UNIMA - Union Internationale de la Marionnette
What is UNIMA ?
The oldest theatre organisation in the world, the UNion Internationale de la MArionnette (UNIMA) is an official NGO partner of UNESCO. It is a signatory to the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.Its members come from all over the world and contribute to the development and dissemination of the puppet arts.
My voluntary involvement with UNIMA :
Elected to the UNIMA Executive Committee in 2021 for a 4-year term, I chair the Europe Commission.
I have also been an elected international adviser to THEMAA, UNIMA's French national centre, since 2015.
I have led or participated in several international projects within UNIMA:
2024: Representation of UNIMA at the Puppet Festivals of Chicago (USA), Montreal (Quebec), Pilzen (Czech Republic) and Stockholm (Sweden).Visit and cultural expertise of the puppet collections at the Kharkiv Puppet Theatre (Ukraine).
2023: Representation of UNIMA at the Puppet Festivals of Denpasar (Bali), Split (Croatia), Maribor (Slovenia), Charleville-Mézières (France) and Prague (Czech Republic).
2023: Expertise, co-organisation and hosting of the Kharkiv Academy of Arts as part of World Puppetry Day, with the aim of twinning the towns of Charleville-Mézières and Kharkiv to promote puppetry and solidarity with Ukraine.
2022: Representation of UNIMA at the Puppet Festivals of Pilzen (Czech Republic) and Chunchon (South Korea).
2022: Co-piloting of the "professionalisation" working group within the EVOC project to develop a common reflection on the professional structuring of puppeteers at European level (with the support of ERASMUS+).
2022: Expert appraisal to award the Michael Meschke Prize to Iryna Rudenko and her son Roman, director of the Mariupol Puppet Theatre for the preservation and revival of the Puppet Arts, and organisation of the official ceremony at the Gadagne Museums (Lyon) in 2023.
2022: Expertise for AVIAMA (Association Internationale des Villes Amies de la Marionnette) in support of the Chernihiv puppet theatre in Ukraine.
2021: Representation of UNIMA at the Charleville-Mézières puppet festival (France).
2021: Co-organisation and hosting of the visit of two Afghan puppeteers to the World Festival of Puppet Theatres in Charleville-Mézières.
2020-21: General coordination of 21 ResiliArt UNIMA round tables, in conjunction with UNESCO, to collect testimonies of the resilience of artists during the Covid 19 pandemic.
2018: Member of an international jury chaired by Margareta Sörenson for a call for young authors.
