News Archives

June 2006

Lojeri Productions™ is a 2006 Telly Award Winner for
Documentary on Connecticut State Museum of Puppetry

The Museum Insider™: Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and Puppet Arts Program was selected for three 2006 Telly Awards for television programming. It was recognized with one Silver Telly Award for cultural programming and two Bronze Tellys for documentary and educational programming. Founded in 1978, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions. The Telly Awards is a national and international competition which receives over 12,000 entries annually from all fifty states and many foreign countries.

In 2005, the documentary was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), and was featured on the Indie Film Journal at WGBY, the PBS affiliate in Springfield, Massachusetts. Following that broadcast it was available on continuous play through Comcast Cable of Western Massachusetts. In October 2004, the project premiered at the University of Connecticut and was shown at the Northampton Independent Film Festival Technology Fair.

The one-hour segment highlights the career of master puppeteer Frank Ballard and the internationally known Puppet Arts Program he founded at the University of Connecticut in 1962.  It covers The Legacy of B in BIMP exhibit which presented about two hundred and fifty (250) puppets created by Ballard from 1936 to 1989, and related memorabilia. The documentary includes interviews with both Frank Ballard, museum curator and professor emeritus, and Bart Roccoberton, Jr., current director of the Puppet Arts Program. There are also appearances by puppetry students and professional puppeteers.

Frank Ballard was born on December 7, 1929 and was raised in Alton, Illinois.  In 1935, he decided to become a puppeteer at the age of five after attending a puppetry performance by Ellen and Romaine Proctor and meeting them at the end of the show. That Christmas Ballard received his first string puppet and a stage set. Throughout the 1930s and 40s Ballard constructed many of his own puppets, some of which were performed at the Alton Catholic Orphanage and area schools, and were exhibited at the public library in Gilford, IL.  Ballard received a BA from Shurtleff College in Alton, now part of Southern Illinois University, a MA in scene design from the University of Illinois, and studied for a PhD in scene design at the University of Iowa. In 1956, Ballard was hired by the University of Connecticut as the technical director and instructor of scene design for Jorgenson Theatre. He began teaching puppetry in 1962 and continued to teach puppetry until 1989 when Parkinson’s disease forced his retirement.  In addition to establishing the Puppet Arts Program, Mr. Ballard was instrumental in creating the puppetry museum in 1996 and designing many of its exhibits. This year the museum celebrates its tenth anniversary.

The documentary was produced, written, directed and filmed by Loretta Rivers; editing, graphics and animation by Gosia Grzesiowska; and off-line editing and graphics by Kristina Wojciechowski and Andrea Damar. Logo animation music was provided by Jeffrey Krieger on electronic cello.

DVD and VHS copies can be purchased directly from The Puppetry Museum, and from Puppeteers of America with our printable DVD order form. The DVD synopis is also available for download. DVDs are also available at the UConn Co-op Bookstore (University of Connecticut, Storrs).

December 2004

Lojeri Productions™ was featured in Video Systems Magazine (October 2004) and in The Puppetry Journal (Summer 2004).

Lojeri Productions™ is listed in hardcopy and on the website of The Official Museum Directory 2004, 2005, and 2007 volume of Product and Service Suppliers, a publication of the American Association of Museums and National Register publishing.

Gosia Grzesiowska, Doreen Lebel and Lisann Campbell Receive Awards for Volunteerism from Yankee Magazine’s Community Partners

In Spring 2004, YMCP gave an award of recognition to Gosia Grzesiowska, of Hamden, for her outstanding volunteer work on The Museum Insider™ film series. She served as editor on a program covering the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and Puppet Arts Program, and as supervising editor on another featuring the Springfield Museums at the Quadrangle. Gosia has a B.A. in Communications and M.S. in e-Media from Quinnipiac University.

In Fall 2003 Doreen Lebel, of Moodus, and Lisann Campbell, of West Hartford, also received awards of recognition. Doreen Lebel has served as chairman, vice-president and secretary in addition to assisting with fundraising and other activities. Lisann Campbell helped Lojeri Productions in 2002 as a marketing/development intern and later joined the board of directors to assist with the company’s internship program and with marketing. Lisann graduated from the Barney School of Business, University of Hartford, where she received a B.S. in Business Administration - a double major in Marketing and Advertising.

Loretta Rivers Profiled in a Heritage Who's Who® Publication

Loretta Rivers, now of Glastonbury, Connecticut, was included in a biographical directory published by Heritage Who's Who®, the leading biographical reference publisher of the highest achievers and contributors from across the country and around the world.

Loretta Rivers was first profiled in the 2003 edition of Who's Who in America®. She is also profiled in the 2004 edition of Who’s Who of American Women®. Ms. Rivers is noted for creating The Museum Insider™ television series and for founding Lojeri Productions™.