Squallis Puppeteers has a long and meaningful history in the Portland neighborhood. Back in 2002, our Executive Director, Nora Christensen, teamed up with Natalie Andrews, then Executive Director of the Portland Museum, to write grants for a special community project. Together, they launched workshops to build giant puppets with local kids—bringing to life characters like Henrietta Helm, Mary T. Miller, John Audubon, and Big John Porter, among others. These young artists and their puppets proudly marched in the annual Portland Parade, celebrating creativity, history, and community spirit.
The success of this project deepened our relationship with the Portland Museum. In 2006, we collaborated again on a major project funded by the NEA called Who’s Portland, Where’s Portland. Natalie partnered with Appalachian storyteller Lisa Mount, who led story circles with older Portland residents—both Black and white. These heartfelt conversations surfaced powerful memories, especially around places like Fountain Ferry Park, a once-segregated amusement park. While some recalled it with joy, others remembered it with sadness and pain. These stories opened everyone’s eyes to the layered histories we share.
Common threads emerged too—like the role of family meals, the Ohio River, and the iconic shotgun houses. Inspired by these themes, we worked with kids at the Portland Community Center to create a three-person puppet representing the Ohio River. One arm held a table overflowing with food, the other showed a row of shotgun houses. This puppet became the centerpiece during our storytelling performance.
In 2013, Squallis opened a satellite studio in the Dolfinger Building in Portland, hoping to create a dedicated space for neighborhood-focused programming. We had long dreamed of making Portland a creative home base, and with generous support from Gill Holland—who donated space for several years—we finally had the chance. In 2018, thanks to a grant from Fund for the Arts’ Imagine 2020 program, we launched the Puppet Hero Parade Project.
We asked Portland residents and youth to tell us who their heroes were. The responses shaped the creation of five giant puppets: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Ruby Bridges, and Muhammad Ali. With additional support from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, we added Anne Braden and Mattie Jones to the lineup. A team of middle school girls brought these icons to life through 13 sessions using clay, papier-mâché, paint, sewing, screen printing, and performance. The project culminated in the Portland Parade on June 2, 2018—an unforgettable day where those girls received well-deserved cheers, and their puppets danced proudly down Portland Avenue.
While working out of the Dolfinger Building, we connected with Katy Delahanty and Danny Seim, who later became co-directors of the Portland Museum. They invited us to organize a 25th-anniversary exhibit celebrating Squallis Puppeteers’ journey. The exhibit ran from November 2022 to March 2023 and coincided with the museum’s exciting expansion into a new building.
In September 2024, Squallis moved its office and workshop into the Lighthouse Education Building on the museum campus, becoming its first tenant. Since then, we’ve added puppet programming to museum events, contributed to Catfish Club gatherings, and most recently hosted a children’s puppet video summer camp in June 2025. We’re thrilled to be back in Portland and thank the community for welcoming us!
