#PUPPETRY ARTS INSTITUTE INDEPENDENCE MO PROFESSIONAL#

Some of the items look like torture devices now, but were considered cutting-edge technology in their own time. The museum is a self-guided experience, featuring medical artifacts, paintings, sculptures, advertisements and more. Hodges is the curator of the museum and his son is operations director. About 80% of his collection is on display. There are well over 4,000 items in the collection, relics from ancient times to the 20th century. He also spent time as a medical missionary, and much of the collection consists of materials he gathered during his travels over the last 50 years.

Bruce Hodges, who, at 89 years old, just retired as a practicing physician. The museum officially opened that October in the former location of the Johnson County Museum, the 1927 Greenwood School. Medicine’s Hall of Fame and Museum in Shawnee was all set to open in March 2020, until the pandemic delayed the operation. The collection at Medicine's Hall of Fame and Museum features over 4,000 relics spanning from ancient times to the 20th century, including this iron lung machine from the 1950s. Medicine's Hall of Fame and Museum: Shawnee, Kansas 31, 2022, its international puppet collection will be redisplayed. Rollins left much of her private collection to museums around the county, including the Smithsonian Institution, which has one of her iconic Teto the Clown puppets.Ĭurrently on display at PAI is an exhibit honoring the Missouri Bicentennial - which includes the collection’s Harry Truman puppet. PAI has 300 Hazelle puppets in its collection, as well as a selection of other puppets from around the world and across the decades.

#PUPPETRY ARTS INSTITUTE INDEPENDENCE MO PROFESSIONAL#

There’s even a little theater for kids to put on plays with their new creations, and the institute hosts puppet shows featuring professional puppeteers throughout the year. Today you can attend workshops (or purchase a kit) and create your own puppet with an authentic Hazelle, Inc.-designed puppet. When the factory closed in 1983, the stock - mostly consisting of thousands of puppet heads - were donated to what became the Puppetry Arts Institute. Rollins held four patents for puppetry innovations. They made hand and finger puppets and marionettes, both for home and educational use. At one point, the company of 50 workers produced 1,000 puppets a week and sold more than a million puppets worldwide. The company operated out of Kansas City for over 50 years. In Independence's Englewood Arts District, the Puppetry Arts Institute celebrates the unique legacy of Hazelle Hedges Rollins, Kansas City’s puppet maker for the world. The Puppetry Arts Institute features 300 Hazelle puppets in its collection, as well as other puppets from around the world and across the decades. Puppetry Arts Institute: Independence, Missouri You can learn about more about our region’s carousels in this 2019 Creative Adventure. The ride is accompanied by tunes from an Artizan A-X-1 band organ, donated by Leavenworth native Melissa Ethridge, who stopped by the museum in 2021 for a ride.Īllow yourself at least 90 minutes to explore the museum and take a ride or two. Bestride a horse with a corn cob behind its saddle, a Parker carousel hallmark, or one of the Kansas jackrabbits. You can catch a spin on the Carry-Us-All No.118, which took over 1,000 volunteer hours to restore. 118, a 1950 aluminum Liberty Carousel, and a hand-cranked primitive carousel circa 1850-1860, believed to be the oldest operational wood carousel in the world, though it’s no longer rideable. It’s operated by passionate and informative volunteers.Īlong with exhibits about the company, the history of carnivals and carousels, the museum includes three working carousels: the 1913 C.W. Parker Carousel Museum, which opened in Leavenworth in 2005. The company made over 1,000 carousels, only 16 of which still exist. As the business grew, he moved his operation from Abilene to Leavenworth, Kansas. Parker started his carousel business, repairing, manufacturing and shipping carnival carousels all over the United States.

Parker's carousel business is preserved in the C.W.

Puppetry arts institute independence mo