Valentinetti Puppet Museum
Upon entering the Valentinetti Puppet Museum in Bremerton, you are greeted by a 10-foot-tall Pinocchio puppet, motioning you to enter. He may be the largest and most assuming puppet on display here, but he also is just one of about 2,000 cycling through the museum.
The museum is one of only a few spaces dedicated to celebrating the art of puppetry, said Mary Hamlin, who served on the museum’s board of directors for 14 years and now manages the gift shop. Because this focus is so rare, Hamlin said, the museum is often welcoming international visitors, many of whom have a connection to puppets or are puppeteers themselves.
“Puppeteers are so amazing,” Hamlin said. “They have both a scientific mind and a theatric mind. They can create things beyond my imagination and then perform with them.”
After walking up a flight of stairs from the Kitsap County Historical Society building, guests will find an array of wooden faces positioned behind glass display cases containing marionettes and rod puppets leading around in a circle, with puppet stages and coin-operated machines at the center. The space is small, and every corner is filled with exotic and expressive characters.
The museum was named in honor of Aurora Valentinetti, a distinguished puppeteer and Seattle native, for her contribution from her personal collection of puppets to help found the museum, said museum curator Stanley Hess. Valentinetti taught children’s theater and puppetry for more than 50 years, including at the University of Washington, where Hess was her pupil. Valentinetti just celebrated her 97th birthday and now resides in Wenatchee.
“She is a major figure in puppetry in the Northwest and an important influence,” he said.
The biggest misconception about puppetry, Hess said, is that it’s meant solely for the amusement of children. Although it can be a helpful teaching aid for youth, puppetry has been used to communicate morals and traditions to all ages for centuries. Primitive puppets date back as early as the 5th century in Greece, and records of puppets can be found across the globe. The museum features puppets from the early 1900s, from places as far off as Japan and China.
“The collections and exhibits that I put together are meant to highlight the puppet as an artifact, as a means of storytelling,” Hess said. “And puppetry continues to do that today.”
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the museum in November, Hess is putting together a special exhibit, including puppets from a University of Washington production of Alice in Wonderland from the 1930s.
So, take a tour of this strange and special space, examine the historical stringed characters, the stage props, and back drops, and let the little ones put on their own hand puppet show on the gift shop stage.
Living Computers Museum
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Courtesy Living Computers Museum + Labs
Pacific Bonsai Museum
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Courtesy Pacific Bonsai Museum
World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame
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Seattle Pinball Museum
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Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation Museum
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Tacoma Telephone Pioneer Museum
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Nutcracker Museum
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Courtesy The Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum
SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention
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Courtesy SPARK Museum
Pioneer Farm Museum
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Museums We Know and Love
(And What They’re Up to Now)
Washington State Historical Society
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Museum of History & Industry
New exhibits here are of revolutionary times. The first, WW1 America, details the transformation of the country during this tumultuous period in the early 1900s. The next, Live Wires: The Cable TV Revolution, features our region’s roles in the development and rise of broadcast television. Seattle
Pacific Science Center
The most recent installment of the Science Center’s Portal to Current Research is Memory: Fragrant Flashbacks. This interactive exhibit allows visitors to explore their own sense of smell and create new scents, while learning about the significance of how our brains process smells. Seattle
Tacoma Art Museum
Haunting images of the Columbia River and Oregon landscape are on display at the Sun, Shadows, Stone: The Photography of Terry Toedtemeier exhibit. This installment of the Northwest Perspective Series documents local areas shaped by natural disasters and human influence. Tacoma
Bellevue Arts Museum
This museum has two new exhibits opening Nov. 9: BAM! Glasstastic and Clyde Petersen: Merch & Destroy. The first highlights emerging glassworkers in the Northwest, and the second is an experiential exhibit of what it feels like to be on tour with a punk rock band. Bellevue
