The Katonah Museum of Art (www.katonahmuseum.org) invites you to join artists Dan Hurlin, Roman Paska, and Hanne Tierney and curator Leslee Asch for The Intimate Inanimate, a panel discussion that will provide a revealing look into works featured in the Museum’s current exhibition The Art of Contemporary Puppet Theater. Ms. Asch will moderate the conversation at the Museum on Sunday, March 28 at 5:30pm. This event is free for members and $10 for non-members. Reservations are required and can be made by calling (914) 232-9555, ext. 0 or emailing info@katonahmuseum.org.

In “The Intimate Inanimate,” Asch and the artists will explore puppetry’s ability to give form to the unseen. Hurlin, Paska, and Tierney will discuss the processes and the underlying themes emerging in each other’s work as well as puppetry’s relevance as a performance art today.

Leslee Asch is the Executive Director of the National Dance Institute. Before coming to the Institute, she spent 20 years at Jim Henson Productions (the creator of the Muppets) where she was the Executive Director of the Jim Henson Foundation; Producing Director of all five Henson International Festivals of Puppet Theater; Director of Exhibitions; and a Puppet Builder/Designer.

Dan Hurlin’s Hiroshima Maiden is the story of a Japanese survivor of the atomic bomb, her journey to the United States for plastic surgery, and the media frenzy surrounding her. Hurlin has been creating puppet theater since 1980, combining puppets with human actors in dance and drama. He has worked with Trisha Brown, Ruth Maleczech, and Mabou Mines. Hurlin has taught at Princeton University, and Bowdoin and Barnard Colleges; he currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

Roman Paska’s Dead Puppet Talk explores the interplay between actors and their effigies and probes the puppet metaphor for human life. Paska, known as the “magician of puppet theater,” is influenced by Javanese rod puppetry and has performed at the Henson International Festival, the London Mime Festival, and other puppetry venues worldwide. He is the first and only American to direct L’Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezieres, France.

Hanne Tierney’s How Wang-Fo Was Saved is an interpretation of an ancient Chinese legend celebrating the triumph of art over life performed entirely by objects such as bamboo fronds, stiffened robes, and glowing lanterns. Tierney is a performance artist who makes abstract theater without actors. She began performing in the early 1980s and has been seen at the Whitney and Guggenheim Museums, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, and the Wadsworth Atheneum. Ms. Tierney is currently the Artistic Director for FiveMyles, a performance and exhibition space in Brooklyn.