Cres once again becomes the Island of Puppetry: international artists, historical marionettes and workshops at Moise Palace
From August 13 to 17, 2026, Cres will once again become a meeting place for puppetry, cultural heritage, education and international cooperation. The dates of the "Cres – Island of Puppetry" event have also been confirmed in the official calendar of the Cres Tourist Board, while this year's program brings together artists and representatives of theaters, festivals and professional networks from several European countries. The center of the events will be Moise Palace, a Renaissance building in the historic center of Cres which, following its restoration, is managed by the University of Rijeka. Visitors can expect exhibitions, a creative workshop and an open international round table dedicated to the role of contemporary festivals in community development.
The program begins on Thursday, August 13, with the opening of the exhibition "Threads of Wonder", connected with the historical collection of the Monticelli family from Ravenna. From August 14 to 17, a four-day shadow theater workshop, "The Legend of Lake Vrana", will be held, while August 16 and 17 are reserved for an international discussion on festivals as places of creation, connection and new forms of cultural cooperation. The exhibition "Biography of a Puppet" by ULUPUH's Toy and Puppet Design Section is already available in the same palace, allowing audiences over the course of several days to compare the historical tradition of puppetry with contemporary artistic approaches.
A round table on festivals that grow into places of cooperation
One of the main features of this year's edition will be an open international round table on August 16 and 17. According to the organizers' announcement, the discussion will focus on the role of contemporary festivals in the development of local communities and the creation of new models of cultural cooperation. The starting point is the idea that a festival is no longer merely a series of performances or pre-prepared artistic programs, but can instead become a space in which artists, institutions, residents and visitors exchange knowledge together, build new partnerships and launch projects that last longer than the event itself. Particular attention will be paid to how an event can remain firmly connected to the place in which it originates while simultaneously developing international visibility and professional ties.
The organizers emphasize that the discussion is not conceived as a traditional panel featuring a series of presentations prepared in advance. Instead, participants and the audience are expected to take part in a more open format for exchanging experiences. Such an approach is particularly relevant for environments such as island towns, where cultural programs can play a role that extends beyond the tourist season: they can activate local stories, connect different generations, attract visiting artists and create reasons for cooperation to continue throughout the year. It is precisely the combination of local heritage and the international puppetry scene that is one of the main programmatic ideas behind the Cres event.
Among the announced guests is Edin Kmetaš, director of Pozorište lutaka Mostar, whose official information confirms that he has headed the institution since 2017 and is also associated with the FLUM International Festival of Puppet Theaters. Jelena Stojanović Patrnogić is coming from Kragujevac; she is the director of Pozorište za decu i mlade, an institution that organizes the international "Zlatna iskra" festival. Lucile Bodson has also been announced, presented by the organizer as project coordinator of the international AVIAMA network, headquartered in the French city of Charleville-Mézières, a city with a long and strong puppetry tradition.
According to the organizer's program, Croatia will be represented, among others, by Marta Bolfan Ugljen, an actress and puppeteer at the Zagreb Puppet Theatre, whom the organizer also lists as a member of the Management Board of UNIMA Croatia and of the Organizing Committee of the SLUK festival. Roberta Colombo and Andrea Monticelli are arriving from Ravenna, presented by the organizer as artistic directors of the international "Arrivano dal Mare!" festival and leading associates of Teatro del Drago. Uroš Korenčan, director of Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana, is coming from Ljubljana; the official program of the LUTKE festival for 2026 also lists him among the curators of that international festival.
"Threads of Wonder" brings the heritage of the Monticelli family
A special part of the program will be the exhibition "Threads of Wonder", whose opening is scheduled for August 13. The exhibition is connected with the historical collection of the Monticelli family and the La Casa delle Marionette museum in Ravenna, which preserves material created over almost two centuries of the family's involvement in puppetry. Teatro del Drago states that the Monticelli tradition dates back to 1840 and has continued through five uninterrupted generations. It is a rare example of family continuity in which not only puppets and scenery were passed down, but also performance techniques, manuscripts, documentation and professional knowledge connected with traveling and theatrical puppetry.
According to Teatro del Drago, the museum collection in Ravenna includes dozens of marionettes, around 150 hand puppets, more than one hundred stage sets and a large number of handwritten texts, as well as photographs, posters, permits and other documents connected with theatrical life of the past. These figures refer to the museum's entire holdings and not to the number of objects that will be exhibited in Cres. The organizer of the Cres program has announced a selection of marionettes, hand puppets, stage sets, historical photographs, texts and original documents intended to bring audiences closer to the development of Italian and wider European puppetry traditions.
Today, members of the family's fifth generation are particularly connected with this heritage. Teatro del Drago lists Mauro and Andrea Monticelli and Roberta Colombo among the artistic leaders of its programs, including work on the international "Arrivano dal Mare!" festival. The arrival of Andrea Monticelli and Roberta Colombo in Cres therefore gives the exhibition an immediate professional dimension as well: the historical objects will not be presented merely as museum traces of the past, but also as part of a tradition that continues to develop through contemporary productions, festivals and educational work.
The award-winning "Biography of a Puppet" exhibition is already running at Moise Palace
While "Threads of Wonder" opens a window onto a historical family collection, the exhibition "Biography of a Puppet" by ULUPUH's Toy and Puppet Design Section has already been installed at Moise Palace. The official Cres tourism website states that the exhibition runs from August 1 to 20, 2026, meaning that it overlaps with the entire Island of Puppetry program. The project received ULUPUH's annual award for the best exhibition project of 2025, giving it additional professional significance within a program that seeks to connect different approaches to puppetry.
As Novi list reported at the opening of the Cres exhibition, the curator and author of the concept is Marijana Županić Benić, while the works include stage puppets, figures, installations, objects, toys, fashion dolls and costumes. The idea of the exhibition is not to present a puppet merely as a finished object, but to bring its "biography" closer to the audience: how it was created, the materials used, its performance context and the artist's process. Texts, drawings, videos, technical drawings and catalog records thus become part of the story of how a character is shaped and how an object becomes a bearer of character, movement and dramaturgy.
The simultaneous presence of the two exhibitions gives the program a broader range. The historical material of the Monticelli family demonstrates how puppetry knowledge was preserved and passed down through generations, while "Biography of a Puppet" presents contemporary artists and different forms of puppet and object design. For audiences, this means that puppetry can be viewed both as a living performing art and as a field of applied art, design, craftsmanship, archival heritage and education.
Shadow theater inspired by the legend of Lake Vrana
From August 14 to 17, the four-day creative workshop "The Legend of Lake Vrana", dedicated to shadow theater, will also be held. According to the organizer's announcement, it will be led by Claudia Lamantea from Italy, is intended for everyone aged 12 and above, and participation is free with mandatory advance registration at 098 329 466, contact Serđo. The workshop connects one of the island's recognizable stories with a technique in which character, movement and atmosphere are created through the relationship between light, surface and shadow. In this way, local tradition is not conveyed only through storytelling but becomes material for participants' practical theatrical work.
Lake Vrana, meanwhile, is not merely a motif from legends. The Cres Tourist Board identifies it as a key source of drinking water for the Cres-Lošinj archipelago, with access to the lake itself strictly restricted in order to protect it. It is precisely the combination of a real place that is exceptionally important to life on the islands and oral tradition that gives the workshop additional local context. The theme demonstrates how cultural heritage can be explored without turning it into a static folkloric display: the story becomes a starting point for a new visual language and collaborative creation.
The project began in 2025, and its second edition expands the international network
"Cres – Island of Puppetry" was launched in 2025 at the initiative of Serđo Dlačić. In a report following the first edition, Novi list recorded workshops in which Cres legends and local motifs were connected with classical puppetry techniques, including the creation of a Guignol puppet under the guidance of Claudia Lamantea. Participants developed their own puppets and short performance pieces, while the final program was presented to the public at the Cres summer cinema. The first edition therefore already established education and active audience participation as an important part of the project, rather than merely an addition to performances or exhibitions.
This year's edition expands the concept with an international round table and stronger links with institutions and festivals from Mostar, Kragujevac, Ravenna, Ljubljana and France. Such a structure may be important for the event's longer-term development because it enables the exchange of programs, experts and experiences among communities of different sizes. At the same time, retaining the workshop inspired by Lake Vrana and holding the program in the historic center of Cres preserve the project's local foundation.
Moise Palace connects heritage, education and contemporary culture
All announced programs will be held at Moise Palace in cooperation with the University of Rijeka. The University describes the palace as the largest Renaissance patrician house in the old center of Cres and as a cultural asset of the Republic of Croatia. Following its restoration, the venue has been oriented toward research, humanities and educational activities, making it a programmatically natural setting for an event that simultaneously addresses heritage, contemporary art and international exchange. Visitors coming to the island because of the program may also find accommodation offers in Cres useful, particularly because the activities extend over five consecutive days.
The organizer of the event is the TNP craft business of Serđo Dlačić, while according to his announcement the program is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media, the City of Cres, the Cres Tourist Board and Cresanka d.d. The official decision of the Ministry of Culture and Media concerning performing arts programs for 2026 lists T.N.P. and the "Cres Island of Puppetry" project among the approved items, with support of 1,000 euros. The city's program for distributing tourist tax revenues for 2026 allocates 1,500 euros to the same event. These figures show that, alongside the organizational initiative, the project also enjoys institutional support at both the national and local levels.
The program from August 13 to 17 thus connects three levels of puppetry that are often viewed separately: the preservation of historical material, contemporary artistic design and practical creation with the audience. The international round table adds a fourth level, a discussion about how festivals can leave a more lasting mark on a community and develop cooperation beyond the boundaries of a single event. In Cres, one of the largest Adriatic islands, puppets will during those days simultaneously be museum objects, works of art, performance tools and a reason to discuss the future of cultural events.
Sources:
- Cres Tourist Board – official calendar of events with the dates of the "Cres – Island of Puppetry" event from August 13 to 17, 2026. (link)
- Cres Tourist Board – information about the "Biography of a Puppet" exhibition at Moise Palace and its duration from August 1 to 20, 2026. (link)
- Teatro del Drago / La Casa delle Marionette – information about the Monticelli family, the museum collection and the continuity of the puppetry tradition since 1840. (link)
- Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana – current information about the LUTKE festival and Uroš Korenčan's role in the 2026 edition. (link)
- Pozorište lutaka Mostar – official information about director Edin Kmetaš and the program of the FLUM International Festival of Puppet Theaters. (link)
- City of Kragujevac – official information about Jelena Stojanović Patrnogić and the international "Zlatna iskra" festival. (link)
- University of Rijeka / Moise Palace – information about the historic building, its restoration and its current educational and cultural purpose. (link)
- Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia – results of funding for drama, dance and performing arts programs for 2026, including "Cres Island of Puppetry". (link)
- City of Cres – program for the distribution of tourist tax revenues for 2026 and the allocation for the "Cres, Island of Puppetry" event. (link)
- Novi list – report on the first edition of the "Cres – Island of Puppetry" project in 2025 and the workshops held at the time in connection with Cres legends. (link)
- Cres Tourist Board – official information about Lake Vrana and its role in supplying water to the Cres-Lošinj archipelago. (link)
- AVIAMA – official information about the network of puppet-friendly cities and its headquarters in Charleville-Mézières. (link)
- Novi list – report on the installation and concept of the "Biography of a Puppet" exhibition at Moise Palace in August 2026. (link)