At a glance
A silent auction of all the marionettes is held daily in the gallery from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Proceeds from the auction will go toward purchasing equipment for digital media and animation students.
From now through April 16, students in the freshman digital media and animation class at Alfred State are currently exhibiting and auctioning their marionettes featured in “The Puppet Show” at The Llewellyn Gallery, room 312 in the Engineering Technology Building on the Alfred campus.
The puppets are hand-made from carved wood and mixed media, according to the students’ instructor, Sandra Berry Hover, adjunct professor in the Digital Media and Animation Department. Many different types of characters are displayed, she said, including dancing men, scary goblins, animals, a scarecrow, a spider, a merman holding a magic staff, and more.
A silent auction of all the marionettes is held daily in the gallery from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Proceeds from the auction will go toward purchasing equipment for digital media and animation students.
Berry Hover said when making the puppets, her students use line and form combined with texture and color to create characters that move in real space.
“The traditional use of puppets is play, and that is exactly what we have done – create the perfect toy,” she said. “At the completion of the project, as my students strung up their puppets for the first time, they were dancing and play-acting as they discovered the different movements of their marionettes.”
Berry Hover said she partnered her students, so that two of them worked on a single puppet.
“It was hard to decide who would get the puppet to keep,” she said. “I came up with the idea of a silent auction benefiting the department, which is very new and always in need of equipment. My students are really enjoying learning about putting on a gallery show and the excitement of the auction.”
Bids on the puppets are being placed every day, she said, rising slowly by small dollars and cents.
“Come and try to buy a puppet for your own enjoyment or to give as a unique gift,” she said.
A closing party and final bidding will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in the gallery. For more information, contact Berry Hover at berryss@alfredstate.edu.