AYLMER COMMUNITY EVENTS

Until June 25. Exhibition of puppets by local children at the Aylmer Library.
An exhibition of puppets made by a group of children under the direction of Ilse-Marie Gates is currently displayed at the Lucy Faris Library (the Aylmer branch of the City of Gatineau Library System). Since the beginning of April this little class of ten students has been learning skills that are part of the art of puppetry: how to decorate finger puppets and put faces on them, cutting outlines for shadow puppets, and most recently preparing glove puppets, which are mounted on the hand. With assistance from her husband, Noel Gates, and Marie-France Cormier, who is qualifying herself in early childhood education, Mrs. Gates has undertaken this project free of charge, and with the support of the Library, as a service to the community. The class has been open both to francophone and to anglophone children. Their parents have helped to make it a success by contributing material. Mrs. Gates hopes that, both in Aylmer and elsewhere in the region, her activity will help to stir interest in puppetry, an art which opens up unlimited possibilities of creation, at little cost, for both children and adults. It also offers a wonderfully flexible tool to teachers and to communicators.
Mrs. Gates would be happy to see a permanent group formed which could put on shows performed by children and their parents and would serve as a bridge between different sectors of the community.
For information: call Ilse-Marie or Noel Gates at (819) 684-0846.