Having a wide collection of over 2,500 puppets from all over the world, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry*is considered to be one of America?s hidden treasures. The museum holds an archive of books, manuscripts, posters, drawings, audio-visual materials and photographs covering the historical world of puppetry. The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry*has been the new home of the Puppeteers of America?s Audio-Visual Collection tagged as the largest collection of videotapes, films, and other media about puppetry in the United States.

The Ballard Institutes fathers and produces exhibitions of puppetry in the Ballard Museum and for touring across the country. Workshops, museum tours, artist?s forums, film showings, performances and other events and programs that advocates the art of puppetry as a twenty-first-century art form with deep historical and global origins.

Since 1996 when the institute has moved to its current location on the University of Connecticut Depot Campus, the Museum has created an annual exhibition which offers workshop, museums tours, lectures, forums and other programs that promote the diverse art of puppetry.