Through Maryon's contacts, Joe Selph and I staged the Pacific Southwest Regional Festival on the Cal State Los Angeles campus. With a beautiful arts complex that had a first-class gallery, it seemed natural for COPA to mount an exhibit of some of Alan's collection for Puppet Mania 2000. It would prove, at least, that we could work together on a big project. "One Hundred Years of Puppetry from the Alan Cook Collection" became a very special exhibit. Videotape of it with Alan, Steve Abrams and Jim Gamble hosting resides in the Puppeteers of America audio-visual library. David Alexander, prepared a COPA membership form and a sign-in book for the month-long exhibit. COPA received many contributions and a definite show of interest.

We jumped to non-profit status soon after this event. Barry again provided the leadership and filled out the endless piles of paper. An umbrella nonprofit, Community Partners, became our mother hen. Community Partners take a single-digit percentage of what we raise and serve as our board of directors. This allows our committee to start working as a non-profit without finding our perfect, official, and willing board of directors.

We stalled again "Let's help Alan." "Alan is not the puppet center." "Alan, give us your puppet collection and we'll help you." We needed a lawyer. We needed a mediator. We needed something. Phil Morrison, a newer member, saved the day when he found us free space at The Armory Northwest in Pasadena.

The Armory Center for the Arts, a Pasadena-based arts group, planned to move back to their remodeled headquarters, leaving this space, a former plastic bottle factory, unoccupied. The majority of COPA agreed that Alan Cook and his puppet collection would be our first project and we would do it at the Armory Northwest. We lost some important committee members at this time, but we gained Jackee Marks.

With a background in fine arts, Jackee started in puppetry with Besty Brown. She had kept a low profile since Seattle, waiting to see if we could really start moving. Coincidentally, and helpfully, she knew the Armory director, Scott Ward, from their days at the Palos Verdes Art Center. Jackee's current leadership contributes significantly to our forward momentum. She even wrote our first grant and will try for more in the future.

We were up and running, cleaning floors, painting walls, building partitions. Volunteers drove vans and cars to Alan's Altadena house to bring back puppets. We barely made a dent in his smaller garage. We hired interns from Cal Arts who are busily and efficiently cataloguing the collection. Marcela Oteiza and Tracy Otwell studied with Janie Geiser at the Cotsen Center for Puppetry at Cal Arts in Valenica. Heather Henson will soon join our interns through Cal Arts. (A partial inventory had already been done for Alan through the Cotsen at Cal Arts with a donation from Jane Henson.) We have purchased tables and chairs, rolling shelving and a computer. We have a phone and a website. We have a mission statement, a logo, a committee to repair puppets and have held a summer workshop for grade school children in association with the City Park next door. This year, we staged two exhibits of Alan's puppets at LAX and Ontario airports. Our next exhibition, in discussion, will focus on California puppeteers and won't require a plane ticket to see.

Alan's puppets in the COPA rooms, waiting for cataloguing or repair, hanging on display, are a treat. Each has its own identity and quiet dignity. Repairing broken strings and puppet parts brings real satisfaction. It offers a lesson in puppet construction around the world. Animated with different processes, there is an interconnection with them all. Getting to look at the puppets has led Jackee to believe, "We can downsize some of the areas where Alan has duplication to generate funding for new purchases. It is exciting."

We have a way to go and funds to raise. We share the Northwest Armory building with five other arts groups. This aspect has its plusses and minuses. We pay the utilities and our security, no small amounts, as our only financial obligation. We may stay as long as the City of Pasadena mediates the future use of this site; the Pasadena Parks Department and its School District both want the land. If the bureaucratic process holds to form, we have another year here at least.

Alan sees a full puppet center blossoming from this, a place with workshops and performances beyond his museum. He hopes we receive "the public attention that we frankly deserve. Puppetry has always been the orphan the arts. Raising public's consciousness of puppetry helps puppeteers" He adds, "This collection was multi-cultural before it became a buzzword. That's it strength." I see a place where the best puppeteers and productions in the United Sates and the world may perform.

Is it possible for puppet centers across the United States to link into a chain of regional theaters? This will allow puppeteers, productions and exhibits to tour major urban centers. Certainly we have the potential to increase the audience for puppetry nationally through such an alliance. Alan notes that major clusters of puppetry historically occurred in Detroit, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Now through the work of dedicated individuals, Vincent Anthony in Atlanta, the Carters in Seattle, Nancy and Ken Smith in Arizona (and their staff, volunteers and supporters), more urban regions join that list. Jackee believes COPA has achieved some legitimacy now. "People are beginning to respect us more." She is open to the possibility of welcoming other puppet collections.

Recently, Phillip Huber recently visited us, having moved to Tennessee in 2001. It was renewing to see our progress through his eyes. If we are successful helping Alan sort his collection of puppets and ephemera, the resulting catalogue will be a significant contribution to the art of the puppet.

As we prepare Alan Cook's puppets for their permanent home, the Conservatory of Puppetry Arts takes its first big step towards a regional puppetry center in Southern California. back to top