Vincent

Featured Artist: Ricki Vincent

Artist Biography

Since 1999 Ricki has continued to color outside the lines of what people expect when they think of puppets and puppeteers. Ricki has performed thousands of street shows, created the popular underground TV puppet show, Dante's Place (1999). Ricki's work has been produced,/performed, and commissioned by such as a Bunraku puppetry performance of Steinbeck's "The Pearl" funded by CSU Fullerton's Grand Central Art Center and the John Steinbeck society (2002). The Death Show a puppet opera about life's final bow, funded in part by the City of Austin's Cultural Arts Dept. (2009), as well as his all Puppet Burlesque show A night at Miss Mimi's funded by a performance art grant from from the Creative Capital Foundation.

In 2007 Ricki with the help of grant funds and generous donations from supporters, formed the Non Profit theater troupe, and Outreach Program Geppetto Dreams Puppet Company. Throughout his career he has striven to pass his art on to the next generation, teaching workshops to both children and adults on puppet design construction and performance, creating an award winning workshop on designing puppets from recyclable and found items, and developed summer internship programs for at-risk teens.

In 2017, as a resident artist at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, he started the pilot program "The Puppetry Institute" and later found a more permanent home by partnering my program with the Santa Cruz Museum of Discovery, where he continues to pass on his knowledge to all who come through the doors.