Do you want to see a 10-foot bear?

The Giant Puppet Workshop is part of Riparian ReAnimation, a donation-based community program with the goal of creating medium- and large-scale puppets of characters from the Kelowna floodplain for a series of public parades and presentations in the summer and fall of 2023. During these open workshops, participants will work as part of a team or as individuals to help create a collection of puppets inspired by the living beings of Brandt's Creek. Help build a giant muskrat or a humongous snake; design a tree costume or contribute to making a swarm of bees. Above all, this workshop is intended to connect community members to each other and to the land, so we encourage all participants to participate in some of the events that will occur.

Mondays, March 27 - August 21 (No session on April 10, Easter Monday)
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Harmony Honda Paint Studio
Ages 13+ - youth and adult

Regular attendance is not required -- participants can attend one or all of the workshops as they please. These are working sessions and some of the meetings will be more casual than others. Pre-registration is not required.

About the team:

Pamela Barnes - West Bank First Nation Syilx Elder and project advisor
Jasmine Peone - West Bank First Nation Syilx advisor
Madeline Donald - Ph.D. candidate at UBCO in Interdisciplinary Sustainability Studies
Annie Furman - MFA candidate at UBCO in Interdisciplinary Performance Studies
Andrew Stauffer - artist and RCA Community & Educational Programming Specialist
Cathy Stubbington - artist and Founding Artistic Director of Runaway Moon Theatre

Our partners and sponsors:
City of Kelowna
Rhizome Eco-Social Education Society
UBCO’s Kelownafornia Project
Ponderosa Fibre Arts Guild
This project draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Program image: Barn Owl by Thingumajig Theatre