowledged “We wanted every Western Australian to be touched by the art of puppetry.”
Armed with detailed development plans, financial and community support, Spare Parts was successful in receiving a Lotterywest grant for $405,400. This was targeted towards promoting the project and running a series of puppet-making workshops and performances in Kalgoorlie, Esperance, Broome, Karratha, Onslow/Exmouth and Geraldton as well as 30 community metropolitan and outer metropolitan areas. Lotterywest’s support was also directed towards setting up a puppet creation website and online display of the one million puppets created, as well as for an exhibition of a selection of the puppets during the Festival.
From corporate partners to celebrity artists, Spare Parts is calling everyone to get in on the creative process. They’ve appointed Harvey Crumpet and his Oscar Winning creator, Adam Elliot as project Ambassadors and eagerly anticipate being inundated with puppets. As Kathryn enthusiastically points out,
“The whole range of the community is participating. Anyone can be involved and the size of the puppet doesn’t matter. We encourage everyone to have a go, think creatively and make a puppet for the project”.
To find out more about making or submitting your ‘one in a million’ visit www.millionpuppets.com.