Thank you to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners for funding us through the Fulton County Arts Council! Piccadilly Puppets is headquartered in Fulton County and offers many shows and workshops to county residents. This funding allows us to offer our services at affordable prices.
The Contracts for Services (CFS) provides unrestricted general operating and project support to nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, arts & culture organizations, cultural institutions, colleges and universities, as well as units of government that produce or present ongoing arts programming open to the public. CFS contractors present programs that reflect the cultural diversity of the County, captures the imagination of adults, families and youth, invigorate neighborhood growth, support economic development and provides jobs.This year the Board of Commissioners approved $2.3 million dollars in funding for 190 recipients comprised of individual artists, arts organizations, non-profits, schools, colleges and universities, and municipalities. Awards range between $1,000 and $42,000..The awards represent funding recommended for the Annual Funding opportunity for operating and project support that closed in late January 2022 as well as the Second Round Funding opportunities including the project support, partnership and planning categories that closed at the end of May 2022.CFS award recipients are reviewed and awarded using the following evaluation criteria; artistic merit, service to the community and field, organizational effectiveness, and accessibility. Contractors are selected after a thorough evaluation by an advisory panel of professionals representing all artistic categories. The recipients that were awarded funding are projected to serve more than five million people in Fulton County. Community-based arts organizations throughout Fulton County are encouraged to apply annually for participation in the CFS Program through the Fulton County Department of Arts & Culture. Applications are reviewed by staff, the Fulton County Arts Council, and the Allocations Committee, which provides additional accountability to support the Fulton County strategic goal that “AII People’s Lives Are Culturally and Recreationally Enriched” prior to submission to the Board of Commissioners.The Fulton County Department of Arts & Culture (FCAC) will announce the 2023 Contracts for Services Program (CFS) funding opportunity in Fall 2023.
Sequoyah teaches students about Cherokee culture and history, including his famous syllabary. With the help of puppets and audience volunteers, the puppeteer/storyteller recounts Cherokee myths about the creation of Cherokee land and how the brave Spider brought fire to the animals. Then the students learn about the Trail of Tears and more. Optional section about the seven clans. This new version was written by playwright Kara Morrison, an enrolled member of the Waccamaw Siouan tribe and a descendant of the Cherokee Nation.
CHEROKEE TALES– preK-4th grade, 30-45 minutes. Hand and Rod puppets.
Still not allowed to have visitors into your school? Can’t afford to pay travel costs to bring Piccadilly Puppets to your group? Need an option for virtual content for those last-minute short-term shutdowns?
Puppetry 101 Streaming class
Our virtual content is still available!
All of our shows can be used to help teach Fine Arts and English Language Arts standards. Use Butterfly Ballad to enhance your Science lessons or Cherokee Tales for Social Studies. Other titles include Cat and Mouse Tales and Puppetry 101. Check out our Show pages for more info.
Prices are very reasonable, and you can easily share videos with students at home as well as in the classroom! Watch a video at whatever time is most convenient, then schedule a live demonstration and Q&A session with a puppeteer (optional).
Most content is on YouTube through a private link you will be sent once you purchase a show. Prices start at $20 per classroom. You can check out a few free videos first. (Note: many promotional videos made from live shows are lower quality than the shows filmed in 2020, so if you are watching a video with a live audience, don’t use that video to determine the quality of what is available for purchase).
Whether your school is meeting in-person or online, Piccadilly Puppets videos can help enhance the learning.
Kevin Caterpillar and Katy Butterfly from Butterfly Ballad
All of our shows can be used to help teach Fine Arts and English Language Arts standards. Use Butterfly Ballad to enhance your Science lessons or Cherokee Tales for Social Studies. Other titles include Cat and Mouse Tales and Imagination Station. Check out our Show pages for more info.
Prices are very reasonable, and you can easily share videos with students at home as well as in the classroom! If you are far away from Atlanta, this is a GREAT way to bring a puppet show to your class!
Piccadilly Puppets has a great new way to bring educational fun to your Social Studies unit on the Cherokee nation. Kara Morrison, a southeastern playwright of Cherokee heritage, has helped us to rewrite our puppet show, Cherokee Tales, and we have filmed a 15-minute version that you can share with your students now!
In this updated virtual puppet show, Sequoyah teaches students about Cherokee culture and history. The storyteller uses tabletop hand and rod puppets to tell Cherokee myths about the creation of Cherokee land and how the brave Spider brought fire to the animals. Then the students learn about the Trail of Tears with the help of shadow puppetry. This 15-minute version is appropriate for grades preK4-2nd.
After your students watch the video, we can join them for a live chat through Zoom or the platform of your choice to demonstrate the puppets and answer questions, if you choose.
We also have videos of other Piccadilly Puppets favorites: Butterfly Ballad, Imagination Station, Cat and Mouse Tales, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and Josephand the Coat of Many Colors. These are mostly new recordings of our standard 30-minute shows.
We are still performing in-person as well!
For more information, call (404)636-0022 or Contact Us!
Whether you are a student, educator, parent, or principal, you can find a way to celebrate the arts in education during National Arts in Education Week.
The arts are an essential part of a complete education, no matter if it happens in the home, school, or community. Students of all ages benefit from artistic learning, innovative thinking, and creativity. Celebrating National Arts in Education Week is a way to recognize this impact and share the message with friends, family, and communities.
Right now, many schools are virtual or limited in how they hold classes, and it might be easier to put off arts education “until things get better”. Schools need to spend money on masks and cleaning and maybe running more busses, and money for the arts just might not seem as important, but for some children, the arts are everything!
We salute artists that are stretching themselves creatively to find new ways to give performances for young audiences. We salute teachers who are spending twice as much time developing lessons to give virtually. We encourage schools and other organizations to be open to new ideas for bringing the arts to all of your students.
Arts education promotes academic achievement: A 2020 study of over 112,000 students showed that “highly engaged instrumental music students were, on average, academically over one year ahead of their peers.”
Arts education advances social and emotional development.
Arts education reduces disciplinary infractions: A recent study showed that arts education experiences reduce the proportion of students in school receiving disciplinary infractions by 3.6%.
Stay enrolled and graduate: Low-income students who are highly engaged in the arts are twice as likely to graduate college as their peers with no arts education.
Piccadilly Puppets has environmentally-themed puppet shows for these special days!
Splish, Splash: Water Stories explores our most precious resource in a fun and educational way! Large hand-puppets are used in the Australian folktale of “Tiddalick the Frog” and the Creek legend “Rabbit Plays Tug-of-War,” which demonstrate that water is important to all cultures. The original shadow puppet piece, “The Adventures of Drip and Drop,” shows the water cycle from the point of view of the raindrops. As the closing song says, “Everybody needs a little water!”
Splish, Splash: Water Stories
Developed for the opening of the Callaway Gardens Butterfly Center, Butterfly Ballad traces the metamorphosis of Katy and Kevin Caterpillar from egg to caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. Join them on their fascinating migration to Mexico and marvel as they return to the United States to lay their eggs, beginning the life cycle all over again. The story, narrated by Mother Nature and performed with hand and rod puppets, culminates in a discussion of what each individual can do to maintain the balance of nature. Students learn a few Spanish words along the way; a bilingual version is available on request.
Mother Nature with Katy Butterfly from Butterfly Ballad
Welcome back to school, all of you educators! We want to help you teach your students by reinforcing your lessons with fun, entertaining puppet shows and workshops! Each show has connections to English Language Arts, Science, or Social Studies, outlined on the show page of the website. Our study guides include vocabulary and suggested activities.
Piccadilly Puppets would like to thank all of the teachers and educators that bring puppetry and other arts into their schools! We also appreciate our teaching artist-puppeteers: Fracena Byrd Dolan, Nancy Riggs, LeeAnna Lambert Sweatt and Lorie Summers!
The Piccadilly Puppets Company 