Mission Statement
To demonstrate the power of puppetry arts as a professional art form that inspires smiles, creativity and academic self improvment within San Antonio's diverse scholastic, artistic, and entertainment communities.
Our Vision
To establish a permanent repertory puppetry theater and center that will cater to tourist and local families, providing a unique puppetry experience that will inspire the creativity and imagination for thousands every year.
Encouraging Scholastic Excellence and Artistic Gifting:
Some of the expanded programming we wish to accomplish is as follows:
- To establish a year round performance schedule that changes every 4 to six weeks.
- An scholastic awards program which would award not only the student, but, the entire family for a concerted effort for a young person's academic improvement and achievement.
- Artistic Scholarship to various workshop programs held at our planned gallery for students that normally wouldn't be able to afford them
- To provide free performances for local children's shelters and help in their fundraising efforts.
- To provide after school puppetry arts enrichment programs, with transportation, to students from different local school districts .
- To provide Theater internships with local high school and college campuses.
- To expand our summer programs.
MOVING FORWARD IN 2010:
Presently, we are moving ahead with plans to consolidate our itinerant operations by acquiring permanent gallery(office) and studio in a 4700 sq ft space adjacent to Alamo Plaza. This is in order to give us a base facility to increase the coverage and scope of our artistic programs to visiting as well as local families. Included in our proposal is a 200 seat theater which will occupy the remaining 3,400 sq feet of space. This permanent repertory puppet theater will house our troupe as well as attract other artists/entertainers from throughout the United States and abroad to perform and share their craft in a fantastic array of styles, technologies and disciplines of puppetry that will be appreciated by tourist and local alike.
YOU CAN BE A PART A PART OF THE START:
The theater will help use ticket sales to continue fund our artreach (art outreach) but, first, we need to get through the initial stages of acquiring the said space. Each of you can be a foundation stone to a wonderfully unique and rare artform. Your support will add a very distinctive thread to the tapestry of San Antonio's arts and culture by helping us provide a permanent puppetry venue in the downtown area.
"Every bit of creativity touches someone's destiny. Every brush stroke, written word, musical note, every new idea plays with the course of mankind. From a child's masterpiece lovingly hung on the refrigerator door to every scientific advance, creativity has been the engine of history. The absence of creativity would mean the absence of direction, and, so too, the power to make a difference."
Richard Diaz Excerpt from a 2007 address to an EPA conference discussing
creative methods of communicating environmetal issues.
CREDITS
2004
to PRESENT-----PERPETUAL PUPPETS PRODUCTION & DESIGN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Owner/Co-Director, San Antonio, Texas
1993-1997----Masters Hand Puppet Ministries International- -----------------------------------------------------------Director, Performer, Seminar Instructor, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
1987-1993 -- Foreign Apprenticeships ------------------------------------------------------------Student Observer, England(1987), Germany (1988), Italy, Greece, Turkey (1988-1990)
Door Players- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Director, San Antonio, Texas
1979-1983 -- The University of Connecticut Student Puppeteers ----------------------------------------------------- Performer, Lighting, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
The Spanish Community Center Puppeteers --------------------------------------------------------------Manager, Performer, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
Easter Seals Hemlock Outdoor Recreation Center ----------------------------------------------------------------Counselor, Therapuetic Art Director , Columbia Connecticut
Good News Puppets ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Youth Director, Performer, Designer, Danbury, Connecticut
1977-1979 ---The Richard Diaz Marionettes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Director, Performer, Designer ,New Fairfield, Connecticut
AFFILIATIONS:
- The McNay Art Museum
- Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center – Juntos En Arte, Folklorico Dance Academy
-Avenida Guadalupe Neighborhood Association
-21st CCLC SAISD
- Alazan Creek Community Development Ministry/BCFS
- Making Connections
- City of San Antonio Mayor's Office
- Patti Radle and Lourdes Galvan/District 5 San Antonio City Councilwomen
- San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs
-The Alameda/Smithsonian Meso American Museum
- Southwest School of Arts and Crafts – Mobile Artist Program
- Edgewood Fine Arts Academy
- Say Si
- Puppeteers of America/U.N.I.M.A.
AWARDS:
2006-2008 Neighborhood Artist Grant
City Office of Cultural Affairs, Hispanic Heritage Puppetry Project, Guadalupe Theater, San Antonio, TX
2007-2008 Anne Merit Grant
BGC of Texas, 10 week Children’s Puppet Novela, Guadalupe Theater, San Antonio, TX
2009 Non Profit Resource Center Training (San Antonio Puppetry Arts Center)
City Office of Cultural Affairs, Technical Assistance Award For Training at the Non-Profit Resource Center of Texas, San Antonio TX
COMMENDATIONS
- 21st Century CCLC 2006
- City of San Antonio Mayors Office 2006
- United States Air Force, Youth Hispanic Heritage, 2006 and 2007
- San Antonio Library Foundation 2007
- Red Cross, San Antonio, 2007
- The San Antonio Council for Alcohol and Drug Abuse