Puppet making at 118 Elliot to celebrate America’s 250th

As Brattleboro commemorates America’s 250th birthday, 118 Elliot presents “I Lift My Light,” a month of events including a gallery show and puppet building, along with other artistic activities.

As part of “I Lift My Light,” 118 Elliot is working with other community groups and Bread & Puppet Theater Alum Uriel Najera to lead free puppet-making workshops for adults and children.

Through these community workshops, participants will get a chance to learn about puppet construction and using puppetry for civic expression. All workshops are free with materials provided. To register email 118Elliot@gmail.com or call (917) 239-8743.

On Friday, July 3, from 2 to 4 pm, Najera will lead a kids’ workshop, for individuals 5 to 12 years old, in 118 Elliot’s back lot. Participants will make wearable wings from different birds that migrate across the world. Later that day, during Brattleboro’s July Gallery Walk event, the public is invited to join Najera and other volunteers from 5 to 7 pm at the lot behind 118 Elliot to help complete a Statue of Liberty puppet. The completed Lady Liberty puppet may also ‘march’ to the Harmony Parking Lot towards the end of Gallery Walk to make its public debut.

On Saturday, July 4, Lady Liberty and other supporting puppets made the previous evening will participate in the Brattleboro Goes Fourth parade, taking place at 10 am. The parade steps off from the corner of Flat Street, proceeds up Main Street, and concludes at the town Common.

In addition to the puppet-building workshops, 118 Elliot is also hosting a group art show, opening July 3, which will include artist Liza Cassidy’s “The Mending Wall,” that invites visitors to sew patches of fabric onto others’ pieces with hopeful thoughts about the future of the American experiment. Other “I Lift My Light” activities focused on the significance of the statue in commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will occur at the gallery throughout the month of July.

Brattleboro-based architect Richard Morris Hunt designed the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal on commission from the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty. From 1882 to 1884, Hunt worked with Frederic Bartholdi, the French sculptor and designer, who designed the Statue of Liberty. Hunt’s family home was at the current site of Pliny Park, one reason the town logo for America 250 events includes the statue’s image.