Upcoming Puppetry NOW Events
Special Exhibition Admission Includes the Following
Meet the Artist
Director | Designer | Puppet Artist
Tom Lee
Tom Lee is a director, designer, and puppet artist, born in Korea and raised in Hawai’i. He began his career at La MaMa in New York and later worked with St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab. His work blends figures, film, and animation, creating original puppet theater while also performing and designing through Chicago Puppet Studio. Notable credits include Sounding the Resonant Path, Shank’s Mare, Akutagawa, and The Great Zodiac Animal Race, as well as performances in War Horse (Tony Award), Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera, and Petrushka with the New York Philharmonic. His design work spans theater, opera, dance, and film. He has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Chicago, and Lincoln Center Theater and co-founded the Chicago Puppet Lab in 2021.
Puppetry NOW
Puppetry NOW turns the Center for Puppetry Arts’ focus to the art of our time and artists with limited representation in our historical collections.
Through an annual solo exhibition, performance, and collecting efforts, the initiative provides space and support to puppeteers and artists of color, while increasing the organization’s connection to the current state of puppetry.
Past Puppetry NOW artists include: Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins (2022), Poncili Creación (2023), Nehprii Amenii (2024), Raymond Carr (2025).